CDE Campbell Design & Engineering.
"We approach each job with an open mind, which enables us to focus on specific design demands and challenges throughout the project development process."
Chris Campbell
About Campbell Design
Chris Campbell has been working as a practicing artist for over 20 years since graduating from Trent Polytechnic in 1980. Initially working from studios in Nottingham City Centre until 1993, he is now permanently based in the north Nottinghamshire village of Mattersey.
In 1998 he was successful in securing two major commissions, the first was to design and build a play environment on the green at Nottingham Castle and the second was for the restoration of Carr Bank, a Victorian public park in the heart of Mansfield. In order to successfully complete both projects on time and within budget, Chris formed a company with his brother Stephen who joined with nearly 20 years of project management experience. Steve came with extensive knowledge of industrial production and personnel management, including eight years at management board level of a £20m turnover company.
Campbell Design and Engineering Ltd. or CDE Ltd. have now been trading for over 6 years and now employs 12 full and part-time staff. The company manufactures most of its commissioned art and designed work within its own fully equipped metal fabrication, workshops, which can now deal with structures on almost any scale.
Chris now works as an artist solely for the company, which is dedicated to the design and construction of bespoke items and environments, whether they are entrance statements, decorative fencing, playgrounds, sculptural features or concepts for civic spaces. He specialize in an holistic approach to environmental streetscape design incorporating furniture, sculptural foci, boundary treatments and paving under the same style 'umbrella'.
An integral part of the company design and fabrication methodology is close client collaboration and participation throughout . Wherever appropriate, CDE Ltd will run practical workshops or design seminars as part of the project development process. This has proved to be an important approach for any scheme, as it gives the client group an opportunity to express their views and contribute in a positive and creative way.
Examples of this approach, can be found with the hosting of over 80 workshops in local Mansfield schools during the eight months of the Carr Bank project and seven full days of workshop events held during the design phase of the Nottingham Castle playground. Having proved so successful, a host of similar activities have been replicated across many subsequent projects and can now be supported by a range of portable fabrication equipment, which adds greatly to the diversity of workshop experiences.
The design process can also call upon a variety of artistic and practical disciplines, depending on the nature or context of the project and has successfully sub-contracted in the expertise of several additional artists and technical consultants over the past 5 years.
It is essential to design within a productive team environment when faced with the demands of budget, time and physical constraints and Campbell's continue to collaborate with engineers, specialist designers and specific areas of technical expertise.
In 2003, the in-house capacity of CDE Ltd was enhanced further with the arrival of Glyn Symonds, a practicing Landscape Architect, who had previously been responsible for environmental programmes, as Deputy Director of an environmental regeneration trust.
We approach each job with an open mind, which enables us to focus on specific design demands and challenges throughout the project development process.
One of our strengths as a company is that we design, fabricate and (if needed) install all of our works. This approach can often simplify the process of commissioning because it cuts out the need for measured drawings being passed on to other fabricators and thus removing any chance of misinterpretation in the construction phase of the project. More crucially, this proven practice greatly aids creativity as the artist retains control at all times.
Whilst our design approach is not prescriptive, we cannot help but design work that we know can be fabricated by ourselves with minimum fuss and expense. To this end we have built up a workshop and developed a process that allows for continuing flexibility throughout the manufacturing phase. We now posses a diverse range of machinery and use a wide variety of techniques, ranging from CNC profile cutting to hand forged items. The vast bulk of our work is now produced entirely in-house, with very few sub-contracted elements such as the hot-dipped galvanizing, which we believe is the most effective steel finishing process prior to painting.
We now have extensive experience in working with budgets ranging from 1k for a small set of gates, through the 8k entrance to East Midland Arts, 60k for the streetscape in Burton, 100k at Nottingham Castle and over 275k for the Carr Bank Park in Mansfield.
As well as on-going work in production, we are presently developing the design process through workshops for various schemes in
Sheffield, Rotherham, Bradford, London, Nottingham, Castleford, & Greater Manchester.
Chris Campbell
CDE Ltd.