Simple thumbnail sketches, elicited in black ballpoint pen, are how every one of Liqui Group’s products are first conceived. “I was taught to do it this way at university, as I’m a bit of a perfectionist and found myself rubbing stuff out when I did it in pencil, which didn’t allow for happy mistakes,” explains Cameron Fry, founder and creative director of the sustainable furniture, lighting, and interior design studio with offices in London and Brighton, England, as well as Los Angeles.
Reared in a small town on the south coast of England, Fry knew which career path he wanted to take early on. His father was an artist and graphic designer, and Fry, who is “massively dyslexic,” as he puts it, did especially well in art and design classes. After focusing on jewelry in the University of Brighton’s 3D design and craft program, a frustrating endeavor that ultimately steered him toward furniture, he established Liqui Group in 2007, growing it into a multidisciplinary practice that also encompasses a branding arm, Crate47. The firms’s recent West Coast foray now allows for U.S. manufacturing capabilities.
The Georgie collection of the Memphis Group-inspired coffee tables features a solid oak top with a raised edge
Fry is drawn to natural, tactile materials, fashioning them into the likes of the walnut-finished Cyril sideboard, part of a new midcentury-informed range of office furniture, or the Memphis Group-inspired Georgie collection of oak tables. Next up: a steel chair with CNC-cut foam cushions, Liqui Group’s first-ever outdoor piece.
But much of Fry’s time these days is devoted to commercial interiors, particularly for global coffee shops, including multiple outlets of Saudi Arabia café and roastery Brew92 and Kaafi in The Hague, Netherlands. Here, one of the standouts is Liqui Group’s wide-armed Hove Club Chair. “Designing a product feels like designing a personality. It’s almost like creating a character whereas an interior is more about designing an experience,” says Fry. “They both aim to evoke an emotional response from anyone looking at them.”
Along with interiors, which include large pieces by French contemporary artist Zepha, Liqui Group created furniture and lighting for Brew92’s Imam University outpost in Riyadh, its third for the brand
Photos courtesy of Liqui Group and Crate47
This article originally appeared in HD’s 2020 Product Marketplace issue.
