Volume Side Table

For Ted Synnott, the path to becoming a furniture designer was shaped by an array of influences. Born and raised on a farm in New Zealand, a love for creativity found its roots early on and his childhood years were characterised by a balance between athletic pursuits and creative endeavours, including painting with his aunt and making clothes with his mother.

It wasn't until later in life that he discovered that working with hands was a particular strength and enrolled to study traditional timber furniture-making as a tangible outlet for his burgeoning ideas and the development of his practical skills. His journey continued with employment at several furniture companies and culminated in the establishment of his eponymous studio in 2019, marking the beginning of his independent and distinctive approach to furniture design.

Without a formal design education, Ted’s knowledge is autonomous and largely shaped through online resources and books on the history and principles of design. A pivotal moment occurred during a visit to Europe in 2023 where he exhibited at the Stockholm Furniture Fair: the trip provided a complete sensory experience of the objects and spaces he had previously only abstracted through images.

For Ted, good design is “simple, functional and cost-effective to produce.” Although he acknowledges this as an ideal and notes “there is space and justification for things that focus more on beauty than pragmatism.”

His design process is meticulous and thoughtful, focusing on a simplicity of form, a sensitivity to detail and a quest to find something different in the familiar. “What I'm interested in continues to evolve but I really enjoy design that communicates clearly, regardless of the discipline. I like to think about the design process as looking in the same place as everyone else for something different,” he avers.

While wood offers familiarity, warmth and tactility, Ted finds metals ”exacting, sanitary, easy to maintain and indifferent to most climatic conditions.” Most of his furniture is shaped from timber but he has been working increasingly with metals.

“Metals in general are well suited to industrial production as they are standardised, ubiquitous, uniform in appearance and typically require less post-processing work than organic materials. Aluminium has the added benefits of being infinitely recyclable—without loss of material of quality—as well being impervious to rust because it contains no iron,” he explains.