Interview from Space Magazine
Where have you and the business come from?
Alex and I became friends at art school after we realised we both have the same hands-on approach to design and were attracted to creating a spectacle. For example, our collective gift for a friend’s wedding was to design and construct a huge wedding cake in the field next to the marquee which we ceremonially set alight as a finale to the celebrations.
While Alex went on to set up a construction company and I went into production design we often collaborated on our own projects. When working together on a project what most would perceive as a problem we would see as an exciting challenge. We would enjoy finding a different approach to getting the best result. We would, and still do, talk through the issues then very quickly prototype to test our idea, and then iterate until we’re happy with the result.
When the digital agency Digitas LBi approached Alex to redesign their Shoreditch office housed in a converted brewery on Brick Lane he immediately invited me to collaborate and Jackdaw Studio was created.
What are you working on now that excites you most?
We work with amazing creative businesses who are based in and around East London such as Wieden and Kennedy, Mother and Wednesday but now more traditional companies from financial and legal sectors are seeing the value of a quality workplace, not only as a great place to work but also to enable better business and attract and retain the best talent.
So we have large-scale projects about to start in the financial and legal districts of the City. It’s so exciting that this sector is embracing our way of thinking and approach to workplace design. So watch this space!
What does the future hold?
When we started Jackdaw we often found it hard to find furniture we liked or had the functionality we needed. So rather than compromise, we thought ‘let’s design and fabricate it ourselves’. Our approach has always been like this and although this often meant we made everything much more difficult for ourselves, the exciting result is we now have a fantastic back catalog of designs which we are developing into a Jackdaw Furniture range.
