In 2008, the French magazine Express listed him as one of the top 15 designers in the world. He is the recipient of the 2005 Antarctica fellow and in 2007 he was given NZ’s highest design award, the John Britten Award, by the Designer’s Institute of NZ.

In 1973, Trubridge bought a pair of stone ruins in the north of England in search of a meaningful lifestyle, to which he restored with a group of friends, leading him to his wife Linda, and two sons. A few years later, they renovated an old barn into a workshop, Trubridge simultaneously developed his business and held a part time job. Here, he grew a love for wood and nature. By 1977, he had crafted a collection of pieces representing the needs of his family, displaying traditional design and impeccable woodworking.

The political landscape was changing in the early 1980s, prompting David and Linda to buy Hornpipe, and sale across the Atlantic. They were in search of a suitable location to raise their family, stopping for periods of time at different islands. Trubridge began building furniture commissions at a workshop in Morea towards the end of the 1980s, inspired by local art forms. In an attempt to express the memory and beauty of his sailing experience, he designed the Sail chair in 1989.

His seat creations redacted into become raft series. The raft forms pushed craft techniques to the extreme. The various iterations contained feelings of the ocean or notions of escape and passage. A pinnacle and certainly a defining point in David's oueve was Body Raft. David took it with him to the Milan Furniture Fair where it was spotted by Giuliano Capellini and licensed to the Capellini collection.