RELATIONSHIPS AT THE HEART OF THE PROJECT WITH BETH JONES
What transforms a space into a home, how do we enhance our way of living through design and how can design play a significant role in evoking emotional responses to the place we call home?
Creating for the home environment has evolved and shifted over the years as the residents needs and trends have changed, even more so from a year of lockdowns.
ND recently caught up with award winning designer of the Anglepoise award in 2020, Beth Jones, to ask the questions we have been itching to find out from a creative who designs for the home environment and discover what this has in store for the future of designing for the home.
Why do you have an attraction to designing for the home environment?
Relationships and intimacy are at the heart of a lot of my projects. The home is such a great melting pot of different personalities and emotions that it’s natural to pick up on interactions that inspire you. There’s also such a lovely warm feeling that well designed home products produce, and I love to try and create that feeling in my own users.
Have you noticed any new influences to your design or creation process from a year like no other? Has spending more time in our home environments changed your approach at all?
I’ve definitely had to adopt a more flexible approach to my process. Moving from a workshop to a desk in the corner of my parents living room was a bit of an adjustment and you have to get creative with tools at your disposal. Being at home has really got me interested in the interactions between parents and their older children and how the caregiver role shifts. It’s stated to come through in the problems I’ve been tackling.
What are your predictions on our home environments and designing for living spaces for the future?
Home environments that feel warm, undulating shapes, soft fabrics and earth tones. Really letting the materials texture and colour talk for themselves. Trying to balance the home as a place to relax but now also a space to be productive and work. Kalon Studios and Ara Throse are a real inspiration to me at the moment.
Advice on anyone struggling to work from home or for breaking through a creative block?
Put yourself in a position where you don’t feel any particular pressure to be brilliant. Try a new medium or an online class and get out of your head a bit.
For the next wave of emerging designers can you share your experience and feelings towards designing during lockdown?
I think we put a lot of pressure on ourselves to have everything figured out by the time we finish our degrees. Realistically though, for a lot of us that doesn’t happen especially when you’re graduating into a lockdown. Take this as an opportunity to have some real creative freedom and explore areas you might not have had the chance to during university. You also don’t have to confine yourself to just one thing. I’m experimenting with ceramics whilst taking a UX class and I feel really good about the direction my practice is taking.
Find more design from Beth Jones here: @bethjones_productdesign
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on the effects these changes which have formed within society. We have been fascinated have been considering what impact this has had on designers who harness nature has their biggest influence.
We caught up with jewellery designer and Class of ND19 alumni, Florence to find some answers to our questions. The
In 2019 she founded her company, Object Cor ltd, inspired by nature and motivated by tactility. In 2020, Florence intrigued our selection panel and was chosen to be a OYI exhibitor as they were fascinated with this designer’s passion to capture the mundane interactions of the everyday and create a collection which is influenced by the sensory inputs which arise from spending time within nature.
within the nostalgic elements of the outside world, creating a collection which holds the joys and brings a mindful presence to designing with the tactility of nature in mind.