The East London designer talks angles, interiors and working with one of the industry’s biggest names – Sir Kenneth Grange 
“Teapots look great, but they don’t work”, Matthew Elton grins. Drops; heat loss; bad ergonomics – they are a good example of design that doesn’t meet its potential, that allows function to lag after aesthetics. And it’s exactly the kind of design that Matt abhors.
The designer, who’s exhibiting during London Design Festival at TENT this week, has been quietly working out of East London for the last decade, most recently from the Hackney Wick warehouse he shows me around. We’re drinking coffee, the brewing of which involved good ergonomics, as he talks me through prototypes of his earlier designs, including an early, rudimentary version of his A Frame shelving unit, commissioned for Heal’s Ambrose Collection for young, space-starved professionals. The design is the centrepiece of his new product range.The eagle-eyed amongst you may have spotted the simple A Frame on show at The Geffrye Museum’s recent exhibition, Useful+Beautiful. The piece is both of these things, its success hinging on simplest of ideas: “I thought it was interesting to try and make a piece of furniture that didn’t need much to hold it together,” Matt explains. The two part frame is angled at six-degrees, across all directions, supporting the individual components of the frame so that they slot together without the need for additional fixings, glue or screws. Why six degrees? “The angle is based on the dovetail which I wanted to run through the entire piece as it holds itself together. I also liked how it looked at six degrees; it looked natural. Six degrees is comfortable, it’s not under pressure or strain, the taper is very subtle”.
It’s homage to simplicity, the guiding principle across all of Matt’s work. With extensive experience manufacturing furniture, Matt explains he was “making before going into design”, working extensively across interiors and creating bespoke fittings for clients including Zaha Hadid Architects and Alexander Wang, as well as residential interiors. “It’s different designing for a specific space” he says of the furniture created for these projects, “it has a very specific function. When you’re designing a product like this”, he says, patting one of the A Frame’s shelves with a heavy hand, “you’re putting it out into the wider world. You’re creating your own brief, your own problem to solve, you’re honing your idea until you have something with substance”.
Matt’s working on what he calls a “spin-off series” of designs, incorporating the A Frame into beds, side tables and other formats to further mine the idea of modular, space saving furniture. He worked alongside Ambrose’s design director, Sir Kenneth Grange on the prototyping and manufacturing of the Leaning Wall he unveiled earlier this week. What’s it like to work with such an icon, I ask. Matt smiles wryly. “It was really flattering that he was phoning me up and asking me advice, he’s very humble and open to opinions. It’s been a great learning curve working with Sir Kenneth Grange and I hope it will continue.”
Photography Jasper Fry
Matthew Elton is showing at TENT, 18-21 September. The Ambrose collection launched this week at LDF. See more inside Matt’s workshop here
