My Story

 I am Sharon, an Architectural  Designer and Artist based in Hamilton, New Zealand. I started Sharon Robinson Studio and designing lampshades after a dream I entertained years ago. I wanted to express my creativity in a realm outside of Architecture but that still embraced the design elements and process that brings me so much joy.

Designing objects and spaces has been something that has been with me ever since I was a little girl. As a 7 year old I would draw house plans and design living spaces for my LEGO people. When I suffered from insomnia after my father died, I would walk though spaces I had created in my head, imagining what these spaces felt like in that fantasy world. It saved me from falling into a depression, giving me an escape from trama and a chance to have hope for my future. 

It wasnt hard to figure out that a creative building orientated path was what I was choosing and I started my career in Architecture, initially as a Architectural Technologist. Later in my mid 20s, still driven by my desire to design, I enrolled in a Bachelor of Architectural Studies at Unitec, completing it part time over four years , whilst working four days a week and commuting to classes from Hamilton to Auckland. While some people around me thought that I was crazy, the desire was too strong to ignore. 

Later on, I still wanted to explore this creative avenue. Not content to only settle for Architecture for the rest of  my life, I wanted to explore the other creative outlets, realising that ideas and learnings' from one would inform and develop the other. I only see that as a positive thing and one that is necessary for innovation in our current world. 

So I took the leap a couple of years ago. I got some prototypes designed and made, I branded myself and I started to put myself out there. It has been a journey of courage, of learning, of failings and of faith. I am under no illusion that the challenges are over, I do however look back and feel proud of the courage it took to make that leap and that gives me confidence to keep going forward, driven by my passion and my desire to be the positive change that I want to see in the world. 

I hope my story shows others that following your heart is possible, that embracing your desires necessary for joy and that the difference between doing it and just dreaming it is determined by courage.