Clement Meadmore

Recognised as one of Australia’s most significant industrial designers of his time, Clement Meadmore’s iconic furniture and lighting designs successfully merge industrial materials with expressive artistic vision, echoing the international influence of Modernism in Australian furniture design.

Clement Meadmore (1929–2005) was born in Melbourne, Victoria and grew up working in his father’s business, Meadmore Models. The model shop provided the perfect environment for the young Meadmore, where he shared his father’s passion for model railways while learning the intricacies of building and repairing mechanical models. These formative years working with his engineer father sparked in Meadmore a curiosity about how things worked and a talent for problem-solving, instilling a confidence that led the teenager to design a model aeroplane kit, which was sold in the shop. 

In 1946, Meadmore pursued his dream of designing aeroplanes and enrolled in the aeronautical engineering course at Melbourne Technical College (now RMIT University). By 1948, he had changed direction and enrolled in the first intake of the college’s newly introduced Industrial Design course, the first of its kind in Australia. Here, Meadmore took classes in art and three-dimensional modelling, and was introduced to the principles of the Bauhaus and De Stijl movements, both of which became highly influential on the emerging designer. Insatiably curious, Meadmore read the writings of Mondrian, a founder of the De Stijl, and in particular his 1921 essay Le Néo-Plasticisme (The New Plastic), which set out strict rules for a new art paradigm that demanded straight lines, right angles, primary colours, and precise relationships. Resonating with Meadmore, the De Stijl also advocated that an idea could be expressed in many forms, and it was these guiding principles that would underpin his practice throughout his career. 

Meadmore drew on the De Stijl to create his first design, a corded dining chair that embodied his interest in design and sculpture, as well as what he termed ‘tensional structures’—experimental organic wooden forms held together in suspension by the clever use of cord. The Corded chair (1951), an extension of these early experiments, was a three-dimensional expression of Mondrian’s Composition paintings and signalled Meadmore’s ability to think more creatively about design, developing a unique language of linear forms where design and sculpture could coexist. 

Over the course of his industrial design career (1951–1970), Meadmore embraced a restricted palette of materials, cleverly utilising only what was necessary for a design to be fully resolved. Using this design language, he successfully explored and manipulated materials and forms to produce space-saving designs with a lightness of touch and reduced visual weight. The result is a collection of furniture and lighting, now considered iconic Australian mid-century designs that reflect the modernity of the period they were created, and which remain as contemporary today. 

Written by Jeromie Maver.