Creativity Over Consumption – Justin Hutchinson of Kett

A desire to be “creative rather than consumptive” led Justin Hutchinson to his vocation as a designer. As he says, “what brought me to designing was a love of visual problem solving. Rather than consuming the object, you create the object. It’s a different sort of sensibility.” This broad-minded approach has seen Justin create work for some of Australia’s leading architecture firms and furniture manufacturers, launch Urban Commons – a socially and environmentally focused furniture company, and, most recently, champion homegrown design as the Design Director of Australian furniture brand Kett.

Justin’s affinity for design has long been ingrained in his psyche; he recalls his very first creative inklings emerging at the age of 11, fuelled by an obsession with shoes. This manifested in him designing a pair of runners “with inbuilt fluid dynamics. I called them Nike Fluid!” he says. While his chosen medium may have shifted from fashion to furniture, Justin’s natural aptitudes as a designer have only intensified in the years since.

Across its indoor and outdoor collections, Kett champions honest materials and exceptional craft, taking clear inspiration from Australia’s natural landscapes and cosmopolitan hubs.

After immigrating from Johannesburg to Australia in the mid-1980s with his family – a move prompted by political unrest in South Africa – Justin studied Industrial Design at Swinburne University and Advanced Communication at RMIT. Some early commissions and conceptual work for Melbourne-based architecture firms set the proverbial wheels in motion and projects for the likes of Tait and Moth Design prompted the emerging designer to establish his own studio, Justin Hutchinson Design, and later, Urban Commons.

It was these diverse creative pursuits that caught the eyes of Cosh Living Directors Colin Kupke and Shane Sinnott in 2016. The pair, who were preparing to launch Kett – a new brand with a focus on Australian designed and made pieces – were searching for a Design Director. As Justin explains, “my work in the public realm with Urban Commons and commissions for Tait had Shane and Colin tapping on my shoulder.” It has proved to be an apt partnership; with Justin at the helm, Kett has cemented itself as an industry mainstay. Across its indoor and outdoor collections, Kett champions honest materials and exceptional craft, taking clear inspiration from Australia’s natural landscapes and cosmopolitan hubs. While still in its early years, the brand has resonated with a local audience, displaying a quintessentially Australian attitude of ease and amiability through pieces crafted with longevity front of mind.

Each day is informed by the collections that we’re working to and about balancing many, many ideas. It’s always nice to be able to flow from one project to the next,” Justin offers.

Today, Justin works with a team of designers from Kett’s studio in Melbourne’s northside suburb of Brunswick. His role as Design Director sees him collaborate with craftspeople from Australia, Italy and Indonesia, touching every facet of the design process. “Each day is informed by the collections that we’re working to and about balancing many, many ideas. It’s always nice to be able to flow from one project to the next,” he offers. More specifically, Justin cites a “reductionist approach” as central to his methods. There is sketching, paring back and a process of “trying to build out the clarity in the piece,” he says, adding that while this is sometimes swift and other times lengthy, “reduction, honesty and truth to material” are unfailing.

This approach is entirely fitting for Kett, which is exclusively available at Cosh Living. The company strives to celebrate an Australian perspective through honest, high-quality materials and its continued work with skilled artisans is testament to this. As Justin says, “there’s a lot of smoke and mirrors when you look out there into the broader market of furniture. Certainly, with Kett, we’ve been able to build quality into everything that we do. It’s not just about paring back to a price point.” With this sentiment in mind, Justin cites Johanna – an occasional chair designed in 2017 with an inviting tub silhouette, clean lines and a plush seat – as a personal Kett favourite. “[At that time], we had many different ideas developing, but that was the one that just seemed to want to come to life,” he reflects. “It was a simple idea, but its execution was seamless, and it’s become a classic within the collections.”

As Justin says, “there’s a lot of smoke and mirrors when you look out there into the broader market of furniture. Certainly, with Kett, we’ve been able to build quality into everything that we do. It’s not just about paring back to a price point.”

It seems Justin finds his stride in the unknown, embracing the challenge of teasing out unexpected design solutions. And thankfully, his work with Kett provides ample opportunity to exercise this; each new piece demands intuition, persistence and patience. Evaluating his approach, he highlights the importance of the “early sketches,” saying “the initial idea is the hardest thing because it’s elusive – it’s about how you look at the challenge.” So how do those early sketches become, say, the Johanna Chair or the complex and highly functional Frame Living System? Through visual problem solving, of course.