Jermaine Gallacher on Design, Ton Magazine, and Cats

Issy Wood b. 1993, United States Follow +

Stepping inside designer Jermaine Gallacher’s bubblegum pink office on Borough High Street, London, it’s hard to imagine the (presumably) drab lawyer’s office that preceded it.

Known for his statement zigzag metal works and outlandish interiors, the London-based designer is now the editor-in-chief of Ton, a biannual design magazine that he founded in 2022, the same year he joined Vogue as a columnist.

Ocula Director Rory Mitchell sits down with Gallacher to discuss his start in furniture design, a love of cats, and working with the British artist Issy Wood on her Bloomsbury townhouse.

How did you get into design?

I fell into what I’m doing now. I went to Camberwell and did my foundation there. Whilst there, I had a market stall on Portobello Road, West London, selling stuff I found in charity shops.

Then, a friend of mine bought a beautiful bookshop, which was a former deli. All of my friends were making amazing stuff and I had a little collection of things, so I set up shop there. I called it a showroom but I guess it was a gallery really.

I then set up a showroom in Walker’s Court in Soho with a friend of mine who was making underwear. At the time, I lived around the corner from Lant Street Wine, an amazing wine shop in Borough. They had this warehouse next door that they wanted to make into a bar, so I asked them if I could make it for them. And that’s when the furniture showroom and bar started.

So in a way, the starting point was furniture design.

Designing, putting things together. I love finding stuff, but I love putting the rooms together even more. So they were shops but they were really installations.

Tell me about your lamps.

Oh, the candlestick lamps. They came from something I found at a market. I just loved the shape. People told me to start making things, so I had a friend rust up a load of prototypes for me and they got made at that table behind us. The first ones we made were in mad colours.

They do feel quite sculptural though. Have you ever made sculptures?

I did sculpture at art school during my art foundation but never more than that.

I love the interiors of artists’ studios and living spaces. Part of this seems to me to be through their love of design and objects but also how they often eschew conventional aesthetics or tastes. Much of your work appeals to me for the same reason. Do you feel an affinity with artists in this respect?

I don’t like things when they’re over-designed, but I love things when they’re really over-designed.

When I told a friend that I was starting a design magazine as existing publications were just too posh and not that great, she said: ‘No, the problem is that they are not posh enough.’

I like that but to answer your question, I love things being really over designed or under designed, mixing high and low. So, I like to put a plastic lobster on a very expensive chessboard. To me, that’s the role of a designer.

What I love about Fergus Henderson’s restaurant, St. JOHN is that giant water tank in the middle of the bar. It is actually quite English to hide things. I just let it stay there, whatever.

How would you describe your approach to interiors?

I don’t offer clients a finished set of drawings, but rather like to be open to finding new avenues as the project develops and then allow those findings to inform what happens.

Recently we uncovered an original Georgian woodblock in a house we are working on, which really affected what we were doing. Similarly, I did a barrister’s office and we ended up collaborating with Barnaby Lewis, a friend who makes metal objects and furniture, but this was all inspired by my client’s existing collection of things.

You are designing Issy Wood’s Bloomsbury townhouse. How has that been?

It’s been amazing. She’s an amazing client. We’re really good friends and I can’t talk about it too much but it has been great and we’ve both learnt so much working on it together.

Is that the first house you’ve done?

Yeah, it’s quite an extraordinary house and I’ve loved doing it. But I know she’s been very forgiving and let me learn on the job. We have both rolled with the punches but we’re nearly there now. It’s quite something.

Have you got any other exciting projects coming up?

I’m doing a lot of products at the moment. We are doing these blankets and a whole range of fabrics.

Why blankets?

I have done a lot of work with hard metals so I wanted to show that I can do soft furnishings as well. They are also partly inspired by one of the oldest weaving mills in Ireland and I am printing them with this ancient Irish script in bright red.

Do you have a favourite artwork you live with?

It’s a painting of a cat and its owner, I presume. It’s quite a mad painting and I found it in a market and I absolutely love it. It reminds me of me and my cat, Rita.

Tell us about your magazine.

I launched Ton because I was uninspired by design magazines out there. I want to feature artists and makers because they’re the people who I have always worked closely with but I’m also doing some amazing shoots at incredible locations with a photographer who I’ve known for years. I really hope that it becomes a collectible. —[O]

Main image: Jermaine Gallacher. Photo: William Waterworth.