The increasing prominence of craft in design amid dwindling commercial opportunities has echoes of the scene in 1980s London, British industrial designer Jasper Morrison tells Dezeen in this interview.

Despite pondering the wider industry "as little as possible", Morrison says that the current rise of craft-based, bespoke furniture reminds him of shifting conditions that he experienced at the start of his career in the early 1980s.

"In London, [designers] are starting to reinvent themselves in a way, and are doing more craft-based work, which is quite interesting," the designer told Dezeen.

"I have a lot of sympathy for them, because I don't see what else they can do, really, and that's a sensible way of doing it, if you can."

Morrison was alluding to designers increasingly creating one-off pieces from a seemingly endless array of experimental materials and techniques, with recent examples including a coconut fibre and horsehair chair by Tessa Silva's Smock and a foam daybed painted with flexible paint by Pablo Octavio.

This is an alternative to working on commercial partnerships with brands, where a piece of furniture or an object is licensed, produced and then sold on a large scale, such as Morrison's own famed Air-Chair for Italian design company Magis.

Amid increasingly few opportunities of this kind, designers are crafting a small number of bespoke pieces or relying on their own network of smaller makers for manufacturing.

Morrison said the lack of willing partner companies, paired with the "diverse" design landscape, may be contributing to the rise in craft-based design.

"Companies can't work with everyone"

"When I started, it was slightly similar in England," Morrison said. "There were no manufacturers to work for."

"I think many young designers today say the same thing as then – 'there are no manufacturers for me'," he added.

Morrison, who's known for his thoughtful, refined design approach to everyday objects, recalled that when he started out, he would assemble pieces from various local shops as part of his own self-powered "micro-production".

"Back then, I found my way of existing by having my own micro-production, getting things made and finished," he said. "I had this taxi-driver existence where I would go to workshops and pick up a batch of tables and drive to the glass place and pick up the tops, then assemble them and deliver them to people who wanted them."

"I was very relieved when I started working with Capellini and a few others that they would take care of all that bunch of trouble," he continued.

"I think we're in a bit of a similar place for young people – there's not much room. Companies can't work with everyone. It's really tough."

Throughout his career, Morrison has worked with numerous brands to realise his designs, including his first industrially produced piece, a door handle for FSB and a recently released camping collection with Hay. Other work includes pieces for Alessi, Alias and Vitra, among others.

Despite his own challenges in establishing himself at the start of his career, Morrison says he was not particularly interested in the craft route.

"When I started, that was pretty much all there was in England, and I didn't want to have anything to do with it," he said.

"I was thinking about machine-made things and designing for industry. It's gone full-circle and come out in a rather different way."

If Morrison has any advice, it's that up-and-coming practitioners should try to "put their head down", focus on their work and define design for themselves, naming Rio Kobayashi and Bethan Laura Wood as designers he is currently following.

"Honestly, it's become so diverse," said Morrison. "The subject of design itself, I don't think you can really gather it together and say any one thing about it, because it's just people doing everything."

"I think about it as little as possible," he continued. "As a designer, I think the best thing you can do is just put your head down and get on with what you think design is, without bothering about what anyone else thinks it is."

The main image is of Hay and Jasper Morrison's camping collection. The photography is courtesy of Hay.

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