Name: Toby Sturge
Company: Sturge Design
Position within company: Design Director
Website: www.sturgedesign.com
Tell us a little about your background in design:
Growing up in a family heavily involved in the yachting industry, Toby Sturge soon found himself working as a deckhand during the summer holidays, and soon shared his passion for design and yachting, when he received a place at University of the Arts London, Chelsea to follow his career in yacht design, at a well established yacht design studio in London for 8 years designing and project managing some of the most known yachts, before pursuing his career and setting up Sturge Design.
How would you describe your personal design style?
We expect our designs to last with time, so we follow trends carefully and get inspired by other industries, This said we interpret these trends in our own style and the use of materials, we love texture and simplicity, and inject the colours in the soft materials and art so this can be easily updated by future clients, but the hard shell and design elements are due to last!
Where does your design inspiration come from?
The inspirations come from various industries and we get inspired by various elements of the industries, for example, cars inspire us for styling, land base interior/architecture for the engineering and spatial configuration, fashion for detailing, nature for the textures and overall feel, Art for the dressing of our designs.
In what direction do you feel that design is moving towards in a general sense?
Design in our industry has been fairly conservative, you see once in a while a client that has the courage in pushing the industry, designer or yard to what they wish to achieve whilst producing their dream yacht or “outgoing yacht” and moving away from the conventional yacht, these type of clients push the boundaries and encourage that these wacky ideas can be achieved/produced if the engineering side allow it for example, open plan living, more use of glass, sweeping structures etc now different propulsion systems are coming into play we will certainly see some exciting projects coming through in the next coming years!
Name five key themes to consider when approaching design in 2020 and beyond.
Collaboration, environment, open living, texture, timeless.
If you could offer one piece of advice when it comes to design schemes, what would it be?
Making sure that you have understood the client’s requirements, whilst indulging and designing something you truly enjoy producing for the client.
How important are The International Yacht & Aviation Awards?
We have great memories of the awards, back in 2015 working for my employer we won the awards for the refit category. The client was extremely pleased and the awards honour the hard work put into these projects!
What projects are you currently working on?
We have a mix of 50% yacht projects and 50% residential projects currently.
What are your aims and goals for the next twelve months?
We have some exciting plans for these next couple of months and will hopefully be able to share with you soon.
Final thoughts; tell us a little more about yourself and your daily inspirations:
Your most treasured possession?
Family
Your favourite holiday destination?
Mauritius
Your favourite hotel, restaurant & bar?
Le Morne in Mauritus.
La Guerite, in Cannes.
Dukes Bar, in London
Your favourite book, film & song?
Ian Flemming books, Any James Bond movie and Any James Bond soundtrack…. Where a lot of our inspiration is driven from also.
Your favourite food and drink?
I could live off Italian food, and fine red wine
Your favourite way to spend an afternoon?
Taking time off work and spending it with my family.
If you weren’t a designer, what would you be?
Working for MI6
design et al only work with the world’s leading designers.
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