When Matan Fadida moved from his hometown of Auckland to London in 2022, he knew it was a 'big leap' – but it was also an opportunity. The industrial designer, now 27, had been making furniture in his parents’ garage since graduating from a product design degree, exploring his design language and slowly building up commissions. In London, he had to start again – but he also had access to a thriving design community. 'The design scene isn’t very strong in Auckland,' he says. In the UK capital, he was close to the kind of furniture designers he admired: Max Lamb, Faye Toogood and Martino Gamper.
Matan Fadida: honest materials and industrial minimalism
Since moving to London, Fadida has been doing work for Gamper’s studio, as well as continuing his own practice from HQI, an affordable space for artists and creatives in an old BBC building in White City. The designer has perhaps garnered the most attention to date for his 'Puffer Cushion' – imagine your favourite puffer jacket in cushion form, all soft curves and punchy colours – which is now stocked in trendy lifestyle shop Earl of East.
But Fadida also works a lot with metal, including sand-casted aluminium. He used the technique for a recent chair that appears more as an intriguing sculpture than a practical seat, existing in the 'grey area between art and design', he says. After crafting it out of foam, he sent the work to a London foundry to be sand-casted in aluminium. A similar process was undertaken for chunky candle holders resembling piles of roughly hewn rocks, which were created in collaboration with Atelier100, an initiative supporting London-based makers working with locally sourced materials.
Fadida is drawn to what he describes as 'very honest materials', interpreting these through objects that speak to a crafted expression of industrial minimalism. A sleek, geometric armchair in orange, powder-coated steel recalls the work of Le Corbusier. Curved, pebble-like cups and dishes in smooth stone are printed with industrial-looking text. What appears as a sketchily hand-drawn coat hanger takes unexpected form in bright purple laser-cut, powder-coated steel.
For London Design Festival 2023, he participated in The Localist Cafe in Shoreditch – where Six Dots Design brought together the work of emerging makers using local materials. There, Fadida exhibited his 'Puffer Ottoman' – using the same aesthetic language as his 'Puffer Cushion' – that resembles an igloo in puffy brown leather.
There is a real earnestness to Fadida; on his website’s blog, one entry simply reads: 'Use heartbreak as a tool. Be better.' He talks about creating work that is 'genuine and authentic to who I am.' One 'obsession' in his practice, he explains, is the idea of safety, protection and 'feeling secure.' Such concepts underlie 'Puffer Cushion' and the new 'Puffer Vest', two comforting items spanning furnishings and fashion that are intended for the home. 'Home should be our safe haven,' Fadida says.
When Fadida relocated to the UK last year, inevitably that sense of security was disrupted, and for a while he wondered whether he did the right thing. A blog post written last summer talks of his loneliness and homesickness. Looking back, did he make the right choice in moving? '100%,' he says confidently. He now wants to stay in London for a lot longer than he planned. 'I didn’t have a chance to be part of a [design] community in New Zealand,' he says. 'London gives me the opportunity to do that.'
