Mark Gabbertas

Mark Gabbertas was born in Yorkshire in 1962, and graduated from Durham University with a degree in political philosophy. Following an 8-year stint at the advertising agency, Saatchi and Saatchi, in 1990 he left advertising to train as a cabinet-maker. Initially this was as an apprentice with Codrington Furniture and then with Stemmer and Sharp at Oblique workshops in Hackney as a junior maker. He set up on his own after two years training and embarked on the well-trodden path of the designer-maker. Initially commissions were for private clients, but briefs from larger commercial organisations increased in number and became the focus of the workshop.