About Another Country

David Irwin graduated from Three Dimensional Design at Northumbria University in 2007. He completed a fellowship on the Designers in Residence initiative at Northumbria’s School of Design in 2010 and subsequently went on to establish his own Industrial Design Studio in 2011. The studio’s design focus is rooted in material exploration and driven by a desire to assign purpose to both traditional and contemporary manufacturing processes. The goal with all of Irwin’s work is to combine a strong concept with fundamental usefulness. David has designed a number of pieces of us which are know collectively as the Hardy Collection, these include the Hardy Chair, Hardy Dining Table and Hardy Rocker.

With a background in product design and applied art, Ian employs a mixture of industrial design and craft skills to produce exhibitions, installations and designs for production. His output spans the fields of design, research and curating. Ian graduated from the Royal College of Art with a Masters in Ceramics and Glass in 2010. He is a founding member of Studio Manifold and an associate lecturer at Kingston University and Central Saint Martins. He holds a Collaborative Doctoral Award with Manchester School of Art, York Art Gallery and The British Ceramics Biennial. Ian is behind our ever popular Pottery Series, a notable feature of this collection being the terracotta clay, which is fired to an unconventionally high temperature giving it the scorched colour and the strength of stoneware.

Marie Dessuant was born in Paris. In 2008, she graduated with distinction from the Ecole Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs de Strasbourg with a Masters in Product Design. Marie worked as Head of Design for Another Country for a number of years before returning to Paris to found multi-disciplinary Studio Dessuant Bone with her partner Phillip Bone. Whilst at Another Country Marie worked on a number of the core furniture collections (in 2017 winning a Design Guild Mark Award for Series Four) she also designed our ceramic candlesticks.

Daniel studied art and graphic design at Warwickshire college, before embarking on a carpentry apprenticeship, building houses, offices and restoring historic buildings. This combination of arts-based education and hands-on craft experience evolved into a passion for design, culminating in a degree in furniture and product design at Sheffield Hallam University. The fusion of graphics, construction and design informs Daniel’s visual language and creative direction. He solves problems in the simplest possible way, removing anything that is unnecessary, and distilling the result into a clean, honest, and understated aesthetic, with the ultimate aim to create useful, understandable and timeless products. Daniel designed the Another Sofa in 2019.

Born in Edinburgh, Catherine Aitken studied at Glasgow School of Art and then at the Royal College of Art, London from where she graduated in 2011 with a Masters in Textiles. On graduation she established her own studio designing furniture, interior products and textiles before joining Another Country in 2013. As Design Director at Another Country, she is responsible for design and product development, she designs pieces for the core furniture collection and bespoke pieces for trade projects as well as commissioning external designers. She also styles our photoshoots and trade show stands. In 2019 she received a Design Guild Mark for the Ori Sofa Bed and Wallpaper Design Award (Best Natural Selection) for the Ori Wall Mirror.

German born designer Mathias Hahn lives and works in London. He established Mathias Hahn Design Studio in 2006 after gaining a degree in Industrial Design from the University of Essen, Germany and a Masters from the Design Products course at the Royal College of Art, London. His work is characterised by a detailed examination of possible materials and manufacturing processes whilst his human centred approach sees design as a ‘cultural tool’, always aiming to create relevant objects and narratives in the context of our living realities. Mathias designed our Another Chair and more recently the Fram Shelving.

Fred Rigby is a furniture and interior designer based in London. He grew up in the Dorset countryside and spent his childhood creating things in the fields around his home, before going on to study Product and Furniture Design at Kingston University, London. He has since designed interiors for former menswear shop Anthem, in London’s Calvert Avenue; Villa Lena, a hotel in the Tuscan countryside; and Michelin-starred restaurants Ellory and Leroy, to name a few.

Rigby works in a tactile manner when creating furniture, sketching designs by hand, and creating physical models in order to study the designs from various perspectives.

Simon Donald is a London based product designer. He studied Sculpture at the Slade School of Fine Art and later completed a MA in Design Products at the RCA. After graduating in 2007 Simon went on to work for Sebastian Bergne Ltd as a designer and project manager before founding Donald Wentworth Design Studio in 2013. Simon also lectures at Central St Martins. Simon designed our Another Desktop Series back in 2011.

After graduating in 2004 as interior designer from ESA St. Luc in Brussels, Benoit Deneufbourg launched his studio in Brussels designing furniture, lighting and accessories. Benoit also teaches at Brussels Art School. Benoit has designed a selection of accessories for us, the Desktop Series Two Set (which includes a Pencil Holder, Pencil & Note Holder & Paper Tray) and our Candle Plate.

Born in Tokyo and raised in New England, Jonah received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2002. For several years, Jonah designed furniture that he built in a friend’s studio while he played bass guitar, touring and recording with several indie rock bands. Needing to develop and showcase a growing body of work that was filling his house but few had seen, Jonah founded Atelier Takagi in 2005. Johah designed our Valet Stand.

Since graduating from Heriot Watt University with a BA Honours in Design for Textiles Ruth Duff has designed innovative fabrics for a number of clients, latterly working as a woven textile designer at Lovat Mill. Ruth combines geometric and organic shapes through jacquard weaving to create complex woven textile designs. Ruth designed our Soft Series fabrics which were expertly woven by Gainsborough Silk Weaving in Suffolk before being made into cushions and blankets.

Looking for a career change Alain went to study Industrial design in France after a number of years working in the financial world. He founded his own studio in 2007 in order to pursue his own dreams and develop his personal approach to product design, furniture design, art direction and interior architecture. He has since collaborated with several international brands. He was named designer of the year in 2012 by the Biennale Interieur (the leading Biennale design event in Belgium). Alain designed the Arc Chair and Fold Chair for Another Country.