Cruise & Ferry Interiors 2020

3 6 Navigating new waters Volume Creative tells Rebecca Gibson about how it is using the power of research and art to drive the growth of sustainability in cruise ship interior design E stablished in 2015 to bridge the gap between an in-house design team and an external agency, Volume Creative is a progressive design agency with modern values and a female- led team that has more than three decades of collective experience of designing for major fashion and design brands. “We’re fortunate to have worked with some amazing people who have allowed us to challenge traditional thinking and build a deep understanding of how brands work,” says Callie Tedder-Hares, the company’s founder. “This solid foundation empowers us to really push the boundaries of what is possible in interior design and try new things so that we can act as agents of change for our clients.” The company does not have a house style, but it does have a house attitude; a desire to affect positive change through responsible design, kindness, and a willingness to learn. “We are driven by the common sense of urgency to find practical and scalable solutions that will enable us to minimise waste and execute sustainable designs that look amazing, but have minimal impact on the environment,” says Tedder-Hares. Volume believes in telling stories of better and more responsible design in beautiful and thought-provoking ways and art provides the perfect vehicle for this. Its 2019 London Design Festival installation, ‘Take the Plunge’, was designed to take visitors on an immersive journey into the ocean. Visitors plunged through vertical clusters of white tubes, entering an ‘endless horizon’, a white, mirrored space, and then two multisensory chambers filled with clusters of suspended cardboard tubes coated in an ombré of peach, coral and crimson paper, to depict an imagined sunset under the sea. The installation was 100 per cent reusable and/or recyclable and told the story of the world’s fragile oceans. With over 1,000 recycled cardboard tubes used in the exhibition, Volume strived to reuse as many as possible. After the festival COVER STORY From left, Kate Brewer, Francesca Henley, Callie Tedder-Hares and Emma Lally Photo: Mark Cocksedge