14 October 2026
Corin Mellor is the creative director of David Mellor Design – a brand that is synonymous with his father, David, but also the design and manufacture of beautiful cutlery, primarily made of stainless steel.
According to Sir Terence Conran, David was ‘Britain’s most serious, modest and greatest post-war product designer’, who created everything from bins to bus stops before concentrating on cutlery.
Corin took over the company in 2006, expanding the company’s range and material palette, as well as creating some delightful knives, forks and spoons himself.
In this episode we talk about: the extraordinary David Mellor campus outside Sheffield; his family’s relationship with architects Michael and Patty Hopkins; living next door to the Mellor factory; why the production of cutlery has barely changed since the turn of the twentieth century; being obsessed with control and sweating the small stuff; the properties of stainless steel and the importance of chromium; how knives are different; the changing face of Sheffield and finding the right skills in the city; being the custodian of his father’s legacy and growing up with his brilliant writer mother; not being good at school; the joy of finding new makers; and why he can’t design cushions.
For more information on Assemble with Material Matters go to: https://materialmatters.design/conference
And to purchase tickets go to: https://app.pairsoftware.io/material-matters/ou3085wj
Find out more about David Mellor Design