Fred calls himself a furniture artist rather than a craftsman, although craftsmanship plays an important role in the creation of his pieces. He has redefined contemporary furniture with a combination of maths, playfulness, engineering and colour.
Fred was a student in Birmingham and at the Royal College of Arts. His fascination with all kinds of materials and his need to work things through with his hands, and through drawing, became central to his work. However, in the 1980s, Fred worked as a guinea-pig designer helping to formulate programming for 3D design computer modelling.
His work has been acquired for permanent collections including the V&A and in 2010 he was artist-in-residence for the House of Lords. His commissions and public work are truly impressive and highly collectable. Fred lectures regularly to art students including Hereford College of Arts.
Fred says,
“We live in an increasingly fast and complex world where time is money and lavish hand skills seem inappropriate. Consequently there’s a tendency to design avoiding craft altogether; so now, one of my hidden agendas is to help save these direct ‘eye to hand’ skills through demonstrating some contemporary uses for them”
