Mr Dale Hardiman: Broadsheet Darling

Design - by Open Journal

Dale Hardiman is a very busy man. Co-founder of furniture and objects brand Dowel Jones, representing and commissioning platform 1-OK CLUB and design collective LAB DE STU, Hardiman matches his design acumen with entrepreneurial talent. We asked him a few questions about how he is defining the aesthetic of Melbourne’s hospitality culture and how he fits it all in.

What was the “let’s go for it moment” with Dowel Jones?
Our let’s go for it moment was more or less a conversation we had in 2014 around what we were going to do once we graduated from university – we realised there weren’t many design jobs focusing on specifically what we wanted to be doing, so we decided to try it ourselves. We’d been running LAB DE STU for the previous 2 years so we had a general idea of what it would involve. We first began Dowel Jones based on a product collaboration myself and Adam Lynch produced for a 3rd year design elective in Industrial Design, the collaboration was successful and we began selling volume of the product so we saw that as a sign to keep working together!

Dale Hardiman © Lee Grant / Molonglo Group, 2015

How would you describe the style of Dowel Jones?
I wouldn’t say we are directly inspired by any particular aesthetic or style, our products are really informed by the manufacturing capabilities of the companies we work with. As we manufacture our products within Australia, we work incredibly close with those manufacturers to ensure our products come in at a price-point that suits what we’re trying to do with the brand. If creativity took control, our products would most likely be much more expensive then they are now. Most designs will start with either an understanding of a process and a general idea of how much it would cost, or we would seek out manufacturers of processes and work with them directly. If we had to describe the style, it most likely would be based on pairing back products to their bare essentials.

Dowel Jones, Hurdle Family, image: Cricket Inc

Dowel Jones was the aesthetic of choice for the Broadsheet restaurant, where were you first stocked and how has the word of mouth grown?
We’d worked with Alex Lake the architect previously, so Broadsheet and Alex choosing product that is locally designed and manufactured seemed to be a perfect fit. The use of the Hurdle Family in the Broadsheet restaurant was the first time that range had been used to fit out an entire space as we’d only just begun producing it. We’ve luckily been approached for several hospitality projects since Broadsheet Restaurant and I think it was a great place for people to begin getting to know the brand as a locally designed, locally manufactured company.

Tell us about the manufacturing process, where do you source materials and how are your products made?
Our products are manufactured in Australia, we currently reside in a property thats currently being developed and set to be demolished in 2016 which is where everything is assembled. Our manufacturers are all around Melbourne, in Templestowe, Dandenong, Lilydale. The Hurdle Family range which we released this year was designed around a specific set of requirements and price points, so the processes involved in the production came from that. We actually first begun producing the first few pieces of the Hurdle Family for an outdoor area for a university and design market in late 2014 ourselves from our old studio in Thomastown which really informed the shift from self-production to outsourced mass-production.

Dowel Jones, Hurdle Family, image: Cricket Inc

Between LAB DE STU, Dowel Jones and 1-OK CLUB you have your finger in many pies, how do you find balance in your life?
I think the reason they all work together is because they all have a very strong objective, and that objective is similar across all projects. The only reason all 3 work is because of one another!

You’ve boldly set up a number of businesses yourself, did you always imagine you’d be an entrepreneur? How important is working for yourself versus ‘doing your time’ in others’ businesses?
Setting up LAB DE STU in 2012 we never assumed it’d grow to be what it is today, it was really just a group of friends saying ‘hey lets work together instead of being competition’. I wouldn’t really use the word entrepreneur to define the various projects, more that I’m interested in various ways of working and it just so happens that they need to be businesses! Working for others has always been a topic of conversation amongst myself and the other designers involved in the various projects, instead of learning on someone else’s time how to run a business, we’ve learnt the hard way on our time. I’m not sure I could move into a position being employed by another business full-time anymore, running several businesses means I have the flexibility to work on whichever one when it’s needed.