ONEOFONE - Key Persons
Parisian born, Isabel Coulton grew up in the bohemian art world of 1960's France. Her grandmother was a talented painter in oils, her grandfather painted and collected works of art and discovered the now famous Bernard Buffet, whom he exhibited in his Champs Elysee gallery.
Isabel's home was a fusion of French avant-garde and the practical quiet beauty of early carved furniture - her English father's passion - later to become his speciality.
Isabel's mother, Lydia Corbett (nee Sylvette David) was once Picasso's muse and now paints in her own right, drawing inspiration from the great master and exhibits her work in London's Maddox Street.
Isabel's love of carving must surely have come from her early years, leading her away from painting towards a very traditional and meticulous skill.
Derbyshire born product and furniture designer Jason Walker specialises in producing functional contemporary designs.
A graduate of Nottingham Trent University with a First Class BA (Hons) in Information Graphics, Jason Walker was awarded a university commendation for his dissertation - A Playground for Design: The parks and placas of Barcelona.
Jason Walker achieves a seamless connection between 3-Dimensional and 2-Dimensional design. Inspired by the Spanish Catalan culture, Jason's work embraces the curvature of line, sensuality of form and organic structures of nature.
He is strongly influenced by his love of Spanish culture which he acknowledges as the source of endless inspiration for his work. Jason comments, "Spanish design has long been a great source of inspiration to me and when I design a piece of furniture or sculpture, I endeavour to add a pinch of ‘La Vida Español', which embraces and exhilarates my approach to the objects that surround us on a daily basis."
Lukasz Opalinski was born in 1979 in the small Polish town of Glowno, which is renowned for its long tradition of engineering and textiles. Lukasz is the only child of Waldemar, a retired welder and Barbara, a seamstress and dress designer.
Lukasz attended the ZSM academy in Kluczbork where he studied physics, technical illustration and design technologies and developed skills in the fabrication of wood, metal and plastic. It was during this period that he also developed his passion for furniture design and built a portfolio of innovative ideas and exciting conceptual drawings that formed the basis of his application to Buckinghamshire Chilterns University College.
He began his HND course in Furniture Design & Craftsmanship in March 2004 and Lukasz quickly established himself as a gifted designer.
In 2005 Lukasz exhibited at the highly respected Design Exhibition in Islington, London and received the "New Designers" award, sponsored by the Real sheepskin Association, for his highly innovative arm chair"The Purple Chill". In 2006 he again won the highly acclaimed award for"Indulgence" a unique interpretation of the chaise longue.
It was here that Lukasz met with Marcus Wilkinson of Foundry, who subsequently agreed that the company would support Lukasz' designing career, which also enabled him to study a BA in Furniture & Product Design at London Metropolitan University.
Lukasz has since set up a workshop and studio in Southampton, from where he is working on a number of his exciting new conceptual designs.
Rob Higgs was born in Leicester, in 1975 to a Danish mother and a Scottish father. He has a brother and two sisters.
Rob has always had a fascination with electrical and mechanical components and as a boy played with gears and old mercury tilt switches that he found in his Grandfather's workshop.
Rob felt unchallenged at school and with the encouragement of his teachers, he left and set up a business making snowboards with his friends. Rob made the machinery for building the boards and bindings.
In 1996, Rob received a phonecall from a friend talling him of a sunken fishing boat in Cornwall for £50, so he left Leicester and headed West. Rob refloated and completely rebuilt the fishing boat as a gaff rigged yacht, which has become his home, which he shares with his partner Jill. It was in the boatyard that Rob began building wild mechanical machines.
Cornwall provides a rich source of raw materials e.g. old cogs, wheels, chains and associated mechanical items found on old farmsteads, in boatyards and scrapheaps. Rob playfully welds together these components to create his eccentric mechanical devices.
Rob began to sell his work through The Cabaret Mechanical Theatre as well as working on collaborative commissions with Engineered Arts. His work has been exhibited widely across Europe.
In 2005 Rob was commissioned by The Eden Project in Cornwall to construct "The Nutcracker", a mechanical sculpture measuring eight feet square by 35 feet high and weighing over four tonnes. He has also created a collaborative chainreaction film for the Science Museum.