Marc Wood: Creating sculpture-inspired luxury lighting

Marc Wood is a London-based design luxury lighting studio which creates collections that blur the lines between art, sculpture and design. Like a jewellery for the home, each piece is handcrafted by a small team of makers in their workshop.

With a goal to reimagine classic material processes, Marc Wood designs and creates lighting for modern day customers and clients.

Here, we chat with its founder, Marc Wood, about the studio’s journey…

Can you tell us the backstory of Marc Wood Studio? When and why was it started?

For as long as I can remember I have had a love for making. One of my earliest memories is when I was given a toy wooden tool kit for Christmas. I thought it was incredible and couldn’t stop playing with it. Also, my grandad had a small workshop in his back garden. He would let me go in there with him and we would make small wooden boats and toys etc.

That sparked a lifelong passion. I was not hugely academic at school but always enjoyed design and technology and was top of my class. I went on to study furniture and product design at uni and started my studio directly after graduation in 2017 to satisfy my need to create things.

I decided to focus on lighting because of how creative you can be as a lighting designer. It’s as much about beauty and decoration as it is about functionality. I think of lighting as jewellery for the home and my work spans the gap between sculpture, functional art and technology. If I wasn’t a lighting designer, I think I would be jewellery maker.

What is unique about your brand?

We create sculpture-inspired lighting collections using traditional craftsmanship, redefined for a contemporary audience. We design and build everything in our London-based workshop. Each piece is meticulously handcrafted to order and can be configured to fit perfectly into our customers’ homes.

We strive to make work that is both functional and beautiful, pieces that we hope stand the test of time and look just as good in 50 years as they do now.

How do you balance heritage craft with contemporary design?

Heritage craft is at the very core of what we do. We partner with the best artisans in the world, such as master glassblowers, stonemasons and metal fabricators. We reimagine classic material processes for a modern audience and we love to support traditional craft industries whenever we can. One of our Birmingham based fabricators has been in business since 1840.

Why is it important to keep manufacturing as much as possible in the UK?

Britain has a wonderful history of manufacturing. So many things were invented and produced here. We are proud of this history and strive to foster British craft so that it continues today and into the future. Today manufacturing in the UK can often be costly so the products we produce tend to end up in the luxury end of the market.

When working with interior designers, what is the process?

We almost solely work with Interior designers. Usually, the brief is to help the designers create beautiful, impactful spaces. We do lots of atriums, stairwells, dining room tables etc. The designer tends to give us the general dimensions of the space and tells us which of our collections they are most interested in. We then create compositions and computer visualisations of our lighting in situ for them to sign off with their end clients. We offer bespoke sizing and metal finishes and all of our pieces are semi-customisable to fit perfectly into the interior designer’s scheme.

What are some of the plans for near future…

Creativity is a guiding principle. Our goal is to keep expanding our collection with products that people live with and experience joy from every day. We have several new pieces in the pipeline which we are excited to launch in 2025. Products that span the gap between decorative art and functional object.

For more information about Marc Wood, to see their collections or enquire about bespoke or commercial projects, please visit marcwoodstudio.com.

DISCOVER ANOTHER LIGHTING BRAND STORY HERE.