FEATURE
Six Dots Design
Type
Interview
Contact
Joseph Ellwood’s Six Dots Design has become one of our favorite studios to follow, not just for the work itself but for how he’s chosen to share it with the world. The furniture is playful, whimsical, and unapologetically expressive, a deliberate departure from the midcentury minimalism dominating design right now. What excites us is how Joe and his team draw inspiration from fashion, architecture, and art, applying that cross-disciplinary thinking to both their objects and their presentations, whether that’s a scrappy runway show or simply how they communicate their process.
The studio works primarily in laser-cut aluminium, a material Joe describes as both masculine and industrial but also soft, feminine, and tactile. Each piece is handmade in their East London workshop, with grind marks, scratches, and scuffs deliberately left visible to show the hands of the maker. The parts are laser cut and delivered, then Joe and his team prep, weld, cut, and fit everything together, a process that lets them produce affordable work while maintaining quality. What’s remarkable is how, despite working with industrial metal, the pieces feel handmade and homemade in the best sense, their wobbly forms and careful craft transforming aluminium into something warm and inviting that belongs in your home.
Joe famously toured his Contemporary Vanity collection on the roof of his VW Golf, driving pieces around London in what became an iconic moment for the studio. The studio has grown prolific over the past few years, consistently releasing new work while experimenting with how to share it, from international design fairs to more intimate presentations. Despite their reach, they still feel like real people making objects we’d love to have in our own home (and hopefully will).
Joe makes as many decisions as possible with materials in his hands rather than sketching, an intuitive process that results in pieces with what he calls “unspoken charm.” One of our favorites in contemporary furniture design right now.
Six Dots Design is a memorable name. What is the story behind it, and does it connect to your design philosophy or how you see the studio?
The name comes from my undergraduate days. I was working in a cafe one day and was about to submit a competition entry that I was not super pleased with. I looked down at one point and noticed a domino with one dot on one side and six on the other. It said to me that if something is worth doing, it is worth doing it to six dots. Basically, it was about giving everything you do the effort it deserves. At every stage of the studio so far we have gone all in and really tried to stretch the boundaries of what we are capable of, whether that is technically, budget wise, or energy wise. To that extent we are still doing everything to six dots.
You have built a notably engaged community through Instagram, staying close to your customers in a way that feels unusual for furniture design. How has that direct relationship shaped what you make or how you think about your work?
When I was studying architecture at undergrad, I used to get really frustrated because there was this constant dialogue that the client was normally stupid, or liked things they should not like, or in some way were holding designers back from making better work. The customer gives us everything. Any opportunity or project starts and finishes because of a trusting client. It has always been really fun to speak directly to people who are interested in what you do, and they have given me loads of really great ideas and tips about what to design or how to design it. I think there is an expectation on designers to play this slightly aloof character, and that has never really worked for me, so I just do not do it.
You have described aluminium as both masculine and industrial but also soft, feminine, and tactile. How did you discover those contrasting qualities in the material, and what made you confident it could carry the whimsical forms you wanted to create?
When I started working with aluminium, it was a conscious choice to use a material that was sustainable and that I could make products with that I could actually sell. As I started making more and more with it, I was peeling back the layers of its capabilities and fell more and more in love with it. I am constantly testing and experimenting with new making techniques, so I never really needed to feel confident in the material. I would just try something and see it work or fail. It never feels like that huge of a commitment.
Your pieces have this whimsical, wobbly quality that feels different from the midcentury minimalism dominating right now. When you picture where these objects should live or how they should be styled, what kind of spaces or people do you imagine them with?
This is a really interesting question. When we first launched our pieces we had no lifestyle photography, we just had photos on a white backdrop and people started buying them. It has been amazing to see our work in so many different homes and spaces that we never would have dreamed of seeing them in. Maybe this is not the right attitude to have, but when I design and make a piece it really just comes from a place of love and care for that object. I love making work, so I make the work I love and show it to the world. In that sense I am not really imagining a client or a type of living room. I am thinking about making something that is precious, makes a statement, and has an unspoken charm to it.
You have said you hope to see independent studios working at the scale of fashion houses. What would that actually look like for Six Dots, and where do you want your products to end up in five years?
I am going to try to answer this question without having some kind of existential crisis. There are a lot of businesses and brands that I look up to for lots of different reasons. I talk about fashion because fashion brands tend to be incredibly good at world building and storytelling. They bring you into something larger, make you feel part of something, and put on a great show. I would love furniture and object studios to be able to create the same sense of wonder and awe in their work. For Six Dots, I would love to put out films and shows, have showrooms around the world, and build a landscape of objects for people to get lost in.
You mentioned that you make as many decisions as possible with materials in your hands rather than sketching. Could you walk us through how a piece actually comes together, from that first intuitive moment to the finished object?
Sure. I am constantly sketching in these little brown Muji pads that I have with me everywhere. I also have a list of ideas in my notes, and I am constantly drawing the ideas I have written down and working between the pad and the list. When I feel like I have an idea that is strong enough to become physical, I either draw the CAD file for the laser cut or just go into the workshop and start making it. I try to make new pieces on a constant cycle. We have a lot of work that does not get finished, gets cut up and recycled, or never makes it out of the container.
The shift from wood to laser cut aluminium was partly about speed and accessibility. How does working with a distributed manufacturing service actually work, and at what point does each piece become handmade by you?
All of our pieces get drawn in CAD, then the parts are laser cut and delivered to us. We then prep, weld, cut, and fit the pieces together. It essentially removes the pattern making and hand cutting process from our workshop and places it with our laser cutter. It was transformative because hand making products is so time intensive. Anything we can do to make the pieces quicker to make, and therefore more affordable, while maintaining quality, is a win in our books. Our work is still insanely labour intensive, but getting part of the process done elsewhere has been fundamental to us.
You have presented your work through some scrappy, unconventional shows. How do these presentations reflect where you see Six Dots fitting in the design world?
I think that is an interesting question to ask. I personally wrestle a lot with where we fit in the design world. We are a brand but not really. We are collectible and gallery esque but not really. We are bespoke but not fully. I do not think we really fit into the design world as it exists today, and the shoots and presentations we do are about connecting to our existing audience and growing it further. I am doing what I can to connect with our customers and not think too much about connecting to the design world. What is amazing about the current moment is that you do not need to fit into established creative worlds to build a career. As long as there are people who want to buy what you sell and you can reach them, that is all you need.
