A space for local work

A partnership between rising furniture designer Franco Crea and Adelaide-based national company Workspace is a showcase of Adelaide ingenuity and know-how to benefit local design and manufacturing. Workspace and Franco Crea have partnered to manufacture, sell and market three Franco Crea ranges: Mena, Mesa and Noa. Workspace’s Tom Clark says the Adelaide-based national company wants to promote Australian design and send a message about local manufacturing with this partnership. “It’s an exclusivity deal where we manufacture and we promote these three ranges for Franco,” Clark says. “It will get national exposure through our catalogue marketing, print marketing and advertising and our social media as well.” Workspace is a national company founded in Adelaide that has offices in Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra. This partnership is the first of its kind for Workspace, which exclusively stocks Franco Crea’s Mena Table, Mesa Stool and Table and Noa Bench and Table. “Workspace has been traditionally known for manufacturing, as its core function and sales has always been the afterthought,” Clark says. With this partnership with Crea, Workspace wants to give something back to Australian design, to prove that homegrown partnerships with manufacturers and designers can benefit the industry as well as buyers. “Franco’s brain and his designs – that’s what we want to promote,” Clark says. “At the end of the day, we can manufacture anything. So to promote this as Franco’s range of products and for us to support that, that’s what it’s all about.” For Crea, who last year launched his own studio and showroom on Pulteney Street, the partnership has been a positive one. “It’s sad that you don’t get many manufacturers as excited as Workspace have been,” Crea says. “Designers are naturally very excited when they design a piece; they naturally are trying to work out a way to get it out there: ‘It’s good enough but obviously I need something more in production and having someone else who’s just as passionate to make it work’. That’s the most exciting part. Even though I’ve always wanted some representation nationally, I’ve been careful in who can achieve this. It’s one thing having a partnership with someone, but from the infant stage you need to drive it, push it and grow it.” Continues Clark: “Anyone can be a stockist, but are you a partner? Anyone can stock anything whether it’s an Australian-made product or an overseas product, and that becomes an expectation. But you’ve got to partner with people.” francocrea.com.au workspace.com.au