Luke Pearson
London, United Kingdom

Born in 1967, Luke Pearson was brought up in Hampshire. He gained a degree in Industrial Design from Central St Martins in 1990, then spent a year working on individual commissions and designs for batch-produced furniture for a UK-based venture company. L

uke completed his masters in Furniture Design at the Royal College of Art in 1993, starting work at Ross Lovegrove's studio straight after graduation.

He was a senior designer with the company for four years, but continued during this time

to work on his own projects, including a range of upholstered furniture for British manufacturer Hitch Mylius and outdoor seating for the Conran Shop.

In 1997, Luke set up PearsonLloyd with fellow designer Tom Lloyd, whom he had met at the RC

A. The company operates as a multi-disciplinary consultancy focusing on design for manufacture and strategic research in the fields of furniture, transport design and the public realm – since it was established, it has won numerous international awa

rds, including FX Designer of the Year Award
(2002–2003) and a D&AD silver in 2004.

PearsonLloyd's designs are often characterised by a combination of intelligent lateral thinking and technical innovation. For example, the

design of their new bed/seat for the Virgin Atlantic Upper Class Suite (2003) allows passengers to sleep on the back of their seat, so that for the first time, the functions of sitting and sleeping needn't be compromised by sharing a single surface.

Other innovations include specifying an airbag for each seat, meaning passengers don't have to spend wait time on the tarmac at airports belted in the upright position, and the 'terracing' of seats, which corrects the slight tilt of the flyin

g aircraft and allows each one to provide a totally flat surface for sleeping.

More recently, PearsonLloyd's projects have included a new range of upholstered furniture for Walter Knoll, an all-aluminium street lighting scheme for London

39;s Westminster council and a series of innovative shower designs for Ideal-Standard that offer the user a means of controlling the water from outside as well as inside the shower. Luke regularly lectures on design and takes part in judging design awards

and competitions.