It has been an exciting week here at CA Design as we launched our newest collaboration with Rónán Hussey of RHD Furniture. We caught up with Rónán (virtually) to learn more about what motivates & inspires him & how the design process works for him. Rónán has become an expert in his field through years of practical work & honing his own design skills - we hope you enjoy gaining an insight into our newest brand here at CA Design, along with how it evolved & became what it is today…& now over to Rónán!

Q.1: Tell us a little bit about your business and professional background?

Hi CA! Thank you for this opportunity.

I’m Rónán Hussey, owner and founder of RHD Furniture although I’m better known as a carpenter / joiner, having spent the last 20+ years working as a carpenter & joiner in the private and commercial construction sector both at home and abroad.

Those who know me best though know that I’ve been moonlighting as a furniture designer and maker for almost 8 years now and furniture and wooden product design is my true passion. I’ve always been a road less travelled sort of person, studying isn’t for everyone and I was always more prone to practice than theory, so when I decided to pursue a change of career 8 years ago I chose to learn through experience and labour rather than going back to college. I began that artistic transition from joinery to furniture design back in late 2012 when I took a year out to travel and focus my attentions on art. It was a bold move but I felt it was more important to pursue a passion than a pay cheque and it’s thankfully proving to be one of the best decisions I’ve made. My travels took me to Sao Paulo, Brazil and America and over the course of 14 months I worked on events and commercial projects. I built, volunteered and created with some of the best artists, architects, engineers and people I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing. I absorbed inspiration from every individual I met and every place I travelled that year, travelling with an open mind and no stress from work at home. It was during that time I decided what I wanted to achieve from woodworking - to develop my own furniture brand back in Ireland.

When I returned home I reinstated myself as a high end commercial fitter and joiner in Dublin, working alongside some of Ireland’s best known architects & contractors such as Frank Murphy Construction, AML Electrical, ODKM architects, Peter White Architect, Cantrell & Crowley and Embankment Joinery - affording me the opportunity to be involved in some brilliantly creative buildings and restaurant projects while pursuing my passion of furniture design & making in my spare time.

All of those experiences and projects have enabled me to develop a signature style of furniture design. My first collection of RHD Furniture certainly has its own signature style of Alternating Angles! I can’t wait to get the feedback from everyone.

Q.2: Describe the aesthetic of your brand in three words..

Modern, Nature reengineered, Fluid, Direct…is that three or five??

Q.3: What/Who inspires or influences your work?

I’m quite a conscious person so I’m influenced by everything around me - objects, buildings and people but certainly over the last few years one person in particular has influenced my work the most - Mirthes Bernardes, a relatively unknown Brazilian architect and city planner, her story truly inspires me. Her use of simple geometry to create striking forms from basic nature has become my signature style. I’ve had the pleasure of making her acquaintance over Skype and I hope one day to extend my gratitude towards her through an exhibition of my work inspired by her design. Space and geometry has always interested me too. The need to fill space usually creates an urge to design. I love walking into a blank canvas just as much as walking into a furniture store, both environments equally inspire the opportunity to design. Other inspirations are Eileen Gray for her commitment to be bold, Ross Lovegrove for his fluid sculptured shapes, Ishitani Furniture for his amazing craft, Gerrit Rietveld's Zig Zag chair and minimalist use of materials, Tom Dixon for his scrap to superstar journey and the master of disaster himself, Leonardo DaVinci who was the ultimate inventor!

Q.4: Tell us about the different stages of the design process & how you arrive at a final design?

I read plans every other day for jobs in the construction industry which is why I enjoy the separation from that and allowing the design process to be more free and without constraint.

When I first began furniture making I would create and then glue up different shapes and joints to see what worked, which method was stronger or weaker and what forms looked best. As much as I respect and honour the traditional methods of furniture making I wanted to develop my own methods, using the machines and tools I had at my disposal, working from a factory, ultimately designed to make windows and doors, I adapted to the machines and learned to create finished pieces of furniture which are extremely sharp in their aesthetical design, strong and robust in their construction but gentle to the eye and soft to touch. In the past couple of years I’ve developed a more standard practice of design, I say standard with caution as to other makers my methods might seem a bit “mad” but I’ve certainly become more efficient and less wasteful. The dimensions of the finished timber I use in my products reflects my urge to minimise waste. I think design should go through a natural evolution in every stage even after it’s considered completed by some. I doubt very much if any designer could ever say with confidence that something they created was truly ‘finished’! The final design usually comes from a two dimensional template I make using scraps from the workshop. Like gluing lollypop sticks to a page to create a 3 dimensional plan. I can move parts around at ease which helps me visualise the finished form and the various angles and gives me a better idea of scale.

Q.5: What is your favourite part of the design process & why?

