Sean Brickhill fell into furniture design by chance after missing out on studying his dream course in Communications Design.
Instead, he ended up on a fallback course – furniture design – at RMIT. Sean envisioned completing a year-long furniture course before switching to a communications design degree. That was until he “kind of became addicted to furniture.”
After experimenting with making some pieces for friends, he took a year off and completed a three-month assignment in Europe, which he says is the perfect place to be inspired and build his knowledge of design history.
“I definitely returned to Melbourne with a stronger passion for design,” he says.
Once he graduated, he was contacted by prolific woodworker and designer Damian Wright who really propelled Sean’s career. Working as Damien’s assistant, he built his confidence and eventually found a studio for himself.
Now, his custom wooden benches, chairs and coffee tables can be found mostly in local boutiques including curated homeware and furniture store Ma House in Collingwood, nearby design gallery pépite, as well as Bow + Arrow studio in Sydney. He also takes commissions on custom-made pieces.
But there is no one size fits all in Shun’s process, it varies piece by piece. All of his work also requires extensive planning and budgeting, from designing the pieces to sourcing materials to creating the final product.
“The average person might not think about it, but a piece of furniture requires a whole bunch of different machines and tools,” Sean explains. “I remember that at university we did a cost study where we calculated the costs of setting up a basic-level workshop containing all the equipment needed to produce basic furniture.
From memory it was about $30,000. I couldn’t afford that, so having a shared space with my little studio and all the machines was a blessing.’
Sean attributes most of his inspiration to “books, books, books.” Although travel was his primary source of inspiration, working more in the studio meant less time exploring the world. So, the furniture designer turned to books — and photography — to keep him inspired.
Looking at the design through the eyes of the photographer helped the photographer change his perspective and think more about what the piece would look like from each angle, and how it would be photographed in a certain light or space. His design process revolves around prioritizing the visual appeal of a piece over its function.
“When I come up with something that checks the aesthetic box and then the functional box, then I feel like I’m on to something,” he points out.
When he’s not in the studio working on his next track, Sean also works as a production assistant at CocoFlip, in addition to managing his passion project – First Edition Library, an online space dedicated to finding, curating, and selling rare design, photography, and art books.
This platform grew out of Sean’s desire to share his passion for books with like-minded creatives. After his success at the local clothing and homewares store Saloon where he provided books from the personal libraries of many Melbourne artists and designers, he began acquiring more rare books from around the world and selling them for a small profit.
“For me, it’s not really about profit, it’s more about curating a selection of books that you can rarely buy here in Australia,” Sean adds. “But apart from helping friends with other odd jobs here and there, I spend the rest of my time in the studio making the next piece.”
Shop Sean’s pieces at seanbrickhill.com or DM him on Instagram for custom orders.
