Looking back, Sydney-based furniture designer Tom Fereday concedes that having an antiques dealer father and ceramicist mother may have influenced his choice of career – but growing up in the United Kingdom, he had no awareness of the design industry at all. “Like many people, I didn’t know what I wanted to study,” Tom says. “I didn’t know design existed, or that people design objects.” After only one year of study at Wimbledon School of Art, Tom’s focus shifted and he returned to Sydney, his birthplace, to study industrial design.
It was the right decision, Tom says: “I really thrive under constraints when I’m making something. The problem-solving is really fascinating to me.” Once Tom finished university, he honed this approach at several companies and studios – including Schamburg and Alvisse, where he worked for the first time in the furniture industry. He realized he wanted to open his own studio working as an independent designer during the course of an in-studio mentorship at the studio of Marc Newson as part of a 2009 SOYA Awards prize. “What was exciting [about Marc’s studio] was the sheer variety of products,” Tom says. The experience gave him the confidence to break into both furniture design and independent practice.
Port Light (2022), designed for Rakumba, tests the refractive qualities of cast crystal glass.
Image: Image courtesy Tom Fereday
Another milestone occurred four years after opening his own studio, when Tom won the 2014 Space and Moooi Design Residency, including three months in Holland to work with Moooi co-founder Casper Vissers. “He offered incredible guidance and insight into the industry,” Tom says. Moooi didn’t pick up the design he developed during the residency – but the design ultimately succeeded as SP01 Outdoor, an outdoor range by Australian brand Space Furniture. Subsequent releases include Tom’s 2015 Bow chair for Design By Them, which combines traditional wood joins and high-tech CNC machining; and his Sia chair, which won the 2017 Mercedes Benz Design Award and led to a collaboration with Nau for development and production. More recently, Tom worked with architecture practice Tonkin Zulhaika Greer to design lounges, lighting, large ottomans and chairs and tables for Art Gallery of NSW’s members lounge and library.
A limited edition Sia chair for Nau, cast in solid aluminium (2018).
Image: Image courtesy Tom Fereday
Aesthetic and functional longevity are both vital parts of Tom’s design ethos. “It must be sustainable because every piece should last an incredibly long time. The aesthetic should still be relevant in 10 or 20 years,” he says. “My work can seem quiet but there’s a lot of detail. The critical thing for me is that it’s not a conveyor belt of products; when one dies there’s another one. My body of work is not replaced but grows.”
In 2023, Tom is working on new experimental pieces for exhibitions in Milan and Melbourne. For Melbourne Design Week, he is collaborating with artist Charlie White to develop Versa, an exhibition of works made from waste and recycled materials. “Anyone can make something out of recycled materials,” Tom points out. “The challenge is to keep a high perceived value and to make objects that are really enduring.”
Source
People
Published online: 14 Apr 2023
Words:
Penny Craswell
Images:
Image courtesy Tom Fereday,
Sean Fennessy,
Tim Robinson
Issue
Houses, April 2023
