The Symphony of Design - Ross Thompson Furniture

Interview Feature

Geelong, VIC, Australia

Every great piece of handcrafted furniture tells a story. Every dovetail, corner, edge and finish represents a narrative of dedication, passion and patience. Ross Thompson pours his entire life’s journey into every custom piece that he creates.

Ross draws upon the lessons learnt from his travels, his education and the human condition to create custom pieces that exude the intangible timeless quality that only handcrafted furniture can generate. If furniture design is like composing a classical piece of music then Ross surely is the conductor. This is his story, his journey, his symphony of design.

Today you will find Ross in a shared space in rural Geelong working on custom pieces of furniture as well as his own portfolio of work with the ever-present soundtrack of woodworking in the background. His journey to this point in his life began to develop from a very young age when he registered for a pre-apprenticeship VET course during school hours. “I remember every Tuesday afternoon I took the school bus to the course. I had my overalls in my bag to get changed into, but never dared change at school”, says Ross. The proceeding formative teenage years taught him what it meant to work hard. His appreciation for furniture making was developed in the workshops of rural Victoria, working long hours for little pay, refining his craft in any way he could. This regimented working environment taught him the value of dedication but it was ultimately his proceeding travels around the globe that taught him valuable lessons about passion and design.

Travel informs a large part of Ross Thompson’s design inspiration. His time spent backpacking across American and Europe instilled in him a strong appreciation for mid -century modern, Bauhaus, Japanese and minimalist design. But it is music that ultimately defines his ideas and process. “As with most, music is a deep well of everything that I treasure. I can see the relation between furniture design and music with such clarity, both are essentially a study of harmony and rhythm. A piece of furniture can contain its own visual rhythm, repetition in pattern or use of space and emptiness; sections of dissonance or irregularity in comparison to the harmony between materials or craftsmanship”.

Ross’s journey back to designing furniture has taken place in a whirlwind of activity over the past two years. After deciding that a career in music was no longer what he craved he moved to Geelong, and it was here, within the confines of a small backyard shed, that Ross Thompson Furniture was born. “A business is about relationships – with yourself, the people nearest to you who sacrifice nearly as much as you to help you succeed, and of course your clients. You can’t do it on your own”, he says.

Today, Ross has an impressive portfolio of commissioned and personal pieces to his name. Every item in his collection represents his journey from a self-conscious teenager, afraid to put on his overalls in front of his class mates, to one of Victoria’s most up and-coming designers, committed to ensuring that the beauty of handcrafted furniture will not be lost on a generation of millennials. Each piece of Ross Thompson Furniture is another movement in the symphony that is his design journey. But he is committed to continuing to learn as this symphony is far from finished – Ross Thompson’s journey is only just beginning.

To get in touch with Ross about commission furniture please contact him here.