Behind the design: Country Road homeware

Bruce Summers, homeware design manager

What inspired the collection?

The biggest influence for the new collection is the Australian way of life. It was important for the products in the collection to be beautiful, but also have a casual ease about them. For colour, we looked to our environment and the way natural materials and flora take on new hues every season.

How does inspiration turn into product?

Our process has really evolved over the past year and has gone from looking internationally for inspiration, to looking at the elements and influences that are unique to Australia. I begin the process by giving a rough direction related to Australian lifestyle, seasonality and key lifestyle trends and then together as a team we brainstorm.

Once everybody has contributed their ideas, we refine them by justifying why they are important and identify key callouts for each season and each month and this forms the base for our design direction. We work very collaboratively to ensure there is cohesion in colour, form and material so that the products tell a story visually but also stand alone.

Once the range is signed off we move onto a briefing phase where the designers generate technical drawings and specifications which they hand over to our factories. The prototypes start arriving and then design is then refined and reworked until we get a result we love.

Stevie Price, junior textiles designer

Talk us through the design process you took in your approach to this season?

We begin each season by meeting with our design manager, Bruce who will brief us designers on the direction for the season. This season’s colour palette was inspired by an image of gum leaves!

We then have a number of design sessions as a team to talk through our ideas, to ensure we create a cohesive vision and we then begin sketching our designs.

What materials do you love working with and why?

We are always looking at sourcing new materials and this season we are really excited to be introducing silicone and ceramic into the napery category. I love using natural materials and traditional techniques in a contemporary and innovative way.

What is your favourite piece of this season?

Ignis Placemat and Coaster - made from the new silicone material. The Ignis range is versatile and easy care, which is a real focus for us in Home. We try to make as many of our products both versatile and easy to care for to coincide with our easy Australian lifestyle.

Jessica Heaslip, hardgoods designer

Talk us through the design process you took in your approach to this season?

This season our inspiration was drawn from soft rounded edges which are evident throughout or range. From this initial direction, I focus on details which we think will best suit my mediums and developed from there, ensuring that all product is designed to complement the rest of the range.

What materials do you love working with and why?

I love working with ceramic, metals, timber. For me it’s also about the finish you apply to the material. This can transform a product drastically and seeing the results is great fun.

Chrissy Keyte, textiles designer

Talk us through the design process you took in your approach to this season?

Collectively as a team we brainstormed ideas and decided on colour direction and to focus on soft structures and fusing linear forms with organic elements. From here I interpreted these ideas into textile form, focusing on slub, boucle and nep yarns along with organised texture.

What materials do you love working with and why?

Working with contrasting textures and looking at new yarns. Layering different finishes is always interesting and creates depth and to any room.

Toby Nowland, hardgoods designer

Talk us through the design process you took in your approach to this season?

For this season, I really tried to think about how we as Australians interact with and use the objects in our homes. Our lifestyle involves lots of time spent outdoors, entertaining with friends and family and plenty of time relaxing inside during cooler months. I focussed on working mainly with natural materials, plenty of natural timber, leather, and ceramics with an easy but refined raw texture.

We have a strong Father’s Day gifting range on offer including a leather stubby holder, moulded leather tray, a matching bar set and BBQ utensils, and wine rack.

What materials do you love working with and why?

I really enjoy working with timber; ensuring the natural timber grain is prominent in the design. While frustrating at times, the natural timber grain varies so much from piece to piece that it gives a sense of uniqueness from one to another. Timber can be a pleasure to prototype with as it’s so malleable, easy to work with, refine, and in most cases is quite a forgiving material. I enjoy experimenting with and refining timber joints, and making a design feature from them.