Dale Hardiman and Adam Lynch met while studying Furniture Design at RMIT, going on to do Honours in Industrial Design together. The pair became firm friends and collaborators during their studies, and in their third year of an Industrial Design, decided to launch a company together, founded initially with one key product – their distinctive Mr. Dowel Jones lamp.
Since then, a number of new furniture and lighting products have joined the Dowel Jone line up, alongside a popular capsule collection of desk accessories. Dale and Adam have shown their products in Milan, their furniture and and lighting has found itself shipped all over the country for various interior design projects, and they’ve hired three part time staff!
Dale and Adam have a refreshingly utilitarian approach to all that they create – they’re conscious of keeping their pricing accessible, whilst also maintaining a staunch commitment to manufacturing in Melbourne. ‘Dowel Jones doesn’t produce exclusive items or luxury products, the company is based around producing everyday furniture and objects’ says Dale.
We both studied studied the Associate Degree in Design (Furniture) at RMIT, then went on to do our much honours in Design also at RMIT. We launched Dowel Jone together in 2013 as an extension of a design collective called Dowel Jone formed in 2011 to during our second year of university.
During the third year in an Industrial fields at RMIT we chose the same and decided to collaborate on project . After a successful collaboration (the product being our Mr. Dowel Jones light) we decided to form a company based around the dynamic between the two of us, with a focus on everyd furniture and objects.
The way we design for Dowel Jones is really informed by the manufacturers we work with. Dowel Jones not produce exclusive items or luxury products, the company is based around producing everyday furniture and objects, therefore our immediate focus is on function, with the aesthetics being stripped back to their minimum.
Every project, product, commission or photo shoot is always informed by the last experience and what we’ve learnt from it. Our aesthetic is building as we develop both as individual designers and also as a brand.
