I receive a phone call from Jaime, the owner of one of the workshops that collaborate with us, called Estudio Buenos Dias (Good Morning Studio, so cute right?). It's only 8:30 am but he's an early bird so I finish my breakfast while talking with him. "I had a revelation" he says "I want to start making furniture that I can buy". I know exactly what he means.
My sister and I (Pilar and Marta) we have a business called Comcosy based in Madrid, where we do exclusive custom-made furniture. Jaime is one of the members of our community of designers and makers. We love our jobs, we make these pieces of furniture with top quality materials, hand-made and the result is always stunning. But these are only accessible to a few people. My home is still mostly Ikea or similar. I have nothing against that kind of furniture, but I would like the ratio Ikea vs "something better" to shift.
So, he makes me curious and I ask him if he knows how to do this. One hour later he is in our office showing us the first sketches of what later would become MAGARU DESIGN. He's a doer. At the end he says "I'm going to need help with this. Choosing the right designs, the branding, marketing strategy.. so I would like Comcosy to get involved".
We play it cool until he leaves the office and then Pilar and I go nuts. What did he show us? Folded metal. Literally. All the designs are made of one single sheet of steel, folded into different simple shapes, each one making one piece of furniture. And it works! We not only loved the designs, but also all the thinking behind.
"Why steel?" I asked him. I learned that most of the steel used in Spain is recycled and it can be recycled over and over again, without loosing its properties. It's basically one of the most sustainable materials. That was a shocker for us.
"Why folding it?" As an architect, Pilar got that very quickly. It makes the piece stronger, as there are no joints between the pieces that usually create weak points. The inspiration came from the japanese art of origami.
"How much will the production cost?" It's not expensive and after adding all the costs and margin it would still be an original design that we can buy, that will last forever, that looks great and is 100% recyclable.
We've been working together on MAGARU DESIGN for the last month, since that day Jaime told me he wanted to create furniture that he could buy. Alex from We Are Builders decided to join us as well, bringing more energy and vision to the team.
We finished our first collection inspired by origami, it has 5 pieces of furniture, each one in 5 different colours. We have decided to do a crowdfunding for the launch of this MAGARU collection, which starts on the 5th of June. We want to continue designing quality furniture that more people can afford, always keeping the values that made us love our jobs in the first place.
You can see more and get involved by visiting our website: http://www.magarudesign.com/
Welcome into the fold.
More info: magarudesign.com
Madrid coffee table, New York magazine rack and Paris pot holder. MAGARU collection.
Barcelona shelf in green from the Magaru collection.
Jaime, lead designer at Magaru, showing us how strong the Barcelona shelves are. MAGARU collection.
New York magazine rack in coral from the Magaru collection.
Paris pot holder in yellow from the Magaru collection.
From left to right: Marta Sierra (Comcosy), Alex Fábregas (We are builders), Jaime Martín (Estudio Buenos Días), Pilar Sierra (Comcosy). First Magaru Collection. Place: La Manual, Madrid.
