Marke Newton does not tend to explain himself. When he decided to make a sheep, he did not write a brief or build a mood board. He just knew it was the right thing.
What followed was several years of convincing other people of that.
Where did the SHEEP come from?
There was no edit. No shortlist of animals that didn't make it. Just an inspiration, a sheep, and the certainty that it was correct. That is how most of the objects start. The idea arrives with a kind of settled confidence and the work is making it real, not deciding whether to make it at all.
Your other designs are objects people look at. The SHEEP is an object people use with their body. Was that a different kind of design problem?
I have always been drawn to art that is utilitarian, objects that are genuinely beautiful and genuinely useful at the same time. The sheep's form lends itself to being a bench, a side table, somewhere to fling a towel or rest an iPad or set down a cup of tea. That usefulness emerged from the design process rather than preceding it.
At first I simply wanted to make a sheep sculpture with a light inside it. Then I started thinking about how practical this art object could actually be. The two things grew together.
It was not easier than making a lamp. An object with multiple uses has to be designed with the utmost care. Every decision carries more weight when the object has to work in more than one way.
Is it your most ambitious design?
I wouldn't describe it that way. The hardest part of the SHEEP was not the design. It was getting people to believe in the vision. The production partners were skeptical. "No, who would want that in their home." "No, that seems impossible to manufacture." Those conversations take years and require a particular kind of patience.
The SHEEP does have to stand without collapsing and support the weight of an adult human. In retrospect that was an ambitious thing to attempt. But I approached it with an artist's mind rather than an engineer's. This must exist, therefore I have to make it. The practical problems get solved in service of that.
The SHEEP Black is made from 100% recycled plastic. Did the material shape the object or follow from it?
The object came first. The sheep came first. The purpose and the materials followed.
Once I understood that we could make the SHEEP Black from fully recycled plastic, our first product to achieve that, I became very excited. My dream is that one day every Goodnight Light product is made from either 100% recycled or plant-based plastics. We are not there yet. The SHEEP Black is the beginning of that.
When someone encounters the SHEEP for the first time, what do you notice?
They are not sure what it is at first. They look at it, walk around it, try to work out what they are supposed to do with it. Then they sit on it one way, then they try another way, then they straddle it and hold the ears. And then they giggle. Every time. It is one of my favourite things to watch.
Is there anything you still want to do with it?
I would like to make a lamp version. Solar powered, plant-based materials. It will be more expensive. The cost of plant-based plastics and solar technology is still extortionate. But that is where I want to go.
And one day I would like to give the SHEEP recycled wool coats for winter. That is still a dream. But so was the sheep itself, not long ago.
The SHEEP is available now in white and black. The SHEEP Black is made from 100% recycled plastic, UV-protected, waterproof. Both versions work indoors and out.
