In the second of the series of Sofa Chats, Casey Morrison from the Minotti London team speaks to top interior designer David Mason about why he loves working with us, his favourite products and his nominations for the Hotel Design Awards.
David is Project Director for the interior design sector in Scott Brownrigg. He leads teams of interior designers to champion innovation within the sector and is responsible for leading major schemes and continuing to grow and develop business within the sector.
Hit the play button below to watch the full conversation, or read the full transcript below:
Casey Morrison: Hi, I’m Casey. I’m an account manager and a design consultant here at Minotti London. I’m joined here today by the lovely David. Hi, David.
David Mason: Hi, Casey. Good to see you again.
Casey: Do you want to introduce yourself for us?
David: Sure. I’m David Mason. I work for Scott Brownrigg, and I’m a director of hospitality. And I also work across residential, hospitality, and commercial interiors.
Casey: Wow.
David: I know. Pretty impressive, eh?
Casey: That’s a lot of sectors, David.
David: I mean, yeah, right.
Casey: Tell us a bit about it. So Scott Brownrigg works for the three of those.
David: We do. We have a number of sectors, so I head up our hospitality sector globally for our company, so that is my main focus. But I also, as an ID designer, I work across, I feed into our commercial, residential, and hospitality sectors, as well as transport, business space, everything, education. We like to feed in hospitality into all of our sectors, basically.
Casey: Perfect.
David: And proper craftsmanship, proper things that last a generation, we’re becoming much more, we’re moving away from throwaway consumerism. It’s partly why I love your brand. I know that everything I specify is going to last a lifetime. I know that I’m going to hand it down through generations, and I’m going to care about the pieces that I have as well.
When I was growing up in the ’70s, it was what my family did. My grandfather passed down all… He passed down through generations. And over the sort of ’90s, 2000s, it was all throwaway. It was all like here, it was all just consumerism for the sake of consumerism.
Casey: Just churning through so much, yeah.
David: And I think that’s why I’ve always loved Minotti and I’ve always loved this brand because you know that it’s going to last a lifetime. It’s built with love. It’s built with craftsmanship. It’s built with just so much passion and you can almost feel it in the furniture itself. It’s just fantastic.
Casey: When did you actually first hear about Minotti do you think?
David: So I first heard about Minotti when I graduated from my master’s and I moved to London. And I worked for a company and I was sent to Minotti, this sort of small town Midlands boy, and I was terrified. And I think I had to press the buzzer to be allowed into the studio.
And then everyone kind of like looks over the sight lines like this. And I was like… You’re quite naive. It’s kind of like your first design job. You don’t really know how it rumbles, you find in your feet. I’d never lived in London before. But you quickly get used to it.
It’s always been a really warm welcome from you guys. I’ve worked with you for 24 years, not you personally obviously because you are much younger. I’ve worked with your brand for like 24 years, and it’s always been an absolute pleasure. It’s always been fun, but also quality and professional at the same time.
Casey: Do you have an absolute favourite product here, a go-to if anything?
David: I do. And it’s probably something that I specified quite a lot, which is the Anderson sofa. And then, I found that that designer as well is someone that I’ve always used without really knowing that he’s the designer. But so, that’s a big go-to for me. And also, out of the new range this year, I’m a massive fan of Fynn, actually.
Casey: Fynn, I love Fynn.
David: And I think that’s a little bit of a departure for Minotti as well, isn’t it?
Casey: It is, actually. So GamFratesi, the designers on that one, actually collaborated with Minotti Studio. And to have that kind of Scandinavian influence in some of the pieces, it’s like actually we’ve got the real Italian craftsmanship, but actually with the design and the kind of forward-thinking of some of the Scandinavian designs and sort of the simplicity of the chair, I think really elevates it.
David: Totally.
Casey: To me, the arm, how it bends into bin shape, I’m like, “Oh, that’s exactly where I’d want to put my arm when I’m sitting down. How did they know?” It’s like they designed it for someone to sit in.
David: Totally, and it’s beautiful, and it looks complete. It’s quite sexy and it’s very elegant and you can see it in the arm and you see it in the back and you can see almost the shape of it is like the spine and the body. It’s very beautiful.
Casey: It’s important to have your chair sexy, in my opinion, right?
David: There you go. Totally. I mean, who wants to not sit in sexy?
Casey: I’ve actually heard David that you were nominated for two Hotel Design Awards. Can you tell us a little bit about it?
David: No, no.
Casey: Go on. We love it.
David: The marvellous Hamish and Hotel Designs, each year they put forward the sort of top 75 influencers-
Casey: Very cool.
David: … in the hospitality industry. And I was nominated for two years running, which was a very great honour, so thank you for that.
Casey: Oh, yes. Yes, cheers to that.
David: Yep. Thank you for that.
Casey: No, it’s very good. I’ve seen some of the more recent hotels you guys have done, and it’s… Yeah, they’re absolutely stunning pieces.
David: Thank you. Thank you.
Casey: Yeah, really, really innovative design, so yeah.
David: Thank you.
Casey: Very, very good.
David: Cheers.
Casey: So when you are thinking about design in the future, is there a Minotti product that you would love to see made within the next few years? You’re like, “Actually, the collection’s really missing something like this that I’d love to see,” or maybe something you’ve seen already, and you’d like to see more of?
David: I think sometimes if you do it so well, maybe you don’t need to diversify.
Casey: Don’t reinvent the wheel, yeah.
David: Yeah. And, I mean, for me, it’s always been a very modern contemporary take, but with the traditional values and traditional partnership and stuff as well. So I think you just carry on doing what you guys are doing because it’s always amazing.
Casey: Thank you so much for joining us today, David.
David: Oh, thanks for having me.
Casey: It’s been an absolute pleasure chatting with you, and I feel like it’s really nice to get a little bit more of insight on the design. It’s nice to have a very frank conversation.
David: That’s always a pleasure, and it’s so good to see you as well. And it’s really good to get out and to…
Casey: To see real people, yeah.
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