Selected project work

Tools for Everyday Life is a practice based exploration of how the connection the skilled maker has with their tools can inspire the creation of products that meaningfully connect users to everyday tasks.

What are the results of a designer treating people as skilled and active users of functional artefacts rather than passive witnesses of a designed experience?

The work on this site is the result of project briefs set to the community of design practice that surrounds the BA(Hons) Furniture and Product Design programme at Northumbria University

“In the context of skilled trades, the quality of tools is taken seriously. Years of practice make tradespeople sensitive to the response of the material world. The use of good tools – a perfectly weighted hammer, freshly sharpened chisel or a shit hot paint brush – can reward this sensitivity by performing their task so well that, in addition to the required practical result, they gift some additional pleasure to a job.”

from “The Ruler” project brief.