Few figures on the London Design scene have been in business as long as Sheridan Coakley, founder of retail store and furniture brand SCP. Since opening the doors of his Shoreditch showroom in 1985, he has navigated recessions, the digitisation of retail, Brexit and a pandemic. Coakley was the first to bring Philippe Starck’s furniture to the UK, and subsequently helped kickstart the careers of design legends such as Jasper Morrison, Donna Wilson and Matthew Hilton. He is a staunch supporter of UK manufacturing, and integrated a Norfolk upholstery factory into his business in 2003. After 39 years at the helm, you might think he’d be ready to put his feet up. But on the contrary – when we speak, Coakley is just back from a visit to his factory where his team are putting the finishing touches to new pieces ahead of the London Design Festival 2024.
Sheridan Coakley on four decades of the London Design Festival
Wallpaper*: You’ve been in business for almost 40 years. What is your secret to longevity?
Sheridan Coakley: I think, apart from luck, I've survived really through being quite belligerent, being slow in how my business has progressed, not being too ambitious and particularly not getting myself into large debt that I can't pay back or getting outside investors. First and foremost, I was not a businessman. It's not like I went to business school to see where I could make money and have an exit strategy. I was the opposite. I did it because I wanted to do it, I did it for my love of design and furniture. The business aspect I had to make up as I went along. I remember somebody once asked me what my exit strategy was, and I said, ‘What's an exit strategy?’
W*: Has your passion for design ever waned?
SC: No, because design changes and it’s interesting being involved in those changes. For instance, I started Case Furniture with Paul Newman in 2006 as a sideline, because that gave me a route into making furniture in larger volumes. More recently, I've become interested in the other end of the market, collectible design with small production or one-off pieces. We’ve started making upholstery using 100 per cent natural and sustainable materials, which is exciting.
W*: How has the design landscape changed since you started out?
SC: It moves all the time. In the 1980s, we were all interested in minimalism, form and function, and using materials economically. We've now entered this decorative phase, where it's all a bit decadent. Sometimes I feel uneasy about it, but then other times I get it. However, what we do at SCP is not transitory, we're designing and making pieces that have longevity. Hopefully, people keep our products for 50 years.
W*: Do you think there has been a shift away from ego-centric design?
SC: You could say: 'How many designers do we need in the world? How many chairs do we need to design?' And maybe designers can do other things like community-based projects, which is laudable. But I'm in the old-fashioned business of designing contemporary products to go into the world that we live in now, because if there wasn't a demand for furniture that fits in with the psyche of the day, we'd still be sitting on Victorian furniture. However, I do get the point that there's sometimes a bit too much design, and perhaps those designers can apply themselves to more worthy causes, less designing products, and using their skills for the greater good.
W*: You are a renowned talent spotter. What qualities do you look for in a designer?
SC: Well obviously, I've got to like the work I've seen, and it's good to be able to have a conversation with people to understand how and why they’ve designed something. But also it's a collaboration, you've got to be able to get on with designers and they've got to be able to want to design within the parameters of what we can do, such as using all natural materials and traditional methods.
W*: Do you think London is still a good place to be based as a designer?
SC: When I started SCP, we were very much part of a community of like-minded people who all enjoyed what we were doing. It wasn't a highly competitive business. Is it still like that? It might be, I don't really know, but I think Covid and Brexit have had a big impact on it. At one point, designers from all over the world wanted to open offices in London, and many of them did because that's where the business was, and they were able to because of being in the EU, so Brexit has definitely had an impact.
W*: What do you get out of participating in the London Design Festival?
SC: For us it has a social focus, it’s a community thing, which I think is really important because a lot of designers work in an isolated way, and it's very tough. If you're starting out, it's a difficult world to break into. From our point of view, the design festival is really good, because we launch products. It's the one thing that we do every year, it gives us a focus, a deadline to work to and I think it’s still very relevant.
Read more London Design Festival interviews:
Curator Jane Withers: ‘If you’re a designer today, you have to keep learning to keep up’
Designer Natsai Audrey Chieza: ‘London has a punk attitude – it has enabled somebody like me to emerge in this extremely niche field’
Architect Shawn Adams: ‘If kids grew up going to London Design Festival they would learn so much’
