David Trubridge with one of his signature American ash rockers. Photo: © Tony Neilson
LIGHT YEARS AHEAD
A lesson in survival, by TONY NEILSON
In the nine years I have known New Zealand furniture and lighting designer David Trubridge, he has moved from obscurity to become an internationally significant brand in his own right.
And I’ve decided to write my first (and possibly last) WoodSolutions blog about him because, when it comes to innovation, design development and international marketing strategy, his company is light years (pardon the pun) ahead of most of the Australasian wood industry.
Trubridge knows how to develop products that will sell competitively on world markets. He knows about building relationships and brand presence, and he has learned how to differentiate and position his wares at the higher end of the market – all from the bottom of the world.
‘Snowflake’ by David Trubridge won a 2015 Red Dot design award. Photo: DT
When I first met the soft-spoken, woolly-haired former naval architect, he had recently broken his nose for the second time – increasing his resemblance to that annoyingly enthusiastic 1980s broadcaster, environmental campaigner and fellow-Brit, David Bellamy.
Now very much a Kiwi, Trubridge was on a panel of designers and retailers in Sydney in early June where the subject was the rising scourge of replica furniture and how it is killing local creativity and manufacturing. In Australia, the word ‘replica’ apparently still allows companies to manufacture and sell copies of original designs, and resellers to use the original creator’s name in marketing.
And as a 2015 recipient of two Red Dot design awards, Trubridge is a prime target for the plagiarists. Red Dot is the world’s biggest and probably the most prestigious product design competition, with winners displayed at the Red Dot Museum in Essen. (Red Dot museums have also opened in Taipei and Singapore.)
The Red Dot winning ‘Nikau’ pendant light by David Trubridge. Photo: DT
Significantly, the winning David Trubridge pendant lights – Snowflake and Nikau – were nature-inspired. Although he has a design and development team these days, wild places are still where Trubridge goes when he needs to think of new ideas and to clear his head.
“I go to places where there is stillness so I can see deeper into myself,” he once told me. “Not just catching the light off the surface but getting down into the depths. And I find that in the mountains, in the forests and even in the frozen wastes of places like Antarctica.
“I’m not looking for shapes or forms – it is much, more nebulous; more a direction, an idea, a feeling.”
The David Trubridge business and brand thrive today because the company moved early to counter rapid changes in the wooden furniture industry – even at the high end.
Kitset lighting made from ‘ethically sourced’ bamboo plywood is the new niche. Kitset solves the freight problem from New Zealand to key markets in Europe and the US, and Trubridge says the customers get the pleasure of putting it together. “It gives them a reason to want to keep it for some time. Not throw it away next year.”
Nevertheless, it saddens him that the company now makes virtually no furniture, “because we find it so hard to be able to produce it for a sellable price.”
FOOTNOTE: Trubridge says he is “playing around” with a sailing idea for a Pacific windsurfer, so watch this space.