Philippe Malouin

After graduating, he moved to London to work for British designer Tom Dixon where he says he got his real design education. “To be honest, I didn’t know how to design anything when I graduated school – I knew nothing,” he confesses. “I didn’t have an idea of shape or form or even a design language. I actually learned how to develop a design language by designing for someone else.”

After a year and a half with Dixon, he founded his own studio in 2009 and gradually attracted the attention of manufacturers who appreciated his industrial style. “Eventually we got our first commission, which turned into two, then three and four,” he recalls, “and now we’re working with brands we never ever thought would call us.” Malouin is under no illusion that his success is not commonplace for design graduates.

“When I give a talk to younger designers that are in school, I always stress that this is a really hard world to break into. Specifically when working within the old school model of producing furniture for big brands and earning royalties through sales,” he laments.

“You need a fair amount of money to attend a design school and produce a graduation project, which sadly means that it’s only a certain stratum of society that have access to that. Even after graduating, just to even be noticed to get a commission from a company to make anything at all is really hard.”

Fortunately for Malouin, his design language has struck a chord with design manufacturers and collectors across the globe. Characterised by robust, geometric forms and clean lines that are softened by gentle curves and tactile surfaces, his pieces are often inspired by the everyday. For instance, his award-winning Group chairs for SCP, which feature a series of curved cushion components wrapped around a circular swivel base, were inspired by London’s lamp posts. Similarly, the simple terracotta form of his versatile Lift side table and stool – also for SCP – are a homage to the chimney pots he observed from his flat window during lockdown. For Matter Made, his Arca collection reduces the classic form of a chandelier down to its bare essentials, resulting in an elegant composition made up of swooping black linear lines.

His studio in London’s Hackney is now made up of just him and designer Julian Komosa, and he likes it that way. “I’m not interested in becoming a brand myself at all,” he muses. “I just want to design objects for people. The great thing is, I don’t need investment. We have a tiny studio in Hackney, and we just do our thing.”

Malouin likes to choose his clients based on whether he would personally buy their products and whether their values align with his. The best collaborations happen, he says, when people are open to his ideas and have a true passion for design, not just business. Working with “kind people” also helps, he adds.

In 2018 Malouin celebrated his studio’s first decade in business with a solo exhibition in Hyères, France, and happily, in the same year, he also scooped Wallpaper magazine’s prestigious Designer of the Year Award. The next ten years, he hopes will bring much of the same but at a more sustainable pace. In the past year, during the global pandemic and the ensuing lockdown, a slower and more manageable way of working is something he has been enjoying. Pre-pandemic, there were never-ending deadlines, trade shows and product launches to attend, while this period of quiet reflection has afforded the designer more space to be creative and the chance to escape the studio. “It’s a more manageable way of working,” he says. I’ve been able to book blocks of time that I know I can dedicate to individual clients. The next ten years I hope will be like this, bringing about fewer but better things.”

Article by Ali Morris