Member Article

Unique luxury chair created by Warwick automotive design guru awarded top industry accolade

An exclusive lounge chair created by top automotive designer Ian Callum and his team at Warwick-based design and engineering business, CALLUM, has been awarded the Bespoke Guild Mark by the City of London livery company and furnishing industry charity, The Furniture Makers’ Company, in recognition of its design credentials and winning combination of beauty and ergonomics.

Mr Callum, one of the UK’s most celebrated car designers, counts the Aston Martin Vanquish, Vantage and DB9 amongst his creations. He spent two decades at Jaguar designing models including the F-Type and C-X75.  The ‘CALLUM Lounge Chair’ is the CALLUM team’s first furniture design project and has been widely acclaimed by the furniture industry.

The unique chair, which costs from £8,500, is inspired by the iconic 1956 Eames lounge chair and is designed to create an elegant and efficient ‘lightness’, both physically and visually. Floating wooden forms are connected by a modern, minimalist skeletal structure of carbon fibre and steel, with a moulded plywood shell encased in a eucalyptus veneer and finished in leather trim.

Each exclusive, handcrafted chair will be made to the customer’s colour and finish specification with two heights and 10 leather options available.

“It’s an incredible honour to be awarded such prestigious recognition as the Bespoke Guild Mark,” said Mr Callum, design director at CALLUM.

“While the CALLUM team has vast experience and achieved recognition in the automotive industry, our intention with the business is to create bespoke and low volume products that really excite us across a broad range of sectors. I have always wanted to explore the challenges of furniture design and was delighted when our design study was so well received. 

“For this project to result in the furniture industry’s ultimate design-maker accolade is humbling and true testament to how the entire CALLUM team applies itself wholeheartedly to new challenges.”

Daniel Hopwood, Bespoke Guild Mark chairman at The Furniture Makers’ Company said: “We’d like to congratulate Ian and his team on the CALLUM Lounge Chair, which is a real triumph and demonstrates how the most outstanding design can transcend industries. 

“Carrying unrivalled design credentials across from automotive design to this exquisite piece of furniture is an incredible feat and one that is deserving of the Bespoke Guild Mark, which we only award to the most meticulous, luxurious and highly crafted pieces of bespoke furniture. Since its launch in 1958, it has been the apex of distinctions for UK designer-makers and as such we only award it to very exceptional pieces.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Robinson .