Looking back my father must have been a little eccentric right from the start. As a child he would invite Queen Victoria to tea parties he was hosting. In his imagination of course. Because he neither knew the Queen, nor was she alive.
During his stint in the army his mind would also wander, away from the drab, bleak, military surroundings, to escape into another word, of elegance and sophistication, that he spied in the few magazines he could lay his hands on.
From an early age my father became well-versed in the history of design. He always said his greatest source of inspiration was the past. He built a house in The Bahamas inspired by the temple of King Zoser of 2680 BC. That’s a really long time ago.
The hexagon and octagon were also a reoccurring theme. My father admired the efficiency of these geometric shapes. He began to use them everywhere and even designed an octagonal house. Eccentric or brilliant? Thankfully we did not have to live in it. An admiring client did instead. I went for lunch there once and felt quite sick navigating around the eight walls of the sitting room.
If my father’s work looks familiar that is because the strong graphic quality stills holds up, and is much borrowed by the designers of today. Including myself.