Sculptural shapes and vibrant colours are the standout trademark of young Australian company FEARON’s aluminium furniture pieces – all of which are designed and handcrafted by brothers Jack and Mark Fearon
Photography by Phillip Huynh
Words by Sonia Zhuravlyova
‘I really like to go quite colourful,’ says Jack Fearon, who runs Australian design and fabrication company FEARON with his brother Mark. ‘We grew up in a house that was all the “wrong” colours. Everything was mismatched. One room was green and then the next room was yellow, and the next was blue,’ says Jack, explaining his approach to their eye-popping and playful pieces.
Since 2019, the Fearon brothers have been handcrafting everything from benches and stools to drawers and mirrors in their workshop on Australia’s Gold Coast, working exclusively in aluminium. Their furniture merrily blurs the lines of art with function but luckily, the Fearon brothers place great value on utility so their pieces, which they are always happy to customise, serve their owners well.
Their path to a successful design business was anything but linear: Jack, a plumber by trade, first opened a gallery with a friend to tap into the Gold Coast’s creative community. From there, the gallery merged into a clothing and design company. He then worked with his brother Mark, a boilermaker, as industrial fabricators making everything from metal staircases and doors to large-scale water trucks – until they started to play around with offcuts to create their first piece, a shapely, sculpture-like stool that they named the Chub.
Photography by Phillip Huynh
Their trade backgrounds mean that they know their metals – and working with aluminium was a considered choice. It’s lighter than stainless steel so it’s easier to sculpt and transport and it is also entirely recyclable. What’s more, their powder-coated pieces can withstand the saltiness of the coastal air and are almost entirely rustproof.
‘The dream is that they last long enough to become antiques – that’s why we make them to be mellow enough that even in these bright colours they can fit into lots of different interiors,’ explains Jack. ‘With it all being made from aluminium, we try to make our products have a soft and warm feel, like ceramics,’ adds Mark. ‘Metal can sometimes come off as aggressive and cold, but we’d like to think our colours bring a brighter mood into people’s homes.’
Although the brothers are increasingly busy with multiple weekly orders, they prefer to keep things in the family. ‘Mark does all the welding because he’s better and quicker than I am,’ says Jack. ‘And I do the sanding and grinding and admin. But we also swap and change to keep it fresh.’
Photography by Phillip Huynh
Not having a design education is a mixed blessing, they say. Their approach is largely instinctive as they had to learn the ins and outs of furniture design on the job, but making everything themselves – a rarity these days – stands them in good stead. They have the freedom and the skills to play around with proportions and shapes until a piece looks and feels just right.
‘We talk about different designs most mornings and scribble them onto offcuts,’ says Mark. ‘When we have free time, we’ll make a physical rough version. Most of the time, they don’t turn out how we would like, but parts of the design might be incorporated into something else in the future.’
The brothers’ use of cheery colours and cheeky shapes nods to pop art and even the Memphis Group, which, on its inception in the early 1980s, shook the design world with a bold look that merged popular culture, advertising aesthetics and postmodernism.
Never taking themselves too seriously, they cite the creative ethos of fellow artist and object designer Steven John Clark, who founded Melbourne-based studio denHolm, as inspiration. ‘Their work is fun, and it looks like they have fun while doing it,’ says Jack. The same can be said of the Fearon brothers themselves.
Get a curated collection of design and architecture news in your inbox by signing up to our ICON Weekly newsletter
