For Russell Pinch, the lines between work and life have often been delightfully blurred. As the co-owner and lead designer of London-based furniture brand, Pinch—a brand he co-founded with his wife, Oona Bannon—Russell is now reflecting on a 20-year journey that has culminated in a new anniversary collection exhibition in New York City. This creative freedom has helped shape Russell’s approach to building the brand 20 years on.
Pinch was founded with the goal of creating pieces that were timeless, elegant, and personal. When Russell and Oona began in 2004, they were already familiar with each other’s work styles. “We actually worked together before we were a couple,” Russell says, which he believes gave them a solid foundation. “It’s rare, especially after 20 years,” he says. “Maybe it’s even unusual to be married for 20 years these days!”
According to Russell, the business was born out of conversations around the couple’s kitchen table. They eventually decided to fully commit to integrating the brand idea into their lives, clearing their home of existing furniture and replacing it entirely with their earliest designs.
“We just took all the furniture out of our house and replaced it with our mini collection,” he says with a laugh. “I don’t think for one second I thought, ‘Is this a good idea for our relationship?’ It was a complete passion that led us to want to do it together.
“We push each other a lot. We have these hilarious conversations where I go, ‘Should we do X?’ Oona will say, ‘No, I think that’s crazy.’ Then a week later she’ll come to me and say, ‘You know…I changed my mind. I think we should do it.’ You’ve got to really love it to want to do it.”
Traveling the world also allows Russell to immerse himself in both work and creativity, as he is drawn to new places, exhibitions, and art installations. “Those environments inspire me,” he says. “I’ll often come away from it buzzing, wanting to design the next chapter of Pinch. Of course there are tough times, but there are also a lot of highs, like our recent New York exhibition—that was one of my proudest moments.”
Pinch’s 20th anniversary pop-up was hosted last month at the Jacqueline Sullivan Gallery in New York City, unveiling a new collection in honor of this milestone year. The collection is comprised of 14 new products.
“In a way, I’ve been waiting for this moment. The 20th anniversary gave us an excuse to blow the budget and just go for it.” He says the collection was met with enthusiasm, not only in New York but also in Copenhagen, where some pieces debuted during the city’s 3daysofdesign festival.
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- The Colton Chair is the second dining chair in Pinch’s product lineup. “It has the most beautiful stitching details in the back,” Russell says. “The frame is solid oak. We also use a saddle leather for a pop.”
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- The leather work on Colton is done in London. Russell says the chair has a “webbed” seat design and sling back. “The people who worked on this piece are just absolute master craftsmen of leather and stitching details,” Russel says.
The Onis dining table provides a cross between both contemporary and traditional design. It’s the largest piece in the 20th anniversary lineup, made of French oak. “It has a big, solid, elliptical top and then four column bases, which have a sculpted piece that runs between the two,” Russell says. “It seats between 10-12 people.”
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- The Posent wall light features a hand-blown glass sphere paired with a brown oak shade and bronze metalwork. The light can be mounted upward or downward. “I wanted something that looked slightly Flash Gordon or other-worldly,” he says.
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- “To create the bulb’s unique effect you have to blow the glass, then dunk it into a bicarbonate,” Russell says. “It’s an old Viennese technique that creates a reaction. Then we encase it in another layer of glass. It’s quite interesting. It also comes as a pendant.”
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- The Landry coffee table features detailing that resembles rippling water. To achieve this effect, Pinch collaborated with a gilder known for her work on projects like the gilded lions at Buckingham Palace.
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- The Tarn table features the same guilded effect. “The guilder applied multiple layers of ink to the glass to create darker areas, followed by gilding the back, allowing the colors to shine through from beneath. From a distance the design looks black. As you get closer, it’s easy to see the detailing.”
“We’ve done a lot of wooden sideboards and painted sideboards, but we wanted to bring in something different—so we covered the Ellery sideboard in fabric,” Russell says. “It’s made from the same material as our lights, a woven banana fiber, which is very durable. It brings another dimension to the front of the piece.”
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- The Lilio candelabra is based on a 17th-century traditional Swedish piece. “We wanted to do an interpretation on that, but make it electric,” Russell says. “The lights themselves are made from molded banana fiber cones.”
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- The Lilo wall light can also be turned upwards or downwards along the wall.
The Faustine table light also features a banana light shade. Its base is made of plaster. “It’s very geometric and yet, very soft,” says Russell.
The Garagh sofa originally debuted as an armchair during this year’s 3daysofdesign festival in Copenhagen. Now the design is offered as a sectional (above), armchair, and chaise.
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- The Cari wall light is made from molded plaster. “We didn’t want it to look machine made,” Russell says. “We were originally going to 3D-print this series, but we changed our minds.”
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- “I sculpted the first one by hand in the workshop and kept the sanding marks inside the piece,” he says. “They weren’t intentionally meant to be there, but it was a shame to get rid of them. It looked too perfect. We ended up casting this series from my original mold.”
Russell remains grounded in the principles that define Pinch—a constant dedication to craftsmanship, design, and attention to detail. “We’re designing within our own universe,” he says. “I don’t design in a vacuum. There’s a lot of thought about how the pieces interact with each other.”
The Pinch workshop is a vital part of this process, serving as the playground where his ideas begin to take form. Once a design manifests on paper (Russell often begins with a sketch), ideas begin flowing. “We do everything at a one-to-five scale initially,” he says. “There’s tons of experimentation. Can we try that leg 5mm smaller? Can we make ten different versions of this?
“It’s a dream design scenario, really—having the workshop right in your pocket. The biggest asset I have is being able to daydream, and then put that daydream onto a piece of paper.”
