Hi Natalie! Tell us a bit about who you are and what you do. Hi, I’m a co-founder of Corner Block Studio. We design and make frames and hangers in our workshop in Brisbane. We use recycled and sustainable Australian timber, which is a beautiful material to be around! I work alongside my husband and co-founder Leith. He’s beautiful to be around, too.

How do you come up with your innovative (and super-stylish) designs? The first design we created was the Book Frame. This was born from the wish to frame a photo album I’d printed after travelling in India in 2010. Yep, way back then.

Choosing materials is important to me – particularly materials which are renewable and vegan – so I have this in mind from the start. I work on an idea in sketches, then jump into building prototypes. 

You were a finalist in the 2019 Good Stuff awards for your Book Frame – a product that remains popular. Why do you think the design has stood the test of time? I think it’s stood the test of time because it adapts with you – you can easily change the page or the book. We intentionally avoid trends, and instead embrace the natural beauty of timber.

How has your business grown and changed since it launched back in 2015? It’s grown to include more products (all of which are frames and hangers) and more people in the team (we currently have the awesome Nick in the workshop with us). It also wiggled around a bit when Leith and I had our first bub in 2019 and our second bub this year.

I’m actually proud of the ways in which it hasn't changed; we still use recycled Australian hardwoods and make the products in Australia.

Which tool could you not live without? Hmmm… The coffee machine. Does that count?

Tell us a bit about your career journey – what experiences have helped you get where you are today? I taught tap dancing, made balloon sculptures and built metal mailboxes. That was while studying product design, which is a bit more relevant to what I’m doing now. As a product designer, I’ve worked in-house and in consulting, on projects ranging from very interesting (firefighter and rescue communication equipment) to not very interesting (fences).

At Corner Block Studio, I draw on my product-design background to turn an idea into a product, and intentionally move away from mass-manufacturing from plastic and towards handmade from renewable materials.

What’s your next goal for Corner Block Studio? As with many small-business folk, we’re trying to get the work/life balance, well, balanced. That is a worthy goal, I think.

Check out Natalie and Corner Block Studio’s rad designs here. Find out more about the frankie Good Stuff awards here.