Love it, keep it
Home » Magazine » Good, issue 2 » The goods » Love it, keep itIf you love something, says furniture designer Tim Wigmore, it becomes more valuable and you will keep it for longer. He talks to Kris Herbert about the link between interaction and sustainability
Our lives are full of stuff. We have things we love, things we need, and things we want. Some of us have more stuff than others but over a lifetime, our choices as consumers can add up to a powerful statement about ourselves. Tim Wigmore is fascinated by how people interact with their possessions.
After researching the relationships between people and their things, the Taranaki-based furniture designer has come to the conclusion that interaction is linked to sustainability. If you have some reason to love something, he says, it becomes more valuable and you will keep it for longer.
These ideas of interaction and longevity help Tim face the contradiction many designers are beginning to contend with: he’s both a producer of consumer goods, and a person who is concerned about consumerism.
Tim’s current work explores different materials, including harakeke, paper, starch, hemp, eco-resins and various binders. This hands-on exploratory research forms part of a Creative New Zealand-funded project to develop a prototype furniture piece using these materials
“It’s something that everyone who produces stuff struggles with. What I try to do is design high-quality stuff that will last. Everyone wants to create a design classic but I strive for creating stuff that’s got a lot of value—not just in terms of aesthetics but also materials and quality.”
Good design and sustainable design are one and the same, he says. Though he prefers the phrases ‘responsible design’ or ‘conscious design’, his definition is simple: “It’s taking responsibility for your designs and for your actions.”
That means thinking about whole life cycle of the 
product—who uses it and why, how it’s made and what happens at the end of its life.
“Most high-end consumer goods don’t have a very long lifespan. Conscious design tries to buck that trend, to create products with a long lifespan or minimal impact on environment. You have to think about why you’re producing something, how you’re producing it and who the market is.”
Two-and-a-half years ago, Tim and his partner Rebecca Asquith moved to Rebecca’s native Taranaki, where they recently bought an old corner dairy in the tiny town of Okato (population: 500). In Wellington, the couple had a large house and a small workshop; they vowed to reverse the ratio in Taranaki. The corner dairy houses an office, large workshop and small retail shop. Tim and Rebecca live out the back in a caravan.
Okato may be small, but Tim says the sustainable ethos of the community has inspired him.
Rollup uses a continuous tambour door to display and conceal objects. Each of Tim’s works contains a ‘heart’; in this one, the central shelf reveals a culm of natural bamboo in one of the storage compartments
“There’s community tree-planting events and lots of stuff happening. There is a real buzz of sustainability and being a small town you can become really involved across a broad number of things.
“Taranaki’s a bit of a hot spot because there’s so much intensive dairying and a drawing for oil but also so much pristine nature.”
Tim is quietly optimistic about the future of the environment. It would be terrible not to be, he says. And though the statements his designs make about sustainability are subtle, he feels they are still part of the story.
“There’s a danger that you can shove sustainability down people’s throats. My work is about good design and part of good design is sustainability—but it’s mainly about good design.”
Back in the saddle
The Giddyup Rocking Stool is the product of Tim’s recent obsession with rocking furniture, swiss balls and old leather.
Using saddles re-purposed from the local pony club (he 
likes to imagine them galloping down the beach or trekking through the bush), Tim developed a simple rocking stool.
The Giddyup Rocking Stool
“I wanted to combine the history of the saddle with the idea of ‘active’ sitting,” similar to the motion of the swiss ball he sits on while at his computer. The idea is to create a “fun sitting experience”, encouraging constant motion and interaction from its user.
Like all his products, the Giddyup rocking horse has been designed to be easily repaired rather than replaced. The citrus oil finish means scratches can be spot sanded and re-oiled.
“It does require maintenance but I think that adds to the bond you have with the piece,” Tim says. “It’s kind of nice that the responsibility is shared a bit. I hope that owners will respect the work and treat it well and, hopefully, in three generations’ time, people will still be using that piece of furniture.”
