Image above, Make Do stool granite. All images courtesy Trent Jansen.  

Australian designer Trent Jansen has announced his latest furniture collection ‘Make Do’. Produced in collaboration with Urban Art Projects, the series is part of UAP’s permanent outdoor furniture collection.

The collection is the culmination of Trent’s two-year Masters Art and Design course at the University of New South Wales, researching on different aspects of the Australian identity. ‘Make Do’ is the first in a series of new furniture collections that will be realised and put into production.

‘Make Do’ is influenced by the make do attitude that was born on the Australian frontier during the 19th century. During an early period of Australian settlement, amenities of all kinds were non-existent in the bush. Men and women were forced to improvise in order to survive; to make do.

The furniture of early frontier Australians was made by hand, using available materials and the simplest of bush carpentry techniques. They had little concern for neatness or appropriate methods. The crudeness of the furniture produced then, is a reflection of the harsh and difficult lives of those who made it.

The Make Do Bench and seat are adapted from simple furniture-making techniques. The bench is a log cradled in a series of wedges, providing the humblest seating surface. Each component of the bench is available in a large range of materials and finishes. Made from Australian native timbers, sandstone, marble, granite, brass, or mild steel, it is available in any colour within the Dulux powder coat palette.

Jansen grew up in Kiama on South East Coast of Australia, and received education from the College of Fine Arts at the university of New South Wales and the Industrial Design School of the University of Alberta in Canada. His design studio focuses on creating honest and poetic sustainable design. The underlying goal is for the design of Jansen’s furniture is to forge lifelong companionships with their owners instead of being merely disposable objects.

Trent has featured in Phaidon Press’s list of the world’s 100 most interesting product designers in 2007, as well as Sydney’s list of the 100 most influential people of 2010. In 2011, he won a coveted Space+Edra Design Residency with Massimo Morozzi in Italy.

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