Based in Leith and founded by designer James Stevens and editor Hugo Macdonald, BARD is a studio and gallery for Scottish craft and design

Here, the Bard founders share their design ethos and greatest influences.

How has your style evolved?

James: Since starting Bard, we’ve developed a better understanding of who makes the things we live with, how they are made and why. This means we can make informed choices, deeper than trends or aesthetics. When everything comes from something, somewhere or someone, and you know where and why that is, it feels personal. Hugo: We are quite anti-style in that respect. Age brings greater self-awareness and unfettered confidence for personal expression, no doubt. We feel more defiant as individuals. More whole, more liberated.

Who or what are your biggest influences?

H: We’ve been fortunate to work for and alongside some pioneering cultural figures who continue to inspire and mentor us: furniture designer Ilse Crawford, Maria Speake of Retrouvius, Monocle founder Tyler Brûlé, graphic designer Frith Kerr, creative director, Tony Chambers, fashion designer Erdem Moralioglu. What do they share? Care. An uncompromising commitment to their own vision and a tireless belief in quality.

Who is your design hero?

J: The Immortals, of whom Charles Rennie Mackintosh and Margaret Macdonald take the spotlight. As a group, they looked to the past to make something for the present that felt like the future, and still does.

H: Derek Jarman and Banjo Beale. What Banjo does on those budgets in those timescales is nothing short of miraculous.

What’s your own home like?

H: A work in progress. It’s an early 18th-century tenement in Newhaven that lost its original interior when it was combined into one dwelling in the 1970s. James is in the process of refurbishing it, using only materials, objects and skills from Scotland, whether old or new.

J: It has been an exciting challenge that has taken us all over the country and islands, meeting hundreds of people in the process. We found our loo in a scrapyard on the Aberdeenshire coast. We cut down two Douglas firs on managed forestry in East Lothian to make a staircase. We collected earth pigment from beaches and railway sidings to make our own paints. The aim is to create a home that is truly of and from Scotland.

What makes a home?

J: Being surrounded by things that have meaning to you. People think our job is all about trend or taste, but we are dedicated to helping people fall in love with things on their own terms. We help people make homes that are chosen, not specified, that reflect the people who live in them.

Tell us about an artist you love

H: Orcadian artist Brandon Logan. We hosted a solo show of his work in collaboration with the Ingleby Gallery during the Edinburgh Art Festival last summer.

J: Andrew Radford [of Timberyard] has recently started showing the artworks he has made with waste material for the past decade. He stains, dyes and polishes card using coffee, tea and wine. I love seeing colour come from materiality and process.

What should we be investing in right now?

J: Craft. The work of living people, particularly, such as the straw-back chairmaker Eve Eunson.

H: Investing in craft isn’t just quaint; the absence of a supply chain means it supports people and communities directly, and ensures skills and knowledge endure and evolve. The work of Gaada, the Shetland artist-led social enterprise, and Edinburgh’s Garvald deserve great investment.

Tell us about a recent discovery

H: Ceramicist LaKrista Morton, whose deft forms and elemental glazes are transporting.

J: We are very excited about the Birnam Hotel in Dunkeld, due to open soon, which Kim Grant and Eric Bremner are bringing back to life with great imagination and huge integrity.

What is Scotland’s greatest attribute?

J: As an Englishman, I’d say the Scots.

H: As a Scot, I’d say macaroni pies and Sharleen Spiteri.

Bard

Custom Lane

1 Customs Wharf

Edinburgh

EH6 6AL

t: 01312 100106

e: hello@bard-scotland.com

Visit the Bard website | Follow Bard on Instagram

The co-founder and CEO of Vinterior swapped a successful career in finance to set up her online marketplace for vintage furniture, falling in love with design in the process.

In the frame: Sandrine Zhang Ferron, co-founder and CEO of Vinterior