Name: David Barnsdale
Company Name: Felicity Joinery
Position Within Company: Senior Designer
Website: www.felicityinteriors.co.uk
Tell us a little about your background in design:
There is a great balance of art and engineering required to design bespoke furniture. We strive for aesthetics with poise and balance, but ultimately, it is in the details where thoughtful design and build quality reveal themselves. I believe this is where furniture has the ability to charm its owner.
I grew up in the countryside and developed a deep connection with nature. I learned to draw and enjoyed the quiet process of observing and sketching. It deepened my awareness of my surroundings and made me more visually sensitive. Nature is certainly my muse, inspiring me to create work with a sense of balance, structure and simplicity.
While nature inspired my love of beauty, my family’s background in manufacturing contributed to my passion for technical detailing.
My Dad was an engineer and, together with my Granddad, ran a factory manufacturing precision-engineered threaded inserts for the Midlands automotive industry. I would sit in my dad’s office after school while the night shift hammered away, listening to him talk proudly about engineering and the effectiveness of these tiny components. I remember the deafening noise and pungent smell of engine oil. It felt powerful, intense and exciting.
I wanted a career that would combine my practical and artistic interests, so I chose industrial design at Brunel University. The course was heavily focused on production processes and consumer goods, but my particular interest was always in the emotional bonds we form with objects beyond their function. I admired companies such as Alessi, Philips and Apple for the way they understood this relationship.
At Felicity, I am fortunate to create truly bespoke furniture of the highest quality. It gives me the creative freedom to consider aesthetics at a surface level, almost like a sculptor working with a palette of exquisite natural materials, while also thinking deeply about every small engineered detail within a piece.
There is a reassuring ethos of care among the people who work at Felicity, which brings an iterative improvement to a project as it moves from client, through design and manufacture, to installation. Knowing that gives me the confidence to design ever more challenging work.
