The Coolum Collection—Designed for Hemptech

The Coolum Collection was commissioned by New Zealand natural-fibre textile company Hemptech as a contemporary linen upholstery collection with a distinctly Australasian character.

Living near Coolum Beach in Queensland, I found the starting point close to home. I looked to the patterns and forms of the surrounding landscape—the ripples left in sand, the surfaces of shells, the geometry of fish scales and the distinctive silhouette of Mount Coolum.

Their shapes, rhythms and repetitions became the basis for the collection, shifting familiar details of the coastal environment into pattern and abstraction.

Designed specifically for furniture, scale, repeat and orientation were considered alongside a limited colour palette and the natural character of the linen.

What began with looking closely at a familiar landscape became a collection grounded in the Australian coast without illustrating it directly—sand, shell, scale and mountain reorganised into cloth.