Judson’s approach to design was primed by an instructor in art school who challenged Jud to do whatever he wanted for a sculpture project. This turned his mind inside out: until then, Judson had believed that in order to design and build anything, you had to get a set of instructions from a book or a magazine. He had always assumed that someone else had to come up with the ideas and then he was supposed to build it that way.

I wonder if that instructor had any idea what kind of delightful insanity he was unleashing into the world? A man who turns furniture into whimsical companions; creates artistic pieces that provoke laughter and astonishment; designs rooms that are a child’s dream realm. Judson’s joy is to take a crazy idea and make it happen – to make it possible.

Judson Beaumont was born in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan in 1960. He came to Vancouver, BC to study art at Capilano College, completing his studies at the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design. He graduated from their 3-D department in 1985 and that same year founded Straight Line Designs Inc., creating one-of-a-kind furniture pieces and commissions. Jud began with doing hard-edged, geometrical, straight pieces; after five years of that, Jud got really bored. He decided to shake it up and try something different.