Tom Fereday on the Making of AGRA FORMA

In an inspired collaboration, Australian industrial designer Tom Fereday has joined forces with Armadillo to create AGRA FORMA – a sculptural furniture collection grounded in a shared reverence for natural materials and quiet forms. Unveiled at Melbourne Design Week and soon to make its international debut in Copenhagen, the seven pieces invite a deeper conversation about craft, sustainability and the sensory potential of the spaces we live in. We spoke with Tom about his creative process, the synergy behind the partnership and the role of design in shaping not just how our spaces look, but how they feel.

Photography by Hamish McIntosh

AGRA FORMA is a beautiful intersection of textile and timber. What first drew you to the idea of collaborating with Armadillo on this multidisciplinary collection?

Armadillo is an Australian brand that I have followed for many years, and when they suggested a collaboration for Melbourne Design Week, I put forward the concept of integrating their natural wool rugs within furniture. Natural wool is incredibly durable, and I was intrigued to investigate its potential in furniture as an alternative to conventional foam and fabric upholstery. Combining just two simple materials, natural wool and solid timber, felt like a compelling design brief.

The collection is anchored by Armadillo’s Agra rug. How did this existing design influence the conceptual development of the collection?

The Agra collection is a rich and dense hand-knotted rug that is both comfortable and effortlessly elegant with its subtle colour tones and abrash natural variations. It felt like an ideal range to consider in furniture elements for both its tactile and soft qualities, alongside its subtle nuanced aesthetic. The abrash-dyed tones and handcrafted character brought a warmth and individuality to the timber pieces, allowing us to create a collection that is built upon a celebration of natural materials.

Can you describe your initial conversations with the Armadillo team – what were the shared values or design instincts that shaped the direction of the project?

From the beginning, the collaboration felt open and exploratory. There was no rigid brief – just a mutual interest in the longevity of natural materials and beauty of a handcrafted process. We aligned on a less-is-more approach, where every curve and join had a purpose. It became about allowing the wool and timber to speak for themselves, while creating pieces that felt inviting yet intentional.

How do you strike a balance between refinement and warmth in your designs, ensuring they feel both elevated and inviting?

For the AGRA FORMA collection, subtle curvature was developed only where the body interacts with the piece resulting in a restrained pared-back design that acts as a palette for natural wool and oak. The wool acts as a gentle counterpoint to the structural needs of the timber frame that adds inherent warmth and nuanced personality to the range.

“The pieces are meant to be touched, sat on and explored.”

What was it like working with American red oak and abrash-dyed wool – materials with distinct visual and textural signatures – together?

Both materials elegantly contrast one another and offer an interesting tension in both form and finish. The solid timber elements are very clean and geometric in form, whereas the Agra wool is soft and varied. What I like about these materials is that they both are unique in that each piece of timber or wool has its own unique variations and character, making no one piece exactly alike. We tried to celebrate the abrash-dyed wool, particularly in the Thistle and Ginger hues, to bring a tonal richness and softness. Elevating the rugs to furniture allowed the wool to catch the light in interesting and unique ways.

The pieces feel almost architectural. How did you approach the relationship between furniture, rug and space?

The aim of the collection was to create something quiet but tactile, something that would invite people to sit, lean and interact with the works. The overall designs are very minimal – however, upon closer inspection, subtle details reveal themselves as you get to know the pieces. Intricate assembly of the collection and considered construction allows for no visible fasteners or joins, just a pure presentation of wool and oak.

At Armadillo, we believe sustainability is more than a material choice – it’s a design ethic. How do you embed sustainability into your process in a way that feels authentic?

Ultimately, the collection was an investigation into longevity, one of the most critical factors in sustainable design. I was fascinated to investigate the durability of upholstery as this is something that is often the first element to degrade in furniture. How could we improve the longevity of upholstery whilst simultaneously only using natural materials, something the Agra collection allowed us to do by removing the need for a foam substrate and offering an incredibly durable alternative. We used wool yarn from the rug-making process alongside FSC-certified oak to create works with nothing to hide.

The term “craftsmanship” is used often in design—but in AGRA FORMA, it feels truly intentional. What does that term mean to you in the context of modern industrial design?

To me, craftsmanship is about care – how something is made, but also why it’s made in the first place. In modern industrial design, it can be easy to prioritise efficiency over longevity. With the AGRA FORMA collection, every joint, curve and surface is carefully considered yet generous in material use designed to last a lifetime.

The Melbourne Design Week exhibition at Armadillo’s showroom invites viewers into a sensory experience. What was your vision for how people should move through and feel amongst your pieces?

The pieces aren’t meant to be observed at a distance; they’re meant to be touched, sat on and explored. We laid out the exhibition to encourage interaction – allowing people to slow down, noticing detail and feeling the materials under your hand or against your back. Hopefully it can allow people to become more connected to natural wool and the AGRA FORMA collection.

How does showing work within a cultural moment like Melbourne Design Week enhance or transform the narrative of a collection like AGRA FORMA?

Melbourne Design Week gives AGRA FORMA context – it situates the collection in a broader dialogue of design and importantly brings the design community together to appreciate each other's work.

You're set to debut AGRA FORMA globally at 3 Days of Design in Copenhagen. Without giving too much away, what excites you most about presenting this work in a European context?

Copenhagen has such a deep design heritage, and I think there’s a shared sensibility between Scandinavian design and Australian design – especially in the appreciation of tactility, natural materials and quiet restraint. Presenting at 3 Days of Design will let the collection be viewed in a new environment and context.

This collection feels like a meditation on contrast – structure and softness, the ancient and the modern. What do you hope people take away from AGRA FORMA, not just as design, but as a way of thinking about how we live?

I hope it invites people to slow down and really notice what surrounds them. To consider the beauty in natural materials, and the value in things that are made with intention. I hope it allows for a dialogue and conversation about what materials are used in modern furniture today and the considerations of designing from the inside out.