About John Tree

I'm a London-based product designer, currently dividing my time between personal clients and managing Jasper Morrison's office. Having previously worked as a senior designer for Sony in their London and San Francisco design centres, and within a consultancy environment while at FM Design, my work is built upon a broad knowledge of technology, markets, materials and processes.I work on projects with a range of both established and new manufacturers, developing products across multiple categories, from high-end, small-run items through to mainstream mass-produced commercial items. I also work on product development, strategy and branding projects for consumer electronics manufacturers. The majority of my clients are large, high-profile corporations but a significant proportion of my work is for companies still at the start-up stage. I also occasionally pursue speculative projects, exploring less-common design/manufacturing processes and applying them to varied product sectors. My approach to design is characterized by flexibility driven by a desire to balance context, function and production. This work is often a process of reducing and refining. I seek to produce an economy that enhances both a product's character and, where possible, also its lifespan. I have an on-going relationship with the Royal College of Art in London, and serve as a visiting tutor on the College's Products and Innovation Design Engineering courses. I occasionally run larger teaching projects in conjunction with course tutors, and also contribute by bringing in external clients to brief and work with the students. I was a member of the assessment panel for the Masters Product Design program at ECAL in 2016, and have acted as an external assessor for the University of Arts Product Design course in London. I have been a visiting tutor at Kingston University, The Iceland Academy for the Arts, Coventry University, and ECAL in Lausanne.I have been awarded an iF Design award in Hanover, the Red Dot design award (twice), a Gold "G-Mark" Good Design award in Japan, been selected for the Millennium Product Collection, and received an Elle Deco award for British Design. My work has also been widely featured in publications including Casamica, Creative Review, Design Magazine, Domus, Elle Deco, Frame, Icon, I.D. and Wallpaper. My designs have also been exhibited at the Design Museum in London and as part of other international and travelling exhibitions. A padlock of my design is held in the permanent collection of New York's Museum of Modern Art. I also hold numerous international patents, as both sole and joint inventor.