Mark Lewis – A brief history.
Mark Lewis began his design career at Kingston Polytechnic, now Kingston University, completing a BA(Hons) Product and Furniture design. Mark graduated in the early 1980’s along with designers Matthew Hilton and Jasper Morrison.
Mark’s first commercial design venture was with Johnny Grey.
Johnny Grey attended Mark’s end of year show on the recommendation of the Director of the Design Centre in London. This lead to Johnny employing Mark to assist on the first of many of his commercial designs.
Mark was working alongside architects Sir Terry Farrell and Michael Graves, for the client Charles Jencks (world renowned architect and published author).
This opportunity enabled Mark to learn from talented architects and infuse his existing style and talents with theirs, producing designs that became known as post modernism.
The post modernism movement was a parallel design phenomenon to the Memphis movement in Milan. The Memphis movement was led by Attora Sottass and George Sowden, with influences from Mark’s fellow alumni of Kingston, James Irving and Simon Morgan.
Mark Lewis originally founded his own company Lewis & Horning in 1983.
In those days he had showrooms in Drury Lane and at the Business Design Centre, Islington, and a large Studio and workshop in Wandsworth. The enterprise was conceived as an up-market kitchen and bathroom design emporium but quickly diversified into renovating restaurants and other commercial projects.
In the 80’s, Mark Lewis won several design awards for his innovative and creative work in the field of furniture and interiors and found himself contributing to a number of design journals, in addition to his work being featured in the household and fashion magazines of that era.
A series of projects, completed to a very high standard added up to a substantial body of work over the year, some of which are illustrated in the leaves of this web site.
Mark has worked with board-level members of large corporations, assisting with commercial design, and also with individuals attending to their domestic design requirements.
As Mark’s career grew he opted to stay in London, while some of his peers went to Milan. He later opened his own Furniture Emporium in Covent Garden.
Mark now operates as Lewis Design London, working out his home in West Sussex, combining his skills with those of a network of colleagues., Mark develops the homes of particularly discerning clients who seek his innovative but practical design input, as well as his ability to manage and implement the project’s realisation.
Mark is also currently working as a consultant to a number of ‘top end’ building firms.
He tenders for work from architectural companies (£250k-£1m), advises on costing and design, and maintains close relationships and networking.
Find out more about Mark Lewis (biography)