Daniel Ibbotson

One of the things I love most about my job is that I get to work with some fantastic people - colleagues, clients, suppliers and industry peers. From project planning to problem solving and celebrating success, it’s (mostly!) been a joy over the past two decades.

Daniel Ibbotson was one of those people who made an immediate impression on me. We first met in 2021 when his creative agency, Graphical House, began working on a refresh of our website. MD Tony Dunworth travelled from Glasgow to meet us (something many others were reluctant to do in those strange post-lockdown days) and I immediately knew that we were in good hands - it felt like Tony, Daniel, Andy and Mhairi just got it. It was a fun, challenging and rewarding project from our perspective and we loved the results.

I liked Daniel from the start - he was easy to talk to, full of interesting insights and ideas. He also made music and we had great conversations about this shared passion, understanding the reference points between music and design. When we started planning our installation for the HIX 2023 event, Daniel understood that I wanted to try something new - not the usual trade show stand with rows of furniture samples. This was an opportunity to be bold and Daniel really helped shape my initial vision into something cohesive, exciting and original. He helped us to be brave and do things differently and never made my ideas feel stupid - he really acted as a mentor to me in many ways, and it felt like we were a real part of the creative process.

Our conversations were always worthwhile - once memorably soundtracked by the skirl of bagpipes outside during a meeting in their Glasgow office - and I really valued the way in which Daniel interpreted my ideas and suggested ways we could incorporate them into what we were trying to achieve. I remember conversations about Kubrick and an idea I'd had percolating for years around using some stylistic elements of the Korova Milkbar. Through these chats with Daniel it became clear that we didn’t want to recreate what had already been done and this sowed the seed for the concept behind our HIX 2025 campaign - inspired by Dylan’s lyric “He not busy being born is busy dying.” I wanted to deliver something that challenged the status quo and Daniel encouraged and enabled me to do that, always asking “what if we do it like this instead?”.

I knew that Daniel had been living with multiple myeloma, a form of blood cancer for over a decade and had been fundraising for the Glasgow-based Beatson Centre where he had received treatment, but had no idea he was so seriously unwell until I had a message from Tony to say that Daniel was receiving end-of-life care. The news was shocking, and followed a couple of weeks later by the devastating update that he had passed away.

It’s clear that Daniel was so well-loved by his colleagues and friends at Graphical House, and of course the biggest loss to his wife, young daughter and parents. I wanted to write something as a tribute to him from a client, to say how much of an impact he made on our team at Furniture Fusion and on me personally. He celebrated creative thought, interpreted my ideas and really understood what I was trying to achieve. He made our campaigns more successful and interesting and we will always approach things differently as a result. Our installation for HIX London this year is really down to him and we’re looking forward to sharing the finished product next week.

Above all, Daniel taught me to be brave, be bold and to have fun - I’m so glad we could work together and I’ll miss him.

Daniel raised funds for two charities - click on the links below to find out more or to donate:

Myeloma UK
The Beatson Cancer Charity

Sam Samuels,
Furniture Fusion