Andrew Jones
Andrew Jones is a Canadian furniture designer working for international manufacturers of contract, outdoor, and residential furniture. With an MA in Furniture Design from the Royal College of Art in London and a degree in Architecture from the University of Toronto, Jones has worked for more than 20 years designing furniture and architectural interiors. This dual experience forms the foundation of his work: designing furniture fit for purpose and place.
While a student at the Royal College of Art, he was part of a competition-winning team for the redesign of the college’s student café and lounge. RCAfé won the award for best restaurant in Design Magazine’s annual awards of 1997 and was the first of many projects that combined custom furniture and architectural interiors.
Jones returned to Canada in 1997 and completed his first major furniture commission, with Keilhauer, a Toronto-based manufacturer of high-quality contract seating. This was the Gym stacking chair and product family, which was followed by a succession of other chair and seating systems. In 2002, he co-designed an award-winning outdoor furniture family for Gloster, and in 2014 he was the winner of an international design competition for outdoor chairs at The Battery in Manhattan.
Jones’s commitment to exploring the role of furniture as fundamental in creating environments has resulted in a series of architectural interiors - including residences, restaurants, university interiors - and furniture for outdoor public space. These projects afforded him unusual opportunities to create site-specific furniture and lighting designs and to study how scale, materials, and shape affect planning configurations and social arrangements and define the intrinsic character of a place. His designs for the public realm include the iconic and beloved pink umbrellas at Toronto’s award-winning Sugar Beach.
Jones’s design projects have been featured in international publications, including I.D., The New York Times, Azure, Metropolis, and Wallpaper, and have been exhibited in Canada, the United States of America (including at the Museum of Modern Art in New York), Britain, Japan, and Italy. His work is part of the permanent collections of the Royal Ontario Museum and the Design Exchange, in Toronto.
While a student at the Royal College of Art, he was part of a competition-winning team for the redesign of the college’s student café and lounge. RCAfé won the award for best restaurant in Design Magazine’s annual awards of 1997 and was the first of many projects that combined custom furniture and architectural interiors.
Jones returned to Canada in 1997 and completed his first major furniture commission, with Keilhauer, a Toronto-based manufacturer of high-quality contract seating. This was the Gym stacking chair and product family, which was followed by a succession of other chair and seating systems. In 2002, he co-designed an award-winning outdoor furniture family for Gloster, and in 2014 he was the winner of an international design competition for outdoor chairs at The Battery in Manhattan.
Jones’s commitment to exploring the role of furniture as fundamental in creating environments has resulted in a series of architectural interiors - including residences, restaurants, university interiors - and furniture for outdoor public space. These projects afforded him unusual opportunities to create site-specific furniture and lighting designs and to study how scale, materials, and shape affect planning configurations and social arrangements and define the intrinsic character of a place. His designs for the public realm include the iconic and beloved pink umbrellas at Toronto’s award-winning Sugar Beach.
Jones’s design projects have been featured in international publications, including I.D., The New York Times, Azure, Metropolis, and Wallpaper, and have been exhibited in Canada, the United States of America (including at the Museum of Modern Art in New York), Britain, Japan, and Italy. His work is part of the permanent collections of the Royal Ontario Museum and the Design Exchange, in Toronto.