Hi Jordan, thanks for speaking with us today. Congratulations on making it into the Great Interior Design Challenge final, how has your life changed since the show?
Life has been amazing since the show has aired. It has been a total whirlwind of activity and projects. The response from the public and the industry has been overwhelmingly supportive. My partner and I have launched our interior design business 2 Lovely Gays and we are already working with lots of great clients.
We were surprised you have received no formal training in Interior Design. Did you always know you wanted to be an Interior Designer?
What we do is instinctual. We both trained professionally as actors and worked a lot in theatre and television. This has informed our approach to our design work. We are so inspired by theatre and opera design especially the move towards showing the puppets strings being laid bare for all to see, as it were. Functionality is beautiful. I also have a passion for fashion, always have, and this certainly informs our work. We started out years ago designing and making textiles and home ware for a stall we ran at Greenwich Craft Market. It was an amazing testing ground. We were both still working as actors at that time and then the design work just started to pull our focus and now it’s all we do.
For all the aspiring Interior Designers out there, briefly explain how you take a client’s brief from concept to design.
It’s all about collaboration. The best designs come from collaboration and you have to be able to compromise whilst still maintaining the focus of the initial concept. It is so important to take yourself out of the equation and listen to the brief. I suppose our training as actors helps here because we are used to getting inside the character of another person and that helps us keep to brief. The most important thing is just to begin. Get as much practical experience as you can.
Photo courtesy of BBC2's The Great Interior Design Challenge
We absolutely loved your room in Brighton especially the two-tone grey cabinet. Do you have a particular style to your designs?
We love a bit of colour blocking and the two-tone cabinet is a great example. It is also a great way of injecting a little humour into design. Simplicity is the key for us and by cutting through that cabinet with the same visual line as the panelling it is restful for the eye and makes a rather ornate piece of furniture appear simple. This paired back elegance created the perfect environment for a showpiece, like your beautiful mural, to really settle in.
We’ve worked with you on a few occasions now. How did you come across Surface View?
My husband, Russell and I were renovating a hotel in Kent for my father in law and we were looking to add some depth and period elegance to the public areas, the restaurant and reception. We had our eyes on you for some time and this was the perfect opportunity to use two pieces. They look stunning. They still thrill me when we pop back for a visit. It is the scale that excites us.
The catalogue of images on Surface View is so varied, what factors do you consider when choosing your mural for a client?
A mural can be a great starting point for any scheme. We always feel inspired when browsing your extensive images. Often the colour and feel of a room can be captured in a mural and help every other element fall into place. Some clients may think that a mural is not for them, but there is such a range of products on your site now. We try to make sure every piece in a client’s scheme stands up for itself and represents the person living there. Scale is so important when choosing a piece and where you position it. On a wall behind a sofa or bed is always dramatic and means that you will never tire of it as it is not too blatant when you are relaxing. It’s also great that you can be flexible on some pieces with colour. For example, in the Brighton scheme we mentioned, the palette was monochrome so you altered the mural from colour to black and white to go with the scheme. Endless possibilities!
Photo credit: Megan Taylor, www.megantaylor.co.uk
We’re excited to watch your career blossom – what’s next in the pipeline for you?
We have so many exciting projects on the go from designing whole houses for a media mogul to a pitch we have just done for a design of a new restaurant chain that could be big for us. We are also off to Milan Design Fair in April, which is very exciting.
Lastly, who is your ultimate design hero?
Dorothy Draper and Jasper Morrisson, each legends for very different reasons. We didn’t have formal training but their work certainly informs what we do, in the use of colour and functionality. Jamie Hayon is also a favourite because he is a one off and not afraid to be unique. We love his maverick approach.
Jordan and his partner Russell have launched their own interior design service. To find out more and check out their portfolio visit the website here.