The College Project That Became One Of Hayche's Esteemed Collections
Award-winning design duo Faudet-Harrison have created the Kensington Collection in partnership with Hayche, launching this month during Clerkenwell Design Week. The pieces may be very 2019, but its launch has been 10-years in the making— if that is not proof that it will stand the test of time, we don’t know what is!
We chatted with Jochem Faudet and Jon Harrison on the development of these sleek pieces, including a bar stool and a chair available in natural ash and an all-black version. Here are a few highlights from a long enjoyable conversation:
All-in-one shop
The young designers met at the Royal College of Art and created Faudet-Harrison in 2011. Aside from their product design gig, they also commit to interior and exhibition projects. Jon is one of those people who can find an extra hour (or two) in the 24-hour system, keeping his agenda full by teaching at London’s Kingston University two days a week. He assures that being busy is actually better for productivity, as his decision-making window gets narrowed down to seconds due to his other projects.
SCP Location SCP Curtain Road
Photography Ellie Laycock
Year 2013
Remember Matilda?
We’re convinced that if you’re part of either generation X or millennials you grew up with Roald Dahl’s Matilda and Charlie and The Chocolate Factory. Even though it may be a lesser-known fact that Quentin Blake is the illustrator behind his classics, Faudet-Harrison wants you to remember this forever. The studio launched an exhibition to present his works at the House of Illustration in London.
Location House of Illustration London
Curators Olivia Ahmad
Graphics Burgess Studio
Photography Faudet Harrison
Year 2014
We are family!
Royal College of Art family, that is! The university is located in Kensington and it is the same place where our founder, Alejandro Villarreal, studied product design.
Still not figuring out the resemblance? Alas, this is where the name of the collection drew inspiration from.
College prep
The Kensington collection is a testament to discipline and evolution. The chair was constructed as the Jon's graduation project back in 2008. “Design-wise it’s similar, proportionally, it’s a little better,” said Jon in our interview. And our relationship also grew stronger…The collaboration made sense because their philosophy matched our own: “Hayche makes pieces that transcend fashion and communicate its own desire and language,” asserted the pair and continued on saying, “trends don’t interest us.”
Kensington Chair, 2019
Modern-day relationships, there’s an app for that!
Jon and Jochem have been leading a design studio long-distance for a couple years. Their London-Amsterdam relationship has been saved with the aid of apps like Skype, where they can spend hours discussing a sketch or an idea, which becomes real thanks to Jon’s “Imax” screen that allows him to see his partner “life-size”. Jochem is very grateful for Dropbox. They’re amazed by technology, as it would have been impossible to carry a business at a distance, 10 to 15 years ago.
You’ll love to learn that this multi-disciplinary studio has worked with prestigious clients like SCP, Habitat and The Design Museum. So we’ve pretty much partnered with designers that know what a timeless work of art looks like and we can almost bet that after reading this, you will not let anyone play musical chairs with the Kensington.