Diplomat is the design partnership of Ashley Hall and Matthew Kavanagh, who have designed furniture and products for some of the top brands in their sector including ArrMet, Covo, Artifort, Edra, Sintesi, Saporiti, Supporto and Zeritalia. Current work includes the development of product ranges for mass production and an experimental line of furniture using new materials, structures and technologies.

Recent Diplomat product launches include Zilla and Ironman. Zilla is an experimental lounge chair made from a composite construction of materials that include glass, aluminium and epoxy. The design employs a ‘continuous craft’ process that leaves visible construction marks. It is part of a production approach that uses ‘making experience’ to produce limited edition collector pieces. Work using composites usually hides all the skill and craft behind a perfect, mould-made synthetic surface, but Zilla is made without moulds and turns the surface inside out, exposing the making process as part of the surface finish.

Ironman is inspired by traditional West African tribal furniture, and replaces millennia of ad-hoc wood carving with an equally ancient blend of hand carving and casting in iron. This results in each piece being a unique and individual artist creation. Despite the diminutive scale Ironman, like it’s African forebears, is robust and functional. The sitter has to adopt a crouching posture that is culturally unusual in the west and therefore demands a more conscious engagement with the product. Manufactured in East London from CS cast Iron, Ironman forms a range of different furniture designs by Diplomat, that are entirely hand carved and therefore will vary with reproduction.