William Warren » Blog

Billy Tombola

William — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 01:12:25 +0000

I recently compared the Tombola evening at Case furniture and was in charge of giving away a whole load of furniture for free, including one of my own Sunray chairs. Case was fantastically generous all night and the beer didn’t stop flowing. There’s already talk of doing the same thing next year on a bigger scale.

The Fife Bench in production

William — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 22:21:44 +0000

Chris Eckersley and I went up to Fife the other day to see the benches in production. Envirovent have made a lovely job of making them.

The benches are being delivered to Fife council this week and should be installed pretty soon.

Furniture Designer of the Year

William — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 21:31:44 +0000

It was a great honor to be shortlisted for Designer of the Year this year by Homes and Gardens magazine, alongside Sam Hecht and (the winners) Yael Mer and Shay Alkalay from Raw Edges.

The award ceremony was held at the British Museum.

Sunray in production

William — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 20:49:34 +0000

Here are some shots of the Sunray Chairs being manufactured in China for Case Furniture.

The Great Windsor Chair Race

William — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 20:44:17 +0000

Chris Eckersley, William Warren and Carl Clerkin were the three designers competing in The Great Windsor Chair Race, held at the Contemporary Craft Fair 2011 at Bovey Tracey in Devon. All three designers had previously worked together on their various Bodging Projects.

The aim of the race was to see who could produce the most new windsor chairs over the three-day event in an impromptu workshop in a rather rainy craft show. The legendary British chair-makers ERCOL kindly donated a selection of steamed bows, legs and seat components to give the designers something to work with.

Fish-eye lense photograph was taken by Richard Weaving. Thanks Richard.

Stair boob

William — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 20:09:18 +0000

Jona and Hannah are friends of mine. They’re doing up an old Victorian house in Peckham and making a lovely job of it. At the bottom of the stairs a previous DIY enthusiast has destroyed the wooden post top and I was asked if I could turn up a new one. I agreed to do it as long as I could make it a nice boob. Here’s my efforts fresh off the lathe.

No Parking Bench Kazakh style

William — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 20:00:31 +0000

Here’s a shot of a lovely No Parking bench we found in a mountain Ice rink in Kazakhstan.

Crane TV interview

William — Sat, 04 Jun 2011 13:51:54 +0000

I recently gave an interview for Crane TV, an online magazine for contemporary Art and Design. They were interested to hear about my development of the Sunray Chair which is now being manufactured by Case. Also in the film is Matthew Hilton and Shin Azumi who both work as designers for Case.

See the short film here.

Irish Stools

William — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 10:02:18 +0000

I visited friends in Ireland recently and although I was only there for a few days, managed to get two stools made. In fact, Toby and I went straight into the workshop as soon as I arrived and set up a little lathe he’s bought of a friend. We decided to produce two stools to go into Toby’s kitchen.

Toby Hatchett is a maker of beautiful kitchens. We have done several furniture projects together in the past and it was lovely to get a chance to work together again.

The two stools are made from oak. The bonelike lumps in the legs are as functional as they are attractive, providing extra material at the point where the footrest joins the legs.

Joy Of Living

William — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 09:54:31 +0000

The design critic and editor of the London Design Guide, Max Frazer, has organised a project to raise awareness and money for Maggie’s Cancer Caring Centres. 100 designers were asked to contribute an artwork on a piece of A4 graph paper, responding to the brief ‘the joy of living’. The pieces were put on sale at an exhibition in Somerset House.

I was asked by Max to contribute an artwork for this project and. I thought a naked lady would be a reasonable response to the brief.

All the donated artworks can be seen here.