Meet the Designer / Remington Matters

We’re very excited to introduce the latest brand to join the JRF offering, Remington Matters. Remington Matters is a multi-disciplinary design and production studio comprised of industrial designers, graduate architects, and furniture makers based in Adelaide and Perth. They create unique and interesting products that are highly functional for both residential and commercial settings.

Tell us a bit about yourself and your studio Remington Matters?

Remington Matters started in Western Australia by myself and my now business partner Angus McBride. As we started out, we worked in the mixed medium world of metal and timber fabrication which was funnelled into creations which spread across many different industries. We worked in industrial and set design for festivals, creating retail spaces, design and production of small run restaurant furniture, and creating pieces for residential clients. As we progressed our focus came to lie on furniture, leading us down the road of product and lighting design.

Where did you grow up?

Adelaide, SA.

Where does your love of craftsmanship come from?

During my late teens, I worked with an extremely clever alternative builder. We worked on projects that teetered between craft and engineering. Through this process we worked extensively with ferrous and nonferrous metals, timber in an engineering realm, and I was exposed to tooling and machinery in naturally novel applications. My interest in design and my love of craft culminated into what is the multi-disciplinary expedition of RM.

How did you get started on your own brand?

In 2019 we established a second studio in Adelaide SA, bringing our work closer to the east coast. In 2020 Angus and I took a week in the coastal town of Robe, with the plan to design our first collection. From this self-imposed design week, we established the design language that was to become Remington Matters, and the rest is history!

What was the first piece of furniture you ever made?

A very awkward looking console. I had purchased my first gasless mig welder on gumtree and cut some exceptionally difficult shapes out with an angle grinder and welded them together, topped with karri box – it was stunning! At the time my studio was in a shopping centre basement in the middle of Fremantle – life was a little interesting!

What was the inspiration behind your new range with JRF?

Over the years of interaction with the commercial market, we have produced a great deal of small run furniture. As our process and design language have developed, the interest in micro manufacturing has grown. All our products are 100% Australian made, and I wanted to utilise the relationships we have nurtured with a local industrial supplier, to produce a range the highlights that strengths of Australian manufacturing. JRF presented an inspiring platform to present these pieces.

What advice would you pass onto young aspiring Australian designers looking to start their own brand or a career in design and production?

My advice would be to keep making. And keep designing. Pour yourself into it. Furniture design is so intrinsically tied to what is possible. With greater knowledge of materials and processes, comes a deeper understanding of the relationship between design and production. We need to work with what we have at our doorstep, as progressing and moving forward is the key to staying inspired. Nurturing relationships with suppliers and manufacturers can lead to the development of processes one wouldn’t think possible, taking the time to listen to people, to research new concepts and processes, is the core of new ideas. Taking in the information around us informs who we are as designers.

Quick fire /

One place in both Adelaide and Perth anyone visiting should eat at?

Kopi Tims, Laaksa

Bar Rougue

Favourite piece of furniture you own (other than your own)?

A local woodturner in Perth, who taught Angus and I the wood turning skills we now use through many aspects of our work, gave me an organic shaped vase stand. I love it.

Most memorable dining experience?

Muni, ADL.

Favourite local and international designers?

Ronan Bouroullec

WAKAWAKA

Mullers Van Severen

Jon Goulder

Andrew Carvolth