Neil Burley

With an exhilarating career that has taken Neil Burley from architecture and graphic design to interior design and furniture, the founder of Anibou and architecture and interiors practice Burley Katon Halliday is undoubtedly one of the prominent Renaissance men of the Australian design scene. His extraordinary fluidity in mastering a variety of disciplines and design genres has seen him stimulate and excite the national design arena in a myriad of ways.

In 1961, he commenced his architecture studies at the University of NSW, where a communications tutor, Michael Nicholson, introduced him to what would bloom into the first phase of his career: graphic design. After 5 years of full and part time study he dropped out to work for the now-defunct Clune Galleries in Macleay Street, Potts Point – later to become Sydney’s iconic Yellow House.

Out of university, Neil’s graphic design business flourished and he established Neil Burley Design, expanding his practice to include interior and product design. A design polyglot in the truest sense, Neil continued to work across the three disciplines and grow Neil Burley Design significantly, eventually taking on partners David Katon and Ian Halliday and renaming the business Burley Katon Halliday in 1989. He remained with the practice until 1995, when he left to pursue another love: furniture.

Throughout his long career, Neil’s practice has consistently been underpinned by two distinct passions: one for nurturing the local design scene and the other for design that prizes quality, craftsmanship, and meticulous attention to detail.