Jonny Horsfield, founder of the London-based design studio H2, has never been afraid to go his own way. The man behind such remarkable names as the 123-metre Lürssen "Al Lusail" (2017), the 80-metre Bilgin "Tatiana" (2020), the 77-metre "Go" from Turquoise Yachts (2018) and the 63.72-metre Hakvoort Explorer "Scout" (2019). Horsfield is a well-known and respected face in the industry. More than 25 superyachts over 50 metres currently afloat bear the H2 design stamp.
After attending a "very traditional boarding school" in the UK, surrounded by future doctors, lawyers and various other solid career options, Jonny knew early on that his interests lay elsewhere. "I made decisions about my future against a lot of advice," he says. "Even as a young boy, I was fascinated by cars and their design was my passion." And so he attended Coventry College and studied Transportation Design.
From the road to the water
What made him design vehicles for the water instead of the road? Pragmatism. "When I graduated, I was looking for a job," explains Horsfield. "To cut a long story short: A friend of mine got a job with the designer Martin Francis, who wanted to set up a new team in the south of France. I applied and was able to join him." At the time, the team was working on the 74.50 metre Blohm & Voss "Eco" (now "Zeus"), and Horsfield took over the mast. "We were given a lot of responsibility straight away, I learnt a lot and worked on some pretty amazing refit projects that year." This led to great friendships and contacts, including with stars such as Espen Øino.
Great years with Don Starkey
After this intensive immersion in the world of yachts, Jonny was ready to go back to London after twelve months, where he joined Don Starkey as an exterior designer. "I had a great four or five years with him in the early 1990s, and that's where I learnt interior design," explains Horsfield. "Before that, I was pretty focussed on exterior line styling."
At this point, life, and more specifically the global economy, threw a decisive ball in Jonny's direction.
There was no specific moment that led us to found H2 Yacht Design, it was more of an external impulse."
"There was a recession in 1993/94, which made us redundant at Don Starkey's company. I was still quite young at the time, just 28, and it was a shock when it happened." He and a colleague then decided to set up H2 Yacht Design in 1994: "My surname is Horsfield and his name was Steve Howard, so we decided to call ourselves H2." In 2007, Jonny bought him out, so it's been just him ever since. And so the selection of future partners for his company is strictly limited to the pool of people whose surname begins with H.
The source of a lot of work for H2 Yachtdesign
For the newly established company, there was one obvious destination where they could take off: Turkey. "When we started working for Don, we already had a lot of projects in Turkey, so it was the first port of call. We started with some smaller projects, nothing special, then we got into refits, and we spent the first six, seven years doing that." The market for new builds wasn't quite there yet, there weren't nearly as many projects as there are today. Refits, on the other hand, were common and regularly received new interiors. "That was the source of a lot of work for us, and we were very successful with it."
Although Turkey and the refit market were initially a very important part of H2 Yacht Design, Jonny had a key experience in the mid-2000s. He realised that a change of direction was needed for the company. "I had a kind of epiphany when I realised that we were being reduced to refits," explains Horsfield. "A certain broker overlooked us for a project and started working with other designers behind our backs. He said, "You don't do new builds, do you?" And I replied, "Yes, of course we do!" It was at that moment that Horsfield knew he had to change his whole attitude and chase the new build market.
H2 enters the new build market with Turquoise Yachts
In 2005, H2 acquired a project called "Talisman C", which is now called "Talisman Maiton". Their first real 50-metre-plus project. "We did the interior and styling of the exteriors, a Turquoise," continues Horsfield. "We had already worked for the shipyard and this project really helped us to establish our reputation and break into the new build market." The Istanbul Turquoise shipyard is still one of the design studio's most reliable customers today.
Since this turning point, H2 Yacht Design's reputation and capabilities have continued to grow. The studio has worked with various shipyards around the world on some very eye-catching projects such as the 75-metre Feadship "Arrow" (2020), the 82-metre "Kosatka" by Blohm & Voss (ex-Graceful, 2014), the 107.40-metre "Andromeda" by Kleven Maritime AS (2016) and the 85-metre "Victorious" by AKYACHT (2021). And the list could go on forever.
Thanks to the studio's global reach and more than 30 years of experience, Jonny is in an excellent position to explain how the superyacht industry has changed in recent years: "Computers have radically changed the business, not just for the designers, but also for the shipyards in terms of the sophistication of the shapes they can realise today. This is light years away from what would have been possible, even 20 years ago. As a consequence, it has also helped exterior design to incorporate quite complex surfaces into the designs that we could never have built before."
A double-edged sword
However, as Jonny makes clear, this means that this technology also has a downside: "Computers are like a double-edged sword from a designer's point of view. To be honest, they are a real pain in the arse. Everyone is demanding better and better renderings from the designers, which requires a lot of work from us." Today, H2 has several employees in the studio who are solely responsible for renderings.
He continues: "I think it's affecting the creativity of designers because you're relying too much on the computer for all the details and you don't have the same feel you used to have for creating the ambience of a room." "Call me 'oldschool'," Horsfield continues to emphasise, "but I still like to sketch by hand. I'm not da Vinci, but I like to draw these thumbnails. I can quickly communicate my ideas about the interiors to other designers."
"Andromeda's" interior attracted new ordersIn the near future, everything at H2 Yacht Design will revolve around explorer formats. "We have just signed two explorer-style yachts, smaller versions of the 107-metre Andromeda (ex-"Ulysses"), for which we created the interior with the Norwegian Kleven shipyard." The client saw what Horsfield and his team had achieved on "Andromeda" and said: "These are exactly the functional interiors I was looking for, just a little more modern."
H2 is realising an interesting project with "Andromeda"
"Andromeda" was a very interesting project for H2 as the interior outfitting was done by a company specialising in cruisers and had to be much more cost effective than a typical superyacht. This project attracted a number of new work orders over the years as people understood and admired what H2 had done. "They particularly liked this universal, functional interior where you can walk around in shoes everywhere and keep your wetsuit on without constantly worrying about cleanliness." Horsfield and his team are also continuing to work with the Norwegian Vard shipyard on the interior design of the 181-metre-long "REV Ocean" (Research Expedition Vessel). "An incredibly exciting project," he says.
Finally, Jonny has a few words of wisdom for all young designers - for those who, like him 30 years ago, are nervously entering the superyacht sphere for the first time: "I firmly believe that if you are a good designer, you can design anything. It doesn't matter whether it's the exterior of a superyacht or a pair of trainers, you have to be able to visualise something in 3D. Either there's a part of your brain that can do that or there's not. I would be a lousy accountant because I can't deal with numbers - everyone has their strengths. You just have to find out what they are and play to them."
