At the end of the worn floorboards, sitting atop a desk overlooking Angel Islington is the chicken at the heart of Ryan’s latest success. The ruffled South African chicken ornament gave the spark he needed for Inkuku, the recycle-themed chair that garnered much attention at this year’s Milan Design Week. Hidden Art caught up with Ryan Frank to find out about his workspace, his background, and how he found his recent trip to Milan as part of the Hidden Art display:

 

 

Not too long actually, I only started moving in at the beginning of this year. I officially took it out at the end of last year but I was just too

busy to actually go into it because I was doing other things. My

product is a reclaim/recycle type of thing; I like the concept of working from a reclaimed and recycled building. It has just been reused over the years and now it’s got a new function.

 

 

I studied natural design so it was kind of always there. I ended up drifting off into computer graphics and slowly realised that it came quite naturally, and that I just wanted to start designing. I was working at this Architect’s company, Allsops Design, and they had this really big material library.

 

It was easy to get excited. I found all these cool materials lying around, samples sent through from all the various manufacturers. I started getting ideas for putting these things together, the first product I made without even realising it were these poster boards, and then I just started freelancing. It was just a good time to work for a week or two in a month and do my own stuff in-between.

 

 

I studied in Cape Town, South Africa on a three-year course in product design and a fourth year in industrial design, which is the equivalent to another degree course at the university. In the fourth year there was an option to do an exchange program. I ended up being the only student to do the rest of the course in Holland, which was a great experience. Then I got a paid internship at a Dutch design company, before coming to London.

 

 

I don’t have much memory of that time; it was a crazy week. Its hard to break up the memories, but getting the first feedback on the product was great because the Inkuku chair was literally finished only a few days before it got taken to Milan. When I actually put it together at Milan it was the first time I had seen it totally 100% finished in a non-workshop environment. I think one of the highlights was getting people’s feedback.

 

From day one I started seeing good reactions. When you can make people smile, it’s great. Even though they couldn’t speak English and I couldn’t speak Italian, they could communicate that they appreciated the product. It was neutral ground, they had got loads of products to look at and they chose to look at mine, and it made them smile. The highlight is knowing all the work you put into the project has resulted in a person liking it. There were other bonuses like getting really good leads with manufacturers, networking opportunities and the parties. Big parties.

 

What happens in an exhibition like that is I find that I am overwhelmed by so many products that I find it hard to see products for what they are. There is an inundation of products. A few stood out, really clean, elegant ideas.

 

One chair that was laser cut and laminated together, from plywood and other materials. I don’t know what it’s called and I don’t know who designed it but I do remember it stood out to me.

 

And I’ve got a lot of photographs too. Actually, I don’t. My camera broke, so all that was working was the video recorder. So I’ve got all these mini film clips of what was on display. I can’t get any print resolution images, but it was quite an interesting way of capturing the exhibition.

 

 

Just based on emails coming through asking for press images, it was a good response. The actual arms, made from plastic bags, were touched so much that by the end of the show you could see where the colour was rubbing off. The fact that people wanted to touch it showed that there was a good curiosity response.

 

Before the show I was in my studio with Sainsbury’s bags all over the floor and I was just going, “What am I doing? What am I making here?” I felt a bit like I had lost the plot. Once it all came together it was great. From a manufacturing point of view it’s a unique product because it’s not really the kind of thing you can mass-produce – it was never designed for that.

 

The craft originated in South African townships, with the plastic chicken. I’m in contact with the guy who discovered the inventor. It was a black guy in the township selling it in the street, and this white guy approached him and they started a company together and now they export to all of Europe, the East, America and they make other things too; plastic pigs and chickens and bowls and all sorts.

 

He got in contact with me, and we are looking at funding opportunities through Innovative Routes to Market, which will potentially find us funding us to get it out there. He’s got a work cooperative of fifteen people; he’s willing to collaborate with me. So it was good. The plan is to get them to work on the plastic wrapping components, and have the structure of the chair looked after by Edra, who would also look after promotion and distribution.

 

 

Through the networking events and Hidden Art’s involvement in the big exhibitions, I really feel I have been helped a lot. What is most obvious to me is that I have learned a lot quite quickly. I wouldn’t be at this point now with out being a member of Hidden Art.