Tom Cecil

Background

About Tom Cecil

British designer and engineer Tom Cecil was born in England in 1979. He runs a specialist wood and metal workshop in East London. He began his career researching jet engine vibration damping technology for Rolls Royce having graduated in mechanical engineering from the University of Sheffield and worked as an acoustic designer for the architectural and engineering practice BDP. In 2008 he decided to leave corporate life and experiment with new materials, concepts and ideas. He rented a shared workspace in London Fields and utilised the practical knowledge he’d gained as a 14 year old, learning to weld in his father’s coach depot, combined with the complex understanding of physics and engineering he had acquired in his 20s, to formulate boundary-pushing products, furniture and installations. In 2010 he won a competition to dress the central public space of the annual 100% Design show with his ‘Field of Lights’ installation. Now he produces a range of objects under his own name, also fabricating work for artists and design agencies. He lives by the cinematographer Robert Bresson’s maxim, “make visible what, without you, might perhaps never have been seen.”