It’s a nine-degree winter’s morning when I visit George Harper’s studio. George is wrapped up to his neck in a scarf and woolly jumper when he invites me inside the Tide Design headquarters – a rugged warehouse in an industrial quarter of Melbourne’s south-eastern suburbs. It’s a warm welcome, even though we’re in a frosty, capacious workshop. George doesn’t ask to take my coat (he knows I’ll need it) and hands me a hot cuppa. Yes, it might be a wintry experience, but George’s warm and relaxed timber creations, which are piled around us, seem to take the chill off. I set my mug down on one of his Lyssna side tables and take a seat in his Yo dining chair. I instantly feel at home.
Tierra sideboard by George Harper.
All of this is a long way away from George’s past humdrum life as an office worker. The change came when he made a side table for his home – the first time he’d attempted such a task. George’s friends, who could see his potential as a designer, bought him some tools for his birthday. He enrolled in a six-week course, followed by a two-year diploma in furniture design after which he quit his office job, started Tide Design and began selling his early work at local markets.
More than five years on George has an impressive catalogue of furniture, including chairs, dining tables, side tables, sideboards, desks and storage units. His pieces use imported timbers – mostly North American hardwoods – which were chosen for their quality and stability. The timber also complements the furniture’s Scandinavian, 1950s look and works beautifully with the organic and charming feel of each piece. Most recently, George has been experimenting with adding bright colours to the La Paz stool and adding new pieces to the collection.
While fine tuning his skills, George has also faced a steep learning curve with the business side of things, and the roller-coaster of starting fresh in this industry. “The first trade show I did, the response was crazy, but because I was green and didn’t seize the opportunity, it came to very little. Same thing happened when I had my first piece published in a major magazine … But it doesn’t happen just like that.” With his time now spent in the workshop handcrafting each piece for weeks on end, George knows more than anyone that business and furniture making have a lot in common – they’re both a slow build.
