Meet Saintleo

Designer and maker LEON MCKAY, founder OF SAINTLEO, is hosting an immersive sound exhibition this Friday 15 March as part of Auckland Design Week — giving ticket holders and friends a private experience that centres on his sculptural Altec A7 speakers and limited edition stainless steel furniture.

We speak to Mckay about designing against the grain and creating the ultimate listening experience.

All photographs: Luke Foley-Martin

Your polished stainless steel Altec A7 speakers are influenced by the Danish designer Jacob Jensen. Can you speak more about how these speakers came together?

Jacob Jensen inspired me through his work at Bang & Olufsen. These were the first speakers I owned with a box made entirely out of aluminium. 

I started studying and collecting information on speaker box design in early 2023. Sound engineering is a lifelong study, so my knowledge was really limited. The Altec A7s were a speaker that I wanted to see and hear for a long time. I decided just to make them from the original plans. The box is actually constructed in full Birch Ply with a stainless steel sheet on the outsides.

What was your inspiration when concept-planning your listening experience this Friday? 

I think it’s more of an immersive exhibition. I didn’t just want to crowd a room with design and art but to exhibit a few selected pieces and create a show around this. The speakers are something I had finished recently, and it gives people an opportunity to hear and see them before they are shipped to New York. Along with setting an atmosphere, the music choice sets a vibe of the brand identity — so hopefully it gives people some insight into the way I portray design and what inspires me to do it.  

In 1957, Brutalism proponents Alison and Peter Smithson wrote that the movement “tries to face up to a mass-production society, and drag a rough poetry out of the confused and powerful forces which are at work.” It’s a really beautiful way of describing the endless potential for design, and the ways in which creativity can help distil and reflect on an era, despite a possibly endless feeling that we’ve reached a new saturation point. Do you think there’s been a renewed move toward a sense of order in design — clean lines, modular furniture, monolithic materials  — because of how frenetic our pace of consumption has become? 

It’s hard to feel inspired in a saturated market where everything has been mass produced. The way that I design, and collect, is by approaching the object authentically and knowing that each piece has a different story. Exploring the potential of a limited material palette has enabled me to focus on this.

Photographer Luke Foley-Martin:

When approaching Leon’s artwork I wanted to accentuate the material and shape. I mixed artificial light with the natural light of Leon’s apartment. The warm, north facing light created intense highlights and shadows, sculpting the designs.

I was also curious about enhancing the abstraction of Leon’s design. I used studio lighting to overexpose the metal, reducing Leon’s artwork down to its raw shape and lines.

The hard shadows of the artificial lights match the Brutalist design of the seats. It’s stark and lays everything bare so that the gloss of each surface becomes highly visible. In contrast, the natural light is much more forgiving and gentle on the eyes. I used this to allude to the artwork’s function as a chair and Leon’s consideration of the human form in space.

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Based in Tāmaki Makaurau, Saintleo is a multidisciplinary workshop specialising in commercial and residential installations with a primary focus on metal craft. Saintleo has collaborated alongside architects and interior designers on some of Aotearoa’s most high-end commercial and residential projects; and is also known for their work with international fashion houses such as Bvglari, Louis Vuitton and Entire Studios. More recently, they have received invitations to exhibit at renowned international design fairs.

Mckay uses metals to reimagine traditional designs — from the creation of futuristic credenzas, high-polished stainless loudspeakers and sculptural occasional chairs, to the sculpting of architectural-inspired side tables.

Mckay’s newest work presents a limited series of pieces inspired by music, culture, and international architecture that extends beyond the studio’s commissioned designs for usually commercial projects.

View Mckay’s installation experience as part of the Auckland Design Week (ADW) programme on Friday 15 March, or on the ‘Design Circuit’ on Saturday 16 March. Purchase ADW tickets here.

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