good morning december, how did we get here again? i can’t quite believe how fast this month has gone again but with all the busy festive preparations, i hope there is a little time left for inspiring stories and interesting conversations - and i really did bring a good one for you this time, as i managed to get a few words in with matt maurer, designer of the smart and sustainable home office system of arnie.m, featured in our post about interior trends at the start of this year.
photo by paul moffat photography
ZITA: hi matt! first things first, can you say a few words about yourself – what you do and how you got there?
MATT: i’m the founder and creative director of mr.m ideas studio. mr.m specialises in brand identity, visual communication, digital design and environments. with over 50 design awards and 20 years’ experience i collaborate with creative people in many fields to make great ideas happen.
my journey before arriving at mr.m was studying graphic design at university and spending my earlier professional career working for some of the most renowned design agencies in manchester.
ZITA: and about your product - would you say that developing arnie.m was a long-held dream of yours, or was it something that evolved over time? can you give a little insight into the birth of your business?
MATT: birth is the key word! my studio is based at our small home and when we found out my wife, angela was expecting we also knew that we were presented with a spatial challenge.
life and work need to be in balance especially within the home environment. the limited space presented a challenge but that is what led us to thinking about creating a workspace that could accommodate all my design paraphernalia, yet still be compact enough to shut up shop of a working day and become an attractive piece of domestic furniture.
so, with the help of friends and contacts in the creative and craft industries in and around manchester, we took our design ideas and skilfully translated them into a for-real form – a workspace.
we were swept away as new parents when arnie arrived but once we started to get our heads around everything including sleep deprivation, we began to see how the workspace really helped. when friends and family complimented on the complete ‘office’ it led us to start out on our adventure. it took just under two years of developing and tweaking to turn our workspace in what it is today — arnie.m. (we had to name it after the little man who inspired the idea!)
photo by paul moffat photography
ZITA: how lovely - and impressive! i actually discovered your furniture in search of home office trends which obviously blew up since 2020 and the pandemic. how has this experience been so far for getting your range known?
MATT: we only truly launched arnie.m at the end of december / january 2021, we are very much still in our infancy. we want arnie.m to be a family adventure for angela, myself and arnie plus the amazing network of skilled people who are part of a wider, very support arnie.m family. i have to say we are still finding our feet but the response and support we have received has been amazing! the highlight for us has been getting arnie.m featured in variety of well-known/high end publications which has raised our profile.
ZITA: modular design systems in general are a smart way of working but there’s also a lot of play in it for your clients. can you expand a little bit about the possibilities or how your furniture can be built up? are there any limitations to your systems or can it be theoretically expanded to huge environments (e.g. contract?)
MATT: we know creating your perfect working environment is personal, so by making arnie.m modular makes it adaptable. arnie.m starts with a frame, and you basically hang the units that best meet your needs on the sturdy (yet elegantly formed) frame. currently arnie.m has a range of different modular units which include a desk unit to several storage and display unit options, this gives you the flexibility to create your very own arnie.m
each arnie.m is handcrafted with pride and attention to detail, we only make to order. this means with the support a small but talented collective we can customise and be creative with the modular design if required, individual unit designs, sizes, even colour can all be considered. this way of working gives arnie.m the flexibility to work in different ways and look at opportunities in different environments.
photo by paul moffat photography
ZITA: that’s really clever! i think handmade processes always allow a lot of custom tweaks indeed. can you tell a little bit more about the material choice? how important are sustainable qualities for you with regards to both materials used and your working processes?
MATT: we are not, nor do we want to be a mass-producer, having to use cheaper materials like mdf. we love ply it’s basically a ‘green’ product, its beautiful, durable and long lasting. we designed arnie.m to be easily reconfigured to meet your needs over a lifetime, individual hand-made, built to last in natural birch plywood that is FSC certified.
arnie.m has some clearly defined ambitions which focus around sustainability. we want to grow arnie.m carefully for everyone’s benefit, as mentioned we are a family not a vast global corporation. we want to support our small collective. we use only what we need in materials and packaging, avoiding waste and keep production local. by building a sustainable business we want our boy arnie to benefit from the work he’s inspired.
photo by paul moffat photography
ZITA: this is very inspiring! i love plywood in general, i even print with it - it’s so universal. and beautiful too. what were the aesthetic driving principles of your product? do you follow any particular design school or style, or was it purely driven by function?
MATT: function was at the heart of the idea. simply our brief was to create a practical, adaptable and functioning workspace within a small space, that could also be aesthetically pleasing.
ZITA: it makes perfect sense! and now a question i ask from everyone - can you recommend a book, or another designer, artist or a maker whose work is worth looking into?
MATT: angela was the really driving force for developing the workspace into arnie.m but we were inspired by the books produced by the do book co we highly recommend taking a look at them.
ZITA: i definitely will, thank you! and last, but not least, where can we see your products at the moment? and what next for arnie.m? are you looking to grow your range?
MATT: you can view arnie.m on our website but we also currently have one arnie.m displayed in a house by urban splash show home in new Islington in manchester.
next year we look to continue to build the arnie.m brand. we are also going to explore adding new units designs to our range. and most importantly enjoy the adventure!
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