Luke
Harrison

Luke Harrison is a graduate from our BA (Hons) Product Design course and recently exhibited his work at the Young Furniture Makers Exhibition at the NEC in Birmingham.

Looking back as a graduate, what do you remember most fondly about your time at NTU?

I look back at my time here very fondly. I think Nottingham is a perfect city for students, with plenty of venues, restaurants, bars and sports facilities to enjoy. As for the university itself, the facilities we had access to were superb and the knowledgeable staff were always friendly and helpful. NTU has a habit of attracting very interesting and creative students and it was a pleasure to spend the years working and enjoying my time alongside them.

What did you enjoy most about your course?

I was fortunate that my course made use of the beautiful Arkwright building and large open studios of Maudsley with it’s state of the art CAD and workshop facilities. These were great places to come into each day and encouraged me creatively and helped in terms of project work. The projects I enjoyed most were ones that pushed me to make physical outcomes. This included a children’s wooden toy project and, of course, our final year projects, which for me involved lots of hands-on furniture making.

How was the experience exhibiting your work at Young Furniture Makers?

I’ve had a great experience with the furniture makers company since graduating from NTU who do a fantastic job of promoting young and upcoming designers and helping to give us a helping hand into the industry. I was lucky enough to have my final year project – a vinyl record storage and display unit inspired by traditional Japanese furniture design – selected to be shown at the 2022 Young Furniture Makers awards in London.

My piece was then selected to be part of the Young Furniture Makers stand at the January Furniture show at the Birmingham NEC. This was another great opportunity to speak with experts in the furniture design industry so I have to thank them for that!

What career opportunities have you had since graduating?

During the summer of graduation, I took a break but made sure not to lift my foot off the throttle too much as I wanted to keep the momentum of final year going into job applications and interviews. I knew I loved the manufacturing side of my project so decided to keep expanding my furniture-making skillset. This led me to accepting a job role at Mark Asplin Whiteley, who specialise in luxury furniture, cabinetry and room installations.

Six months in and I’m really enjoying my time here. It's a challenging and fast-paced manufacturing environment and I'm learning lots of new skills every day!

If you could give yourself one piece of advice you wish you’d known before starting at NTU, what would it be?

It would probably be to focus on nailing down a good work-life balance. There’d be weeks when I’d spend too much time fixating and stressing about work and not taking enough time for myself that I actually found myself being less productive. Alternatively, there were times when I enjoyed myself too much, which is especially easy when you live with a group of friends that can easily distract you from work. I'd say I was my happiest and most productive when I was able to balance the two.

You can find out more about Luke by following him on Instagram and LinkedIn

Luke's work being displayed at Young Furniture Makers