Blackheath-based design collective Studio Ham combines a quirky whimsy with strong design aesthetics. The out-of-the box husband and wife designers manage to put a creative spin on everyday items, creating a new form of practical art.

 

• How would you describe your work?

We are a specialised design studio catering for commercial interior designers and architects. We design and make feature lighting, custom installations and graphics which incorporate branding and image making but ultimately we’re passionate about what we do and care about what you get.
 

• Where do you find inspiration?

Getting out and about – experiencing new things and places, trawling the internet, reading books, visiting galleries – artists have always been the biggest inspiration.

• How does the local landscape and environment feed into your work?

Living in the Blue Mountains allows us space to breathe. Nothing beats a brisk walk in the bush to clear your head and allow you time to think. We’re very lucky to have the space to work from home, this allows us to be more nimble and run the business in tandem with the day-to-day shenanigans of family life.

• Can you talk about your style, what kind of process do you use and how has it developed over the years?

Our style has a sense of tongue-in-cheek playfulness, occasionally bordering on the eccentric. When we started the business we split our work into two categories, Work and Play. Work was commercial graphics projects and commissions for one-offs and rollouts. Play was our own unique ‘functional art’ pieces.

 

Over the years we have organically found our target market and have begun tailoring the business to focus on feature lighting for commercial interiors, designing and making our own range of affordable, quirky lights. We’re also exploring ways of using our image-making skills and how they can be applied within commercial interiors.

• What do you enjoy most about being a designer?

The creative process: getting our hands dirty, collaborating, learning new processes and techniques.

• What are the challenges and how do you overcome them?

Ideas are the easy part, deciding which one to focus on, develop and produce for our target market while still retaining the Studio ham personality can be a challenge. We bounce ideas off each other which allows us to really question things throughout the design process and keeps us on our toes. The daily running of the business can also be a challenge but we talk a lot with friends who run their own businesses and shared knowledge helps us to improve the way we do things.

• Advice for aspiring designers?

Find a mentor and ask questions! Don’t loose track of what’s in your own heart. You get out what you put in, so work hard, be patient and passionate but above all be nice; it’s a small industry.
 

 

Studio Ham
studioham.com.au