April 28, 2011

The fourth British design superstar I'm featuring is Lee Broom.


Lee Broom has always been passionate about art and design, and spent his adolescence working in theatre, and then pursuing fashion studies at Central St Martins in London after an internship working with fashion designer Vivienne Westwood. During his studies, he partnered up with Maki Aoki, another student at the school, and started doing bar consultancy work to help pay for their studies.Upon graduation, the pair was approached to complete a renovation to Nylon, a celebrated London bar. The success of that project encouraged them to create Makilee, a full service bar design consultancy. Makilee went on to design over 30 incredible interiors, and was honoured with 10 industry awards for it's design achievements.

In 2006, Maki Aoki returned to Japan, and Broom continued the business under his own name. His success garnered him a lot of attention, and in 2009 he was named the 13th most influential person in the bar design industry by Theme Magazine. Broom also began doing more private, high end work, and began having custom furniture pieces created for these projects. In 2007 he launched his first furniture collection, Neo Neon, at London Design Week. Broom's lines are inspired by British history, and works with local craftspeople to create his pieces. The Lee Broom brand currently has 6 different furniture and lighting lines to it's name, and this past winter, Lee Broom launched a shop within The Shop at Bluebird.

Broom's future is bright as he continues to produce lines for his own collection, and work on his interiors projects. In 2010 he was awarded two awards by Elle Decoration: Best British Design for his Carpetry Sideboard, and Best New Interior for Coquine Bar.











all photos via Lee Broom

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