Thom Fougere Studio

Thom Fougere was born in 1987 which I would have never guessed when seeing all the furnitures and objects he designed AND realized already. Thom Fougere studied architecture at the University of Manitoba before working in furniture and product design. In 2011, after his studies in Architecture, he was appointed Creative Director of Canadian furniture design house EQ3 at the age of 24. There he initiated a rebranding of the company including a transformation of the product line, graphic design, photography, interiors and the architectural design of stores. He continues to investigate how we live and interact with objects in our homes, creating pieces that are both subtle and archetypal in form.

Thom Fougere Studio was founded in the fall of 2015 in Winnipeg, Canada. The studio works within various fields of art and design, but with a focus on furniture and products for the home. All projects are characterized by careful research into materiality, history, aesthetics, and functionality. According to the designer Thom Fougere, the pieces in his 2016 collection reference the Canadian landscape and the country’s cultural influences, as well as using local materials such as stone quarried in Manitoba.

Saddle Chair
The Saddle Chair is a new typology of chair for the home. The two saddle leather backs offer multiple methods of sitting and interacting with the chair; the lounge seating position with leg rest allows for a relaxing reclined seat, while the adjacent side allows for a casual seating position similar to that of a typical easy chair.

The sculptural form and thin profile are the result of fusing a light steel structure with a vegetable tanned saddle leather. The seat, a down filled and upholstered leather cushion, is deep enough to find comfort between the two adjoined back rests. Over time the leather will patina, leaving traces of preferred lounging and seating positions, highlighting the habitual act of sitting.

Bar Cart
The Bar Cart was designed to function as a serving cart and a permanent fixture in a home as a mobile side table. The three-legged solid ash structure and handle is maneuverable on its two hind wheels. The top tray can be removed from the cart’s structure and be used as a portable serving tray. The tray’s top leather surface makes for a soft, yet resilient surface to store serving ware.

Tambour Collection
The collection is reminiscent of traditional roll-top desks made popular in the 19th century- a descendant in function with its capacity to purposely conceal and reveal clutter. 

The Tambour Collection is made up of two storage and display units for the home. Consisting of a flexible and interactive plane of wood slats that can be guided along a track around the perimeter of the unit. This horizontal application used on the Tambour end table and media storage unit allows for numerous positions and forms of interaction – revealing and concealing the contents as desired.

Umbrella Stand
The Umbrella Stand is caught between typologies, existing as a strictly utilitarian product and a sculptural object for the home. An elegant place to store your umbrella, however when not in use, the Umbrella Stand functions as an item of jewelry for a room. Made of marble and copper plated steel, the Umbrella Stand can accommodate all forms of umbrellas and other objects worthy of storing. The marble base is sealed to prevent degradation over time from water-drenched umbrellas.

Rattan Bench
The Rattan Bench is scaled to function as both a coffee table and a bench for sitting. The woven rattan structure of the bench generates a dynamic surface with which to interact. The form of the underlying wood structure of the bench was dictated by the woven pattern of the binder cane. The slender oak frame of the bench disrupts the rattan as little as possible, while retaining its structural integrity.

Wood Plate
The wood plate can be used as a rectangular plate, serving tray, or a place to rest hot vessels in a dining setting. The feet along the underside of the plate elevate the surface slightly above a table surface.

Steel Wood Table
The Steel Wood Table was inspired by the notion of exposing and objectifying the day to day clutter that accumulates in living spaces. Featuring two functional exposed surfaces, the Steel Wood Table encourages a flexible relationship to storing objects. The planar top allows for a flexible space where the secondary space – coupled between two planes of solid wood – allows for a more stable storage area that is left open, celebrating its contents.