Caon Design Office is not your ordinary multidisciplinary design practice. Yes, its work spans from interiors to furniture to object design, which covers crockery and resin-cast bottles of Negroni, but what is most interesting about this studio is its associations and its ability to expand and contract. While Caon Design Office exists as its own entity, founder and director David Caon spreads his wings over various business ventures, creating a unique design ecosystem. The practice’s Chippendale-based Sydney studio houses a dedicated industrial design business, Laker, and an upcoming brand identity business, Actuel. It’s a creative nerve centre that’s powered off a highly collaborative work ethic.
Margaret restaurant in Sydney by Caon Design Office and Acme.
Image: Anson Smart
David Caon co-runs Laker with designer Henry Wilson. Evolving from casual conversations between Caon and Wilson, Laker was developed much like a friendship between two people: “There’s no powerful strategy behind it, and we’re not gearing up for venture capital,” shares Caon. “It’s simply about organically developing products that pique our interest.” Laker’s Continental shelf was born over a six-pack of beers and Wilson sharing an idea that he’d been meaning to explore. “Laker is very special and important for me,” Caon says, adding that it made him “a better designer through providing more understanding around the difficulties of manufacturing and the vertical integration of design.”
Laker’s Lug door stopper in zinc-plated iron, shown at Oigåll Projects’ Design House exhibition during Melbourne Design Week 2023.
Image: Annika Kafcaloudis
Having spent the first seven years of his professional life in Europe, Caon now has a design practice heavily influenced by the various studios he worked at while overseas. The format has evolved from “a European studio in style, where you have a principal designer who builds a team of people around them. This is a modern age, with a lot of staff having side hustles, and I’m supportive of that,” Caon shares. “I don’t want it to be all about me, and that’s why you see things like Laker and Actuel. While we are not one, we are also not the typical larger consultancy,” he explains, drawing attention to what could easily be the most successful aspect of Caon Design Office’s structure: specialized associated consultancies.
“Collaborations naturally drive new projects,” explains Caon. The practice’s heavy involvement with Qantas – and its relationship with Qantas’s director of food, beverage and service Neil Perry – lead to the practice designing Margaret, Perry’s restaurant in Double Bay, Sydney. Caon notes that the collaboration with Acme & Co for Margaret’s interior design was “born out of a desire to be involved in the project, but wanting Neil to benefit from a practice such as Acme.” Collaborations like this also enabled the studio to develop objects such as its Pallas light. Originally created specifically for Margaret, the ceramic fitting is now a standard offering from Caon Design Office. Whether it’s the polished Alpine chair that was recently exhibited at Oigall Projects as part of Melbourne Design Fair, or an infrared sauna designed for wellness company Ancient Ritual, many of Caon Design Office’s pieces are embedded with Caon’s natural thirst to learn from others. He admits that “whether it’s a specific software or technique, you’ve got to find a way to learn about things and dig up information yourself. I got used to observing people that I knew were talented or admired, and learning off them.”
The Alpine chair by David Caon and Henry Wilson for Laker.
Image: Lillie Thompson
Caon Design Office is perhaps best known for its work in the aerospace industry, including in-flight seating decks and Qantas transit lounges. It’s not the type of work an interior designer readily comes across. “The niche is really nice,” shares Caon, “because I love the engineering behind these projects and the materials. There’s obviously a lot of limitations, but that’s really interesting to me because it’s something you can get your teeth into.” Being fascinated by microclimates that can move, interior design for boats and trains may very well be on the cards for Caon.
Caon Design Office’s Taurid Aerospace table lamp for Qantas’s A380 aircraft is made of machined aviation-grade aluminium. Its LEDs are controlled by the cabin crew.
Image: Brent Winstone
It was through COVID-19, however, that Caon Design Office experienced the real benefit of being a highly collaborative, multidisciplinary practice. The bulk of its work in aerospace was heavily affected by the pandemic, and Caon reflects that “it was constructive to have to broaden our horizons more.” The practice shifted focus from intensive interior design work and added more industrial design projects. “Laker was a busy business through that period,” Caon says. By diversifying the work of Caon Design Office and its assoc-iated practices, David Caon has built a resilient creative platform with a strong sense of adaptability, and a surely enduring future ahead.
Source
People
Published online: 31 Jan 2024
Words:
Nikita Bhopti
Images:
Annika Kafcaloudis,
Anson Smart,
Brent Winstone,
Courtesy of Caon Design Office,
Lillie Thompson,
Nick Tsindos,
Pablo Veiga,
Tom Ferguson
Issue
Artichoke, December 2023
