We meet the Hackney based product and furniture designer who isn't afraid to get his hands dirty
Originally printed in Protein Journal Issue #14

As the 3D printer gradually runs out of things it can’t create, there’s a sense that technology is drowning out the need for people to really know how to make things. Manual skills are becoming increasingly obsolete as automated equipment can do it for us at the push of a button. It is perhaps the fear of this loss of knowledge that’s inspired the recent ‘maker movement’, a wave of renewed interest in reclaiming the expertise of yesteryear. Evidence of the existence of a trend that has been, perhaps somewhat hyperbolically, dubbed the ‘maker revolution’, is most apparent when you look at the surge of hands-on workshops and craft classes cropping up, all with the simple remit of teaching people how to make things.

Dean Edmonds is a furniture designer and maker who has a refreshingly simple, straightforward approach to his work. His designs, from chairs to lighting, focus on lines, function and staying true to the materials. Building almost everything himself either in Hackney or commuting to his second workshop in his home town in Herefordshire, he’s the embodiment of the maker-movement ethos.

When you take Edmond’s upbringing into account, it’s perhaps unsurprising he’s gone down the path that he has. His father is a welder and metal worker and, as a child, he was encouraged to experiment and learn skills in his dad’s workshop. “He ended up just letting me have a go and I naturally kind of got it,” he says. “I was taught at a young age to have a go at stuff, so I guess it’s a family thing.” I was taught at a young age to have a go at stuff, so I guess it's a family thing When asked whether he set out to be a designer or a maker first, he replies, “I guess as a designer, you want to see how things are produced and made.” Taking on these dual roles is less of an artistic statement and more an arrangement of convenience. Edmonds wanted his designs made, and had the skills to make them. “There wasn’t so much an emphasis on craft, it was more just the need to make things, so I did.” It seems that it’s a fortunate circumstance that his star happens to be rising at a time when people are taking a renewed interest in traditional craft skills rather than a contrived marketing strategy on his part.

His customers, from style-conscious homeowners to hip coffee bars, all seem to favour a similar aesthetic, generally keeping things fashionably minimal and rejecting anything excessively flashy. Spend some time walking around London and it won’t be long before you run into something Edmonds has made, from tables in the recently opened Haggerston deli, Proper & Sons, to the window display of the Soho fashion hub, OTHER/shop. The impression is that there’s a mutual respect between him and the places where his pieces appear. “It’s nice to work with people you admire or when you get their way of thinking” he says. Being on a similar page as his customers has allowed him to build his reputation organically, particularly among local clientele: “It’s still very much word of mouth.” The personable, face-to-face relationships he builds allow an element of ‘back and forth’ with his clients so that he can ensure his designs fit their requirements, which is helped by having a base in the capital. “By having a workshop in London, people can pop in. It’s nice to have this locality.”

For a designer so perfectly in sync with contemporary tastes, it’s surprising how nonchalant Edmonds seems about riding the wave of a trend. He gives the impression that he’s just doing things the way that makes the most sense to him, using his skill set, and that very little time has gone into making sure he ticks various boxes. His explanation for working the way he does is refreshingly simple: “I’m into making things.” http://www.deanedmonds.co.uk/