Thomas Coward
(b. 1978, Cornwall, United Kingdom. Lives and works in Melbourne)

Designer Thomas Coward established his studio in 2008 to explore both personal and commercial projects. Working across a range of disciplines to create products, furniture and spaces, his considered aesthetic and approach looks at design holistically. His work seeks answers to physical and emotional questions, examining the ongoing relationships between objects, people and place.

Since beginning his career in bathroom design, Coward has worked with stone for twenty years, continually pushing the limits and uses of the material’s properties. He draws upon this knowledge of solid surfaces with his new terracotta furniture, Cove chair, 2022 and Echo low, 2022, designed in 2021 for New Volumes, which saw the designer using this ancient material for the first time. Humbled by the manufacturer’s vast experience, a factory which has produced terracotta objects since the eighteenth century, Coward wanted to celebrate the material’s history, legacy, purity and strength. ‘Terracotta is truly remarkable’, he says. ‘It rises from the ground and leaves no trace.’

Cove chair subtly evokes the coastal formation that its name derives from, which Coward explains ‘exists by the absence of matter’. Two negative shapes are placed on top of each other: one creating lift, the other creating support. Suitable for inside and outside, Cove chair promotes posture, surrounded by the practical comfort of an armrest. Circular table Echo low also plays with negative space in a contemporary exploration of Classical form, bolstered by a carousel of voids that evoke architectural shapes used in design for centuries.

Born in Cornwall, Coward studied furniture design in London at Ravensbourne University before migrating to Australia in 2003. Originally working as the principal designer at Omvivo and Schiavello for ten years, he is now the Creative Director of Artedomus and New Volumes. His installation exhibitions include Oblik, 2020, created with Marsha Golemac for Artedomus; Sky Tips, 2016, for Artedomus and Maximum Australia; and Pipers, 2015, for Maximum Australia and InDesign.