Ben Creed is deVOL’s head of product development and one of our longest serving employees. He’s an absolute master of his craft and seems to have a solution to every design problem thrown at him. He wanted to create a new stool which was minimal in all regards – its use of shape, use of materials, construction methods and cost. But most importantly, he imagined a stool that didn’t sacrifice style or character in order to achieve this. He started with really basic shapes; straight lines, intersecting triangles and circles – a stool only really needs three legs so he dropped the fourth. A thin steel frame was ideal for creating these nice simple lines and it could provide great structural rigidity whilst a turned wooden top was easy and affordable to machine. It’s in the detail of the texture and finish that the Creedy Stool establishes tone and character. The beautiful expressive pattern of the walnut top contrasts so well with the minimal forms, particularly with the luxurious dark chocolate stain. The way the soft satin sheen picks out the grain is really satisfying. For the frame, Ben chose a clear powder coat with a dark tint. This gives a consistent satin finish in keeping with the top but it also allows the natural texture and colour of the metal to show through.

At first, Ben wasn’t sure about the cut-out hole in the stool top. It felt slightly at odds with his quest for minimal design; it’s not a particularly fussy detail but at first glance it could seem a bit unnecessary to some people. Once you understand that it serves the very simple purpose of making the stool more manoeuvrable it falls straight back into the category of minimal approach to design problem solving. The response to the Creedy Stool has been so positive already. Naturally, we love Ben’s design but we didn’t know if our customers would take to it since the look is quite different to our previous wooden stool designs. Luckily, our customers are totally switched on to new ideas and they seem to have really embraced the stool with open arms - “you guys have done it again!” More and more we see people being drawn to simple, understated pieces of furniture; stools that creep back into the corner rather than jumping out into the middle of the room. The dark tones, thin frame and minimal contours of the Creedy Stool have allowed it to nestle perfectly into this category, whilst still retaining a surprising amount of edge and charm.