[Monolith]

I really do believe this chair deserves its own thread. Check it : http://youtube.com/watch?v=pkEDDj7TTHE

[Norton Sharley]

not quite as exciting as the title suggest though

[Monolith]

I found it the most exciting thing in design for a long time to be honest.

[Sam]

I found it the most exciting thing in design for a long time to be honest.

whilst it is an innovative and well executed application of materials and structure (the concertina bit is made of thin cardboard), two issues regarding its use arise 1 - the durability of said cardboard, very quickly do the edges of the fins get folded, roughed and torn  2 - it's bloody uncomfortable to sit on (not that this is an attribute a chair design must adhere to)

It is, however, beautiful and innovative and that does it for me. I'd be wary of paying for one though, unless it was <£50, which to be honest, it bloody well should be. It probably is much, much more than that, however, which will render much of the design intent redundant.

[slackline]

I found it the most exciting thing in design for a long time to be honest.

whilst it is an innovative and well executed application of materials and structure (the concertina bit is made of thin cardboard), two issues regarding its use arise 1 - the durability of said cardboard, very quickly do the edges of the fins get folded, roughed and torn  2 - it's bloody uncomfortable to sit on (not that this is an attribute a chair design must adhere to)

3 - it falls apart if someone pisses themselves whilst sat on it.

[Monolith]

Aye, as with any design it needs to be refined. It'll be interesting to see how the guy manages to make an environmentally friendly piss proof coating. There again, it's probably doubtful that your average yuppie buyer would have an incontinence problem.

[Yossarian]

as a manufacturer of sofas, i am quite impressed by that.

however, it is very fucking little (presumably because if you mad it any bigger it might collapse or fall over) and i am quite convinced that i would squash it.

on the other hand, i'm sure it could be coated with a piss-proof coating, if that was really an issue.

i will be very surprised if you see it in dfs in their next 'sale'...

[nik at work]

Yoss what do you mean you manufacture sofas? I thought you drank expensive and obscure hooch in various London Town speakeasys for a living?
Do you really manufacture sofas?

P.S. Any chance I could have my DVD back, or did you  lose it in some obscure Latvian drinking game....

[Yossarian]

I do really manufacture sofas. I abandoned the booze journalism because despite being very fun it wasn't particularly lucrative and I'd rather develop a sclerotic liver in the comfort of my own home rather than being sent to vodka tastings and indirectly lining the pockets of my employers by writing wonderful stories about it.  So now I co-run a furniture business and write stories in my spare time.

Are you in need of sofas then?  We used to make very modern stuff, but since the market has kind of dropped away for modern that isn't either crazy money Italian or cheap Chinese brown leather we have since established a rather nice niche selling swanky, decorative type stuff to footballers' wives, Australian pop stars and Cliff Richard.

I have your DVD and would be happy to return it. You'll have to remind me of your address though.

[nik at work]

I don't need any sofas right now, but I imagine there could come a time when I probably will. Although it feels a lifetime away.
Do you just do sofas? And pressumably chairs? Or do you do a broader selection of furniture? And when you say you manufacture them do you really manufacture them. I mean are you in the business of building sofas or are you a reseller? Do you do custom design stuff? All a bit of a theoretical question right now, so don't go expecting a big commission or owt.

I'll PM you my address, but theres no special rush to send it back so might be better waiting till after christmas, it might not get lost in the post then....

[Yossarian]

We do sofas and armchairs. And some cabinet furniture. Though not a lot. We used to do more, but filling a second building with half a million quid worth of stock that we don't make much money on didn't really fit into our plan for going forward.

We do actually make them.  We have a factory in which we chop up bits of wood, screw them together, stick foam on them, cut and sew covers, fix them on the sofas, fill cushions, wrap them and then stick them in lorries and deliver them to shops.

We do occasionally modify designs for special orders, but our production process doesn't really accomodate totally random stuff.

I'll stick some brochures in the post with your DVD...

Furniture is quite fun, though a bit soul destroying in this country.

[Stoat]

My heart goes out to Yossarian. The furniture trade has been fucked by the fashion for brown leather. I wish we could sell more British gear, but for a few grand upfront you can get a container from China that will make a cracking margin. What really pisses me off though is some jumped up art school twat making money from some useless piece of shit that buyers buy in to make their shop look cutting edge. I maybe wrong, but I think from 12 years of experience that a fucking ridiculously priced cardboard box will sell like parboiled winnets.

Hope things pick up and if I know who you are I might see you at the NEC in January. Sadly no one listens to me. Some kind of Cassandra syndrome thing going on, but they'll regret it as soon as the 100k turtle watching/ Amstel drinking job comes up.

[Yossarian]

We make a bit of brown leather, which we sell to a big department store chain, but it doesn't make very much money at all. It's really just some volume to keep the factory busy.  It used to be cheap (for that department story) but now they can buy stuff that they sell for less that they pay us wholesale. That said, the margin might be big, but what they are starting to realise (or I hope they are anyhow) is that a big margin is not a lot of help when every sofa collapses after about 4 months.

I agree with your sentiment about art school twats. Trouble is that in this country the clever young designers hit a brick wall as soon as they leave college. The market for innovative modern is pretty tiny, whatever the Sunday supplements would have you believe. People would rather buy a knock down knock-off Barcelona chair than invest in something that designed and made with a bit of integrity. I would love to sell up and do an Established & Sons, getting amazing designers to do one-offs and limited edition limit of their imagination type stuff, but it doesn't work over here really. I reckon they've made a loss every year they've been operating.

Drop me a line if you're going to be at the NEC. We don't show there any more. £50,000 plus for a stand at an exhibition where no-one actually buys anything is a bit of a waste of time. But it's a fun place to wind people up at any rate....

[Stoat]

Will be there on the Wednesday. Can't wait for the wild Tuesday night out in Tamworth. PM with your wares, they sometimes listen to me!