Famed as the only Professional NZ designer to win the Metaform Award for his Planar design, Neal Smith’s instinctive desire to create curvaceous organic structures draws on our national heritage to do things differently and not just opt for predictable straight lines.
Neal grew up in rural NZ immersed in nature, mountains, rivers,
sea and everything in between. With eyes wide open and an
unfettered curiosity, Neal and his brothers, were constantly
'inventing' things to support the next adventure. We used only the
raw materials at hand.
Not all canoes survived the rapids and not all rockets went up
but underlying this quest for world domination, the unconscious
processes of understanding materials and learning by trial and
error were being refined.
Eventually he grew up and left this 'unsophistocated' playground
for the structured world of industrial design.
After being immersed in the furniture industry and becoming
submissive to the demands of production and the straight line, he
eventually sensed the straight jacket that had enveloped me.
Late one night, having drawn one straight line too many, he knew
the game was up. The instinctual need to escape erupted like a
volcano. He picked up some bendy willow sticks and without thought,
created a curvacious organic structure; not a straight line in
sight.
The curves flowed with life and without the need for analysis,
he knew there was something fundamentally right - He had by
'accident' returned to my 'unsophistocated' past.
Since that simple moment he has taken the straight line and bent
it - where ever and as often as possible.