Biography

Luke Batten is an Australian Craftsman based in Ngunnawal country.

Luke designs and handcrafts quality bespoke objects. Working predominantly with wood, Luke creates custom one-off pieces to batch produced products.

Luke gained a Bachelor of Industrial Design degree from the University of Canberra and worked as a Product Designer before transitioning into furniture design and making. Luke completed a Master of Furniture Design at the Australian National University prior to relocating to the U.S.A to study fine woodworking at the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship in Maine. This education shaped his design ethos, which merges traditional craft values with progressive design principles.

Luke has taught design, sketching and visualisation at university level.

His work has been recognised through exhibitions, competitions, media and awards.

He is a Craft + Design Canberra member.

Ethos

Luke’s creative practice embraces a balance between commissioned and speculative work. Through commissioned work he explores traditional, well-established modes of design, while the speculative work challenges convention and investigates new creative territory. His speculative work questions modernity by combining design theory, cultural contexts, and rejecting accepted furniture archetypes.

Luke creates meaningful design through a deep empathy for the user and their relationship to the object. His work celebrates material, joinery, and design through its simplicity. Luke’s practice is underpinned by a focus on local manufacturing, sustainability, and the minimisation of waste.

He works with an analogue design methodology, leveraging a hands‑on approach throughout research, development, and production. This integration of critical thinking and making by hand is where the most authentic design is born. Design that exemplifies the essential, expressing integrity, quality and meaning.