by Helen Johnson

Jolyon Yates was delighted to win Craft and Design’s 2009 Selected award for wood and metal, despite only launching his business in 2008.

However, he says, “Although I opened my website in 2008, I started making prototypes in April 2007. I’ve also had 20 years design experience to prepare me.”

Winning the award, he says, “Was great. It was the first significant pat on the back I’d had for my chairs. I’d like to thank the magazine: the competition was a terrific idea, and I thought the way they did it was very clever: I haven’t come across anything else like it.”

“I’d also like to thank The Product Group, a Newcastle based Industrial Design studio. The people there have been brilliant - they’ve given me lots of advice and support and allowed me to use their workshop.”

It all began, he says, with his father, who was an architect and a painter. He says, “My father was forever sketching, painting and putting together models on the dining table, so I grew up surrounded by colour and home made things.”

Jolyon trained in Industrial Design, then embarked on an international career, working in Germany, Britain, and New Zealand. He says, “It was a great way to learn design.”

He specialised in transport design, working on cars and boats. The work involved a delicate balance between applying his own creativity, and working within a corporate ‘signature’.

He says, “A signature style is very important in the car industry. Typically, they’ve developed a company style - a sort of fingerprint. You‘re given a certain breadth to work within, and you’re expected to explore this channel.”

He comments, “In a big company, there are lots of people who feel the need to make their mark on a product’s design. As a designer, you don’t pretend you can engineer a product or manage the company, but most people think they can design an object. It’s part of the designer’s job to develop a product that everyone feels they’re involved with.”

Although it is a skilled job to create something that pleases everyone, Jolyon says, “I always felt I was a tiny individual in a large process. That was frustrating: I felt I had a personality, and something to say, but in a big corporation, it can be hard to do that.”

He also missed working with his hands. He says, “In the old days, a designer would be in the workshop half the time, making beautiful models. Nowadays, it’s all done on a computer. It’s terrific what computers can do, but if you’re creative, it can be frustrating to stare at a tube all day.”

This change in designers’ work, however, provided Jolyon’s big break: the Product Group offered him use of their workshop. The opportunity enticed Jolyon back from New Zealand.

With a sketch book full of ideas, he lost no time in perfecting his signature products in the guise of ODEChair. He says, “The chairs are tributes to things I appreciate: things from nature; people who have affected me and so on.”

He adds, “Coming from a different specialisation means that I bring different ideas to wood. The chairs are carved, not bent, and glued together. It’s very time-consuming: a rocker takes around a month to make.”

Tags: Craft&Design Selected Magazine, Craft&Design Selected Awards