Mixing ancient aesthetics with new methods

Nick Ross was always drawing and building things as a child. But the moment he became truly passionate about design and art was when he started skateboarding. “For me it was a very pure performance art, and the people involved in that scene would often discuss art and its importance in their sport,” he remembers. In 2011 the Scottish designer applied to art school in Stockholm (he’s half Swedish), where he decided to stay and open his own studio. He won several international awards, and has been exhibiting all over Europe ever since. He has always been interested in history, and how our interpretation of the past changes over time. “In my process I am often inspired by ancient aesthetics or production techniques,” he says. "Mixing these with new knowledge in a different context is what I feel gives the work a certain appeal. I like the idea of working with intangible things such as our understanding of old cultures and making them more tangible in some way.”

Craftsmanship for me is the understanding of materials and how they can best be worked. The ability to create work which has a certain purity to it is in my eyes the hardest thing to achieve. Where every intervention into the material is in focus, where every decision of the maker can be seen.

I am very interested in objects where the materiality is in focus. In the creation of these objects the maker is in many cases left exposed, where every mark is visible and mistakes cannot be covered up with additional decoration or forms that trick the eye. This is the honesty and purity I love within craft.

I work with craftspeople in all of my projects that I don't build myself. Or rather I see all my collaborators as craftspeople. The welder, the stonemason and plasterer are all experts at their crafts, and I take great pleasure in highlighting their skills in my work even if sometimes these people are not seen as craftspeople.

It's impossible to put this into words really. You can see and feel it when in its presence.