Echo Fills A Niche
Sydney Morning Herald
Tuesday December 12, 1995
A new Sydney company is offering imaginative pared-back, multi-functional furniture for the '90s, writes HELEN GREENWOOD
"THE market is awash with upholstered furniture," says Michaela Malone, sitting on Echo's curvy and straight film-star glam bench seat.
"You've either got hard-edged modern with a commercial feel or the soft, plump traditional kind. But we want to do something a little more accommodating - between classic and modern without embellishment."
Malone and her fellow Echo-ites, Kim Snow and Jenny Gill, discussed setting up a furniture design and manufacturing company 12 months ago. Three months ago they opened a showroom in East Sydney.
Walking into Echo's generous, green and cream space is disconcerting. The furniture is so pared-back, so unadorned, so clean-looking, you do a double-take. This isn't design that screams at you; but it resonates. It's design for the '90s.
The only timber used is Canadian rock maple, pale and fine; the shapes are elegant; and the proportions luxuriously understated, generous but not oversized in scale. There are hints of the '40s masters like Jean-Michel Frank and '30s deco, underpinned by classic lines.
A combination of timing and intuition prompted the Echo venture. Two years ago, Snow sold Sedia, the furniture design partnership he had set up with interior designer Brian Kiernan in 1985, sensing it was time to move in another direction.
"I felt that there was a shortage of good, well-made, nicely proportioned timber items," he says, gesturing at the tapering, twisting occasional table at his elbow.
Gill, the team's marketing and sales specialist, says there is a "huge niche" in the market.
"You've got Ikea at one end of the market and that is fantastic and you've got Space at the other and to me there was nothing in the middle."
Snow, Malone and Gill had worked together for five years at Sedia, which specialised mainly in upholstered furniture. Snow first hired Malone, who came from a journalistic background and has moved into design, then Gill, who has done public relations and sales.
When Gill was offered the chance to buy a furniture company a year ago, she consulted Snow and Malone. She also asked her cousin, a Brisbane businessman, for his advice. Richard Trivett surprised them all by suggesting they form their own company with his backing.
Everything is multifunctional: the low tables have pull-out trays for drinks or open niches for storing reading matter; the dining table is extendable and could be a handsome desk or boardroom table; a side-table can also be a stool.
"We have thought a lot through the design process about what people need and how we can make it look beautiful," says Malone.
Years of doing interiors around Sydney convinced them that customers would rather have one good piece than a few cluttered pieces in their homes.
So, like the perfect little black dress or blue blazer, Echo's streamlined console or chest of drawers can become anything. They adapt to a room filled with ethnic textures and tribal influence, or a more formal setting of antiques and brocade.
And there is a simplicity, an honesty that makes most rustic furniture look over-done and ornate. Perhaps it's because all four partners have strong ties to the bush.
All the design is local. Echo enlisted friend and architect Robert Grubb to help with the technical side as well as providing some design input. The manufacturing is 40 per cent Australian.
"We have started with conventional pieces," says Snow. "In the second half of next year, there will be a second range, including a tall boy and the crucial television-stereo cabinet. And it's silly to ignore our expertise in upholstered furniture so we will be experimenting more with that."
Eventually, Echo hopes to commission lighting and fabric designs from local talent and offer some of its space to other designers.
Echo, 211 Bourke Street, East Sydney, (02) 361 6699. Prices range from $580 for a dining chair to $3,950 for a dining table, with fabric options for the upholstered pieces.
© 1995 Sydney Morning Herald