I’m hands on with everything I do so the prototyping (playing) stage is my favourite part of the process, to the detriment of my bank balance and the annoyance of my landlord in the workspace I rent from Embankment Joinery in Saggart! “Testing” things in a physical sense isn't cheap and requires a lot of space for all of the 'almost a masterpiece/failures' I leave behind but it’s by far the most rewarding for both the visual and practical knowledge you receive and the freedom it gives you to evolve any idea. To imagine something, an object, with all of it’s parts and procedures and then see and feel it coming together through a patient process of trial and error is unbelievably satisfying. It’s also a process that creates new ideas where one design becomes a tangent of another. Late night’s, music and an empty workshop is my kind of meditation. Wood in its essence is extremely mindful to work with so I find that whole process extremely relaxing and rewarding.

The DESK by RHD Furniture - handcrafted from solid wood & finished with a walnut oil stain.

Q.6: Tell us about the DESK and what inspired you to create this piece?

This design was born from a recent conversation with the one and only, Carol Anne Leyden! RHD and CA Design have been speaking about a distribution partnership for my new collection of furniture and were due to get the ball rolling on this right before Covid19 struck. For obvious reasons that launch was postponed. On a positive note, and I think many people can relate to this for different reasons - the last few weeks gave me the time I’ve been praying for to spend in the workshop and focus almost entirely on the new furniture collection. As I mentioned I’ve spent a couple of years developing a signature style, using very specific 'Alternating Angles' which I now adapt to create a variety of furniture. When CA mentioned the need for Home Office Desks on the market I was able to adapt my methods to create something different. We understood there are many other WFH Desk options on the market at the moment - many temporary 'flat pack' desks but we felt that WFH will definitely become a more permanent way of life and a lot of people would look for a more stylish and permanent hand crafted desk, which is exactly what we have produced. CA planted the seed for the concept and suggested the size, 90cm x 54cm which is absolutely perfect to fit neatly into any home. In a matter of days I came up with a design that we think is modern and timeless in its aesthetic as well as being robust in construction. A design we’re sure will stand the test of time.

Q.7: Will you be expanding this collection to include other items

The desk is the latest edition to a family of pieces already in production. A LAMP, CHAIR, MIRROR, TABLE, OTTOMAN and STOOL are all on the way to market very soon with further home interior products in the pipeline for release later this year. My vision is for RHD to become a recognised Irish household and commercial furniture brand, offering solutions in modern, designer & sustainable wood products - The brand ethos is - To produce designer, hand made and authentic furniture with the majority of our production and distribution remaining in Ireland and the intention to continue that process long into the future. I source most of the material used in my designs from local suppliers, building relationships with many local businesses. This practice makes my craft very much a community project. Nothing I create could be completed without the help of local entrepreneurs and business' such as Mia’s Upholstery, Brian Byrne at Milk, Pete Priestley from Maintenance Solution, Chris from NAA, Derek Ennis in Rubio Monocoat Irl. and many other timber and hardware providers city wide and now with a brilliant new addition to the family, CADESIGN!!

We are due to launch a new product every other week over the coming weeks through CA Design I can’t wait to see the reaction to the brand.

Q.8: Have you got a favourite piece of furniture that you have designed & why?

I would have to say my favourite piece to date is the piece I designed through an indirect commission from the Bar Council of Ireland. It was my first successful furniture design at my first attempt and the one piece which gave me the confidence to continue designing furniture, regardless of the lack of real income it was bringing in. It’s a unique redesign of one of the oldest official pieces of furniture, a lectern. My design is a portable version, a 95% renewable product made from stainless steel and bamboo plywood which has sold 70 units to date. With a little push we might get one into every courtroom in the country before I retire but for now I’m very happy with that little success.

Q.9: What to you, signifies great design?

In a word, Comfort.

Physically, aesthetically and in its usage.

With so many opinions and palettes to satisfy these days and so many platforms available for people to view and purchase it’s impossible to tick every box with a single design so for me the greatest ‘modern’ designs are those that focus on creating the best overall comfort for the few people who might like the look of it and those who know how to use it!

The DESK by RHD Furniture handcrafted in solid walnut.

Q.10: If you could gift your latest creation the DESK to somebody famous, who would it be & why?

For the week that’s in it, it would have to be Bono, for his 60th birthday! He’s been an amazing ambassador for the creative arts in Ireland for so many years and he may need a new desk for all those letters he’s writing to his lifesaving singer/songwriters!! He may not know this either but an earlier chair design of mine made it in to the U2 studio in Hanover Quay a few years back but I still don’t know if he got to sit in it!??

If I had a second choice and we aren’t constrained by the physics of time, it would have to be Eileen Gray! Her history in design is phenomenal and is to date credited with the design for the most expensive chair ever sold!! I would only offer one for her signature mind you, that small design input might assist in my plans for early retirement!

Get to know Rónán & his designs more by following him on instagram @ronanhusseydesign - you can also shop his newest products on our website here.

Get to know our newest brand - 10 Questions with furniture designer Rónán Hussey