From Kite Surfing to Fine Furniture Design...

Mat Hibbert is a fine furniture designer with a passion for Kite Surfing. Mat started work as a trainee Quantity Surveyor but soon realised this wasn't for him. Mat has now been in the design industry for 5 years and his business is starting to expand, the future looks promising. Ella Louise Felix Stewart caught up with Mat to find out more.

What made you want to choose this career path and how did you get so interested in it?
From a young age I knew I wanted to design but throughout the first part of my life, from the age of twelve to eighteen, I only focused on kite surfing. I then moved up to London for two years and got a “sensible” office job but realised this wasn't for me. I wanted something where I could use my imagination a bit more, so I moved back down to the coast and got into cabinet making and fine furniture design.

If you had known earlier in life that you wanted to pursue a career in fine furniture design would have focused on it more than kite surfing?
Yes, I think I would have liked to get into design and cabinet making earlier because it is a massive part of my life. The time I spent up in London I was a trainee Quantity Surveyor and those years could have been spent better, I would have preferred to get on with designing a bit earlier than I left it.

What’s been your favourite project so far?
I was in a partnership with Bower & Wilkins, a speaker and audio company, and I sculpted an iPod Docking station. That was really enjoyable and I incorporated a lot of skills that I’ve learnt over the past 5 years. It was sort of done by eye and so I had to visualise the docking station and what was going to be done on it.

How do you define the word success?
Personally for me, in terms of my business, it is down to whether people are buying furniture or not. A lot of my family and friends say that I’m successful already because I design some nice things but from my perspective you aren’t really successful unless people are buying into that idea. 

What do you enjoy most about your job?
Everything is different day-to-day, I’ve never started a day where I’ve thought ‘Oh I’ve done this before’ although I’m sure I will get that at some point. Everyday is a new challenge and there are new techniques to learn, it is quite exciting compared to the job I had in London.

Who, and what, inspires you?
I’m inspired by modern architecture, there are a lot of beautiful buildings. There is a really awesome designer called Joseph Walsh, he is an Irish furniture designer who makes lots of cool stuff, I love his work. A lot of my ideas come from modern architecture and nice buildings with different shapes.

Do you still enjoy kite surfing?
Absolutely! It is my other main passion in life really. I still do a lot of it, I was actually out in Brazil kite surfing for two months over the winter. So I still love it, definitely. 

Find Mat on Facebook 
www.mathibbertdesigns.co.uk