Dan Heap the company was set up in 2005 after re-locating to the South of France after a seven year period in London, although 90% of their work remains in the UK. Heap studied product design and did an Msc in Lighting at the Bartlett, before gaining experience working for Isometrix as a junior designer gaining great experience working on such projects as Jigsaw Bond St and Versace Bond St. ‘It was a great mix of lighting design and bespoke product design, and was a fantastic first job,’ says Heap. ‘I went on to work for a year at Into Lighting which gave me a real flavor of the commercial end of the business, from here I left and joined Douglas James and Jon Warren and set up lighting consultant and designers Minds Eye and later Whitegoods.’
Quite a list. And now, with Dan Heap, he is part of the ultimate dream team, he and his product designer wife, Kate. She also has a background of buying and merchandising, from first samples, through testing, photoshoots, promotion and pricing.
‘Her skills are pivotal to what we do commercially,’ says Heap. ‘I deal with the front end of client interaction and bring the projects back to the office. Once a new brief lands we work together to develop a design approach, Kate then develops the visual elements whilst I develop the technical side of things. If you looked at our degree folios you’d see the same split of skills!’