In search of a Neue world

My everyday life is full of ‘stuff’. Stuff comes in, stuff goes out, but it’s the quality, well-designed and built-to-last things that remain — the things I really want around me (and if I’m truly honest, the list is pretty short). Unfortunately, the ‘under the hood’ story of many consumer products today often tells a tale of cheap, synthetic materials that ultimately define a short product lifespan. You’ve got to wonder at how much more care and attention we would place on our ‘stuff’ knowing that it was built to last with the consumer and the environment at the core of the design process.

So, in an effort to reduce the aforementioned ‘stuff’ in our lives, like many others my wife and I are always on the look out for ‘quality’ items, and in recent years it’s been encouraging to see the rise of studios and manufacturers focussing on producing quality products over quantity and price margin. One such studio is Neue Werkstadtt in Germany. Their manifest is simple — sourcing local materials they ‘design, manufacture and distribute in close collaboration with local craftsmen and businesses’.

The result is a small but beautifully crafted range of products that embodies all that is right about considered product design. The care and attention taken on even the smallest of details is really impressive, and by exposing the components and production process the studio hides behind nothing — their design heart is definitely worn on their sleeve. Even the studio’s clean and minimal branding seems to echo in the products themselves — lovely.

Here’s hoping their range continues to grow and more studios embrace similar values — I for one am in the market for less ‘stuff’.

This was originally posted on my own site.