No Place for Chaos – James Howe’s Affinity for Order and Precision

“Encountering a piece of beautiful design can be a powerful thing,” says furniture designer James Howe. This sentiment stems from his own experience with design – the first time he laid eyes on a piece of Børge Mogensen furniture remains a career and life defining moment – yet his motivations and output as a designer run deeper than aesthetics. Though he is the first to admit that he is not methodical by nature, James is innately drawn to order and precision, using his vocation as a designer to craft the calm he craves into existence.

For a creative whose work expresses a distinct level of resolve and refinement, James’s arc from a self-confessed unmotivated student to furniture designer was surprisingly choppy. “When I was younger, I had no ambition – I was good with words, but I generally just struggled with giving a damn,” James reflects. Growing up in Adelaide, home was often chaotic and high school was challenging; he admits to burning his school report card one afternoon in his backyard after receiving a fresh set of unsatisfactory results. As he reflects, this act of rebellion was largely fuelled by a sense of personal frustration; whilst he acted out at school, he ultimately wanted to do better.

As James says, “I like to be around order – even though I don’t naturally produce it myself, I like to have it around me.” He adds, “maybe because of the way I’m wired and because of the childhood I had, seeing Børge Mogensen’s work made me feel like, ‘oh man, I can breathe’.”

Throughout his childhood, he found joy visiting his relatives’ property in Tarlee in rural South Australia. Here, he and his cousin would run amok – exploring, making things and riding motorised go karts. James also vividly recalls the hours spent listening to The Beach Boys whilst thumbing through his uncle’s extensive collection of National Geographic magazines. Mostly though, James remembers the house itself; designed and built by his uncle and grandfather, the meticulous floor plan and well-put-together spaces were instrumental in his formative interest in how things were planned and made. “My grandpa and uncle both had real, aesthetic sensibilities – the house was made from stone and old timber and was always really beautifully decorated,” James says, adding that he now recognises how poignant these seemingly insignificant observations were.

James eventually studied journalism in Adelaide and, later, pursued a career as a freelance journalist in England whilst his partner, now wife, attended Oxford University on a Rhodes Scholarship. It was not until they returned to Australia – two children in tow and a third on the way – that James discovered the work of midcentury Danish designer Børge Mogensen. He recalls being immediately captivated by the sense of lucidity and precision that defined Mogensen’s creative expression.

“A lot of my work is very material driven, so it’s important to me how the materials are presented; however, I’m thinking about how I can push my work in a slightly more uncomfortable direction,” James shares.

This discovery represented a moment of intense clarity; as James says, “I like to be around order – even though I don’t naturally produce it myself, I like to have it around me.” He adds, “maybe because of the way I’m wired and because of the childhood I had, seeing Børge’s work made me feel like, ‘oh man, I can breathe’.” Whilst he had no experience in designing or making furniture, he was enamoured. “I thought to myself, ‘I just need to investigate this – I need to be around it somehow and create this for other people’.”

Inspired by Mogensen’s approach to materiality and form, James designed a collection of furniture for his daughter’s nursery that incorporated handwoven Danish cord – a feature that has since become synonymous with James’s work, most notably in his Rushcutters Bench and J7 Day Bed. One of these early pieces of nursery furniture won an international design award, consequently securing him an associateship at Adelaide’s esteemed creative institution JamFactory, where he crafted the foundations of his now growing collection.

Today, he designs from his own studio space in Adelaide and outsources most of his manufacturing. Whilst his work has certainly evolved, many parallels can still be drawn between his and Mogensen’s approaches – the simple, clean lines and the refined yet tactile materials that, when combined, propose a graceful sequence of elements and details. Balance and proportion – two tenets central to Danish modernism – are also prevalent in James’s work, no doubt informed by his long-held desire to incite tranquillity and ease through design.

As James says, his work will always be minimal with a distinct focus on materiality – although forging new ground interests him, too. “A lot of my work is very material driven, so it’s important to me how the materials are presented; however, I’m thinking about how I can push my work in a slightly more uncomfortable direction.” Heavy gloss finishes and ornamentation could well find their way into James’s portfolio, yet as extensions of his mind’s eye, order and precision will be the unquestionable mainstays.