'I have to be hands on or I don’t understand the material potential' Marc Sweeney's tactile practice

For Wallpaper’s 2025 Next Generation issue, we have rounded-up a hotlist of emerging design talent from around the world, shining a light on the newcomers paving the present and forging the future. Join us on our journey to meet ten designers from Adelaide, Tokyo, London, Lagos, Guatemala City, Mexico City, Loch Lomond, New York and Paris. Welcome to our ascending stars of 2025.

Emerging designer, Marc Sweeney, Loch Lomond

Sweeney studied art at the Glasgow School of Art, with a brief foray into film, before enrolling for an MA at the Istituto Marangoni in London. On graduating, he assisted Max Lamb, then returned to his Loch Lomond roots to make the most of the workshop facilities back home (his family runs Sweeney’s Cruise Company, which has been taking people out on the water since 1880). Sweeney sells his work directly and through Bard Scotland in Leith, Edinburgh.

Wallpaper*: How did you settle on design as your calling?
MS: I remember trying to wear my fancy new jeans to my PE class at school, and being obsessed with Kim Basinger’s apartment in Tim Burton’s Batman. The biggest influence has been my dad, who’s a boatbuilder by trade. I’m yet to come across anyone more skilled with their hands. My dad bought a spiral staircase from a silk factory that was shuttering when he was 18 and kept it in parts for six years until he married my mum and they bought their own place. It’s inevitable that sort of passion rubs off. I live with it now.

W*: How do you describe your work?
MS: I design and make furniture. I always make a point of saying I’m a maker because it’s crucial to my practice. I can’t design anything unless I make it. The making happens first, and I design as I go. I have to be hands on or I don’t understand the material potential.

W*: What motivates your work?
MS: I’m promiscuous with materials; the idea of specialising in just one leaves me cold. My work is about squeezing the juice out of a certain process.

W*: What has been a career highlight?
MS: One of my pepper mills was stolen from a Michelin-starred chef. I felt so honoured that such a chef owned one; and then even more honoured that someone loved something I’d made so much, they wanted to nick it.

W*: What do you believe is the power of design?
MS: I believe it can make you feel good about yourself. I went to a state school in Dumbarton and it was a bleak environment. Nothing made you feel good or excited. I was lucky to get enthusiasm at home. Then I went to the Glasgow School of Art and was fortunate enough to be in the Charles Rennie Mackintosh building (before it burned down). I felt a great deal more alive and energised when I went through those doors. I experienced first-hand the power of design to inspire self-respect and motivation.

Marc Sweeney, photographed by Norman Wilcox-Geissen, in his father’s boatyard
in Loch Lomond, with his ‘Pylon’ spun aluminium candleholders

@marc__sweeney