Why Emily Johnson is in the Design 100

Emily Johnson founded 1882 Ltd in Stoke-on-Trent in 2011 with her father Christopher, the fourth and fifth generations of the Johnson Brothers pottery dynasty that gave the new company its name. Where Johnson Brothers had shifted production overseas before the original firm closed, 1882 Ltd made the harder choice: to keep every piece made in the city, using the same skills of casting, glazing and firing that built Stoke-on-Trent’s reputation in the first place.

That heritage is put to contemporary use rather than kept in a cabinet. 1882 Ltd works with designers including Max Lamb, whose bone china chairs and stools for the label tested how far a material more associated with teacups could be pushed, alongside a core collection of tableware built for daily use rather than display. The result is a business that treats Staffordshire’s pottery-making techniques as a living specification, not a heritage story referenced once and then set aside.