Waywood combines the varied skills of three furniture designer/makers, with backgrounds and influences as diverse as fine art, cabinetmaking, boat building, computer-aided design and CAD/CAM manufacturing. Business owner Barnaby Scott with his colleagues Clive Brooks and Simon Smith are all experienced and time-served craftsmen through and through, makers who have always experimented with their craft. Somewhere along the way they got interested in digital CAD/CAM technology too, and the result is a workshop with one foot firmly rooted in craft traditions, and one stepping out into the future.
The Waywood team often approach problem solving from completely different directions. Their collaborative design process and approach to problem solving allows a wealth of options for design and making solutions. Equally the role of designer might be given to the person who is best suited to the client’s brief, but the resources available to the team from their varied backgrounds allow a huge diversity of influences and experience.
Barnaby says, “As furniture designers, we are inevitably influenced by contemporary aesthetics but we are not distracted by passing fashion. The warmth and infinitely variable nature of wood inspires us to treat it with respect, rather than design in a way that ignores the material we are working with. We think a blend of subtlety and character is key to enduring design.”
The Waywood studio is based in Oxfordshire and has a long and celebrated reputation for innovative design. Everything they make is unique. The design process can involve the client as much or as little as they like, and the result is a collaborative process between everyone involved.
