b'U in the canncharted Reseneterritory West SideTwenty years on from first reaching international acclaim, David TrubridgeResenelooks back on his journey so far. Citrusabove: David Trubridge kitset lights are available at his showroom and W hat are you going to be when you grow up? ourleft: Hnaki was Davids firstwebsite in a curated palette of eight Resene Lustacryl semi-gloss colours: Its a question we get asked so often inexploration into lighting inResene Jordy Blue, Resene Hopbush, Resene Half Sea Fog, Resene Black, formative years, as though were expected to have1995. This updated design,Resene Niagara, Resene West Side, Resene Citrus and custom made released in 2021, is based onResene Trubridge Red. Customers can also choose to have a light custom it all figured outjust pick a thing and go be it. But even DavidMori eel traps made frommade in any Resene colour they desire for an added fee. Trubridge, who has received the New Zealand Order of Meritwoven vines which could takeleft: David in his production studio, which shares a building with both the for his work, didnt set out to be a lighting or furniture designer.on amazingly beautiful forms.showroom and design studio. Its quite rare for a design studio to have that When David had to pick a thing, he chose naval architecture. The interior faces of the lightsimmediate access to production. We can send a drawing straight down to I did my design degree at Newcastle University, which I chosemodular components arethe CNC machine. Itll cut a piece out and well have it back within half because I was interested in boats. I love boats and the sea, and mycoated in Resene Lustacrylan hour, play with it, toy with it, redo it and send a revised version back so plan was to design boats. But it turned out to be an engineeringsemi-gloss waterborne enameltheres a very close interaction between design and manufacturing, which is course. Everyone on the course was studying the same thingstinted to Resene West Side. a really, really good thing to have, he says.together whether they were designing bridges, ships, skyscrapersResene you name it. There was only one class a week that was specificJordy Blueto boat design, so I lost interest. I completed the degree for theResene job taught me a lot about trees, so when I started using wood, iton an open-ended adventure. They bought a secondhand boatmade and thats the end of it. But with the Body Raft, I was able sake of having the piece of paper, he says. Hopbush no longer seemed like a dead materialit was a living material Iand sailed the family across the Atlantic by way of Antigua beforeto move into larger scale production. It was a transition piece from Butafterwards,IbecameinterestedindoingartworkResene understood from growing, pruning and tending it. settling in Hawkes Bay, where David set up a new studio and beganmy one-off studio practice to the current manufacturing practice.especially carving wood and stoneand I wanted to have a placeTrubridge Red Carved artwork, as it turned out, was not very easy to sell butexploring experimental forms through his furniture inspired by hisI was doing some quite wacky pieces in the 90s that were sort where I could do that. I bought what I could afford, which was anResene David already had the machines for making joinery for his houseadventures on the high seas. His bentwood chair design, Body Raft,of interesting but werent really selling, so I made a decision to old ruined stone building in the north of England. Its beautifulHalf Sea Fog renovation. From there, I just carried on making furnitureandwas picked up by Cappellini in 2001 at the Milan Furniture Fair. go back and explore my training. So, I looked at boats, how they there, but its pretty wild, wet and cold in the winter. While IResene thats where it all started, he says. The Body Raft was a big jump from what Id done up until thatwere made and timber was used, and out of that process came was repairing the building, I had a part-time job as a forester onBlack But things in England were changing fast in the early 80s, andpoint. Id always made things as one-offs, which I conceived, createdthe Body Raft. It was a move into manufacturing and brought my the local estate. I was out there with the billhook pruning trees,Resene not necessarily for the better. Davids sons, Sam and William, wereand sold as individual pieces. That allows you to do some interestinglove of the sea, making and design all together at the one time. cutting undergrowth, planting and milling. But that lovely outdoorNiagara still young so he and his wife Linda decided to uproot and set outstuff, but you end up spending all this time designing it and then itsI have that piece to thank for where I am now.56 blackwhitemag.com blackwhitemag.com 57'