Russell Cameron studied Industrial Design at Napier University in his native Scotland. In 1999 Russell co-founded Innermost with Steve Jones. Previously he had worked for various consultancy and in-house design studios. In these diverse roles he built a wealth of experience as a manufacturing expert. It is this production expertise that has helped drive numerous projects at Innermost and bring about designs that may well have been shelved otherwise, into reality.
We caught up with him to ask these big 10 questions…
1.You designed Kobe, what inspired these flat-pack lampshades?
At Innermost we have always made our own lampshades. But ship lampshades around the world and you are mostly paying for moving air. So the goal was to create a lampshade that could pack into a smaller volume to save on the shipping costs. The result was Kobe, a wool felt lampshade that comes in a pizza box.
2. Who would you invite to your dream designer dinner party? (Let’s call it your ‘innerparty’..).
Salvador Dalí to mix the drinks, Andy Warhol to mix the tunes and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe for the chat.
3. What is your favourite piece of architecture?
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum New York.
4. What would you name as the most useful piece of tech?
Bluetooth. For making life a little easier without wires, for example with smart lighting it fully controls our lights.
5. If you could take any found object and make it into a lamp, what would it be?
I’m currently experimenting taking discarded plastic bottles and coating them in liquid metal to repurpose them into fancy chandeliers.
6. What’s your favourite object from childhood?
My trike at age 3 or 4.
7. What’s the weirdest thing a client has ever asked in a meeting?
A client I had never met before asked me if the furniture in her living room would look good with our chandelier! (The answer obviously was – Yes.)
8. Of course we are big fans of the Negroni at Innermost… is that your favourite cocktail?
Yes but with Aperol rather than Campari.
9. What’s the last exciting project you worked on?
A lighting roll-out for a Kentucky restaurant that fries chicken.
10. If you could choose your teachers at Fantasy College – who would you choose to be taught by?
Spike Milligan and Billy Connolly.
Thank you.