What’s better than one designer? Two designers. And No, we’re not talking about too many chefs in the kitchen or two captains steering a ship. What we’re talking about is the sum of a collected effort. A platform for Australian designers and architects to deliver their vision side-by-side to a global stage. Enter Made By Pen a product design studio borne from humble beginnings of the search for an improved dog kennel design, becoming Pen’s first collaborative effort, The Dog Room.
The effort, between Made By Pen’s founders Michael Mabuti and Susan Chung. And designer Michael Ong, was the beginning of a new process and a new way of thinking when it comes to product and homeware design.
“The three of us had this discussion about how there are no designer dog kennels that fit in seamlessly with existing architectural spaces, and don’t cost an arm and a leg,” say Mabuti and Chung. “We knew there was a definite need for it.” Hence, The Dog Room transpired.
Since then, Made by Pen has added a new dimension to product design with their collection:
Sway by Nick Rennie and Made By Pen. Sway is a completely new concept in floor-lamp lighting. A floor lamp untethered to a power cord or electrical outlet of any kind enabling it to be moved all over the home, the office, even outdoors. A design unbound by category norms is exactly what Nick Rennie and Pen were imaging when they collaboratively designed Sway.
Field by Helen Kontouris and Made By Pen is a tiered serving platter which incorporates movement akin to the ‘lazy Susan’. The whirling layers are designed to deliberately elicit an emotional response from its users, drawing them in and fostering a tradition of sharing food and bringing people together.
Linea by Jim Hannon-Tan and Made By Pen is all about tabletop architecture. Its form is like a miniature streetscape when the number of different interchangeable components are brought together. Uniquely versatile, it can accommodate anything from soaps and sponges, phones, glasses and stationery or toothbrushes and make-up accessories making it well suited to living areas, the study, kitchen or bathroom.
Linea makes organising the ‘little bits’, simple.
Wingnut: a collaborative effort between designer Stefan Bagnoli and Made By Pen. Wingnut is a modular storage system constructed of anodised aluminium that’s easily configured to fit a long or short wall. With a building method not too dissimilar to Lego, it can be built to any height ensuring it is always fit for purpose.
Architectural designers: take notice
It’s time for architectural designers to take notice. There’s a paradigm shift in design delivery and it’s called the collaborative effort. Made By pen facilitates a new wave of creativity in the industry allowing independent designers and architects to confidently stand side-by-side.
And, what makes Made by Pen different than the rest is: it’s wholly about showcasing and celebrating Australian talent within the architectural homeware design space. “Australia have countless innovative designs to show the world, and Made by Pen is bringing them to the forefront” says Chung.