Our relationship with H Furniture has developed beyond the usual client agency model into one where we have now collaborated on our first piece of furniture together.
Following a lot of consideration, I've decided to close Studio Makgill.
During the past 15 years, we have worked with so many wonderfully talented and creative individuals and designed for some incredible brands. Hand on heart, I couldn't be more proud of what we've achieved together on this journey.
This decision is deeply connected to the state of the world right now. Whilst our industry is seemingly coming around to its role in aggravating and sustaining the social, environmental and economic crises we face, it's acting too slowly. Currently, to thrive as an agency without causing harm (let alone do good) is too difficult.
I want to be involved in the challenges we face as we urgently find ways towards mutuality, equity and ecological flourishing. However, I no longer feel that an agency is the right vehicle for this.
This isn't the moment to discuss where this decision is taking me (though, feel free to reach out if you want to ask me or share your views on what I'm doing). This is the moment to say thank you. Thank you for choosing to work with us – either as part of the team or as a client. Thank you for being interested in us and hopefully taking some inspiration from the work we created. Just a beautiful and simple… thank you.
Love
My deepest gratitude goes out to these incredibly talented souls who joined me on this journey: Ollie, Alvaro, Myles, Gary, Charlie, Roxy, Gus, Alexis, Laura, Charlotte, Dixie, Rebecca, Nathan, Oli, David, Wai, Miles, Alberto, Stephen, Alison, Gareth, Ryan, Charlie, Harry, Guy, Peter, James, James, Dave, Josh, Gareth, Paul, Roy, Lutz, Tudinh, Anthony & Edd, Martin, Lawrence, Luke, Arran, Rich, Will & Alex, Paul & Russ, Tom, Ed, Carrina, Oscar, Isla and everyone else who I have failed to mention.
Our relationship with H Furniture has developed beyond the usual client agency model into one where we have now collaborated on our first piece of furniture together.
The stunningly simple and elegant WW Chair – launched in 2015 – is one of H Furniture’s best selling pieces. To our delight, we were invited by them to reimagine it for designjunction 2016.
We didn’t want to alter the form in anyway – that felt unnecessary. However, we were immediately interested to see how colour could transform the chair.
Throughout the process, we kept coming back to the conversation around origins and geography. The Windsor chair (the original inspiration) was originally a British design, Alejandro (the founder of H) is a Mexican living in London and Hamish’s Danish roots and their mutual love of Danish furniture has always been a point of discussion.
At the heart of the palette are the four colours from the flags of these three nations.