Ashley Hall Born in Cardiff, Wales in 1967. Studied furniture design at Nottingham Trent University and the Royal College of Art, receiving his MA in 1992. He worked as a designer in the fields of furniture, product, lighting & interiors for a variety of design consultancies and manufacturers in London. In 1994 he established his own design consultancy in order to produce furniture and products with formal innovation and commercial appeal for an international market. His projects continued to develop his approach of synthetic materials combined with liquid forms towards volume production. He started Diplomat in 2000 with Matthew Kavanagh. Notable recent projects include the "Micro furniture" collection for Saporiti in 2001 followed by three plastic chairs for Origlia and Arrmet. For Bart design a trolley, stepladder, wine rack and desk accessories. Glassware and porcelain for RSVP and Covo in 2002. In 2003 Edra launched their "Dip" range of lounge seating and Artifort their "Bone" sofa. He also performs a design director role for a bathroom products manufacturer and is a visiting lecturer in product design at a number of UK universities specialising in innovation strategy and visual language.

Matthew Kavanagh was born in England in 1966. He studied product design at The South Bank University graduating in 1988. Inspired by the Memphis design movement of the late 70's / early 80’s Matthew moved to Italy to live and worked for Olivetti. This was at a time when personal computers had revolutionised their electronic typewriter market and Memphis designer George Sowden was designing their new hybrid products. After a year, during which time Olivetti patented his designs, Matthew returned to the UK to start his lighting and product design consultancy. In 1994 he began working for the first of several companies in the retail sector specialising in design, category management, POP display, interiors, brand communications & consumer psychology. He started Diplomat with Ashley Hall in 2000. Notable recent projects have included the "Micro furniture" collection for Saporiti in 2001 followed by three plastic chairs for Origlia and Arrmet. For Bart design a Trolley, Stepladder, Wine Rack and desk accessories. Glassware and porcelain for RSVP and Covo in 2002. In 2003 Edra launched their "Dip" range of lounge seating and Artifort their "Bone" sofa. He also currently holds the position of director with Coutts, a group specialising in design and strategy for retailers and brands.

Products designed by Hashley Hall and Mattew Cavanagh for Zeritalia: Arc table.