In Conversation with Anthony Sully
Anthony Sully is an Interior designer, author, lecturer, artist. Using his design and teaching career to write books on design, list of published books :
1 'Interior Design: Theory and Process' pub by Bloomsbury 2012
2 'Interior Design: Conceptual Basis' pub by Springer 2015
3 'The Estate House Re-designed' pub by Springer Sept 2018
What inspired you to be an interior designer?
Discovering that I could draw which accelerated my visual perception of the world around me. Combined this with a desire to design and make things for the benefit of society. I became absorbed by the theory of design and the challenge to solve problems, and I put this to good use in my teaching at degree level.
If they were to make a toy action figure of you, what would your accessory be?
A dodecahedron.
To what degree have you actually controlled the course your life within the design world has taken?
Mostly by making the right decisions with regard to job positions. I have rejected certain offers that I considered were lacking in integrity. Meeting the right people at the right time also helped. I had the best education you could wish for firstly 4 years at Hammersmith College of Art then 3 years post-grad at the Royal College of Art.
What would be your dream interior project?
To get my house design proposal built that features in my 3rd book on housing. This is a proposal for mass housing that has never been done before. i.e it begins with a 2 bed 2 storey double fronted house with a single attached garage that can expand to a 3,4 and 5-bed house without any ground floor extensions needed to be built. This saves expenses on conveyancing and removals for a young family. Conversely, the house can revert back to a 2-bed house when downsizing becomes necessary.
What’s something you know you do differently than most people?
Think outside the box and take risks. My jewellery shop, IBM showroom, and Glendower House chapel conversion all demonstrate this. My current house design is unpopular with major housebuilders because of the crap they are building. A house should be designed like a product for mass production but nobody is doing this.
If you could go back in time and speak to your adolescent self, what advice would you give them about the design world?
Follow your dream and do not do what others tell you should do. In my 7 students years, I took no holidays because the design was my life and I realised that you had to work hard to achieve results. I worked hard and played hard. Ask questions and record as much of the world by visual means available.
Anthony Sully's Website