John Jenkins

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Born in Pembroke in West Wales, John Jenkins studied Furniture Design at High Wycombe College and then at the Royal College of Art where he gained his masters degree under the tutelage of Robert Heritage, whose products at that time, John could see at the Heal’s store in Tottenham Court Road.

His first job was with Danish designer Nana Ditzel and he was involved not only in furniture design, but also in textile projects with Kvadrat and Hallingdal and tableware for Georg Jensen.

Throughout a varied career John Jenkins has worked in the design, manufacturing and retail industries in many parts of the world from Ireland to Vietnam, the Caribbean to the Philippines and extensively throughout Europe. He has lead a number of design workshops in Thailand and the Philippines, has been a visiting lecturer at the RCA, Bucks College, Kassel University (Germany), the Metropolitan University (London) and has been a consultant to the Thailand Export Corporation and the Product Development Centre of the Philippines.

He has designed a wide range of products including contract office systems, table and kitchenware, residential furniture and private interiors. His approach to design is very much 'form follows function' allied to a respect and understanding for traditional and contemporary manufacturing techniques.

When working independently during the 1990’s, Heal’s became one of John Jenkin’s clients and he subsequently was invited to take the role of Senior Furniture Buyer. John saw this as 'the perfect fit' and fulfilled this role for 8 years. He returned to his 'first love' when he was appointed Design Manager four years ago and is currently enjoying been involved in the many initiatives to celebrate Heal’s 200th birthday. He continues to add to the many products he has designed for Heal’s throughout the past 15 years.

View the John Jenkins collection at Heal's.