Here is the second part of Bruce Ribay's interview for Noma edition. He will give us his sources of inspiration and his opinion on decoration and modular.
How do you define your job as an editor, what qualities are required?
Resilience. We did not know this job and therefore had to learn it in a complicated context. We started during covid and didn't know if the difficulty was due to the health crisis or to the fact that we don't know how to do our job well. It's probably both.
It takes patience, energy, network etc. The qualities required are similar for any box creation when starting out. We are conductors. The quality that we must highlight is the human relationship. We have to get along well with the orchestra: the designers, the manufacturers etc.
This profession integrates many different professions. So you have to be versatile and open-minded. Its not always easy.
Do you think your job will have to reinvent itself? Especially with the pandemic we are going through?
Yes and no. The negative side of the crisis is this shutdown of the economy and a complicated business environment. When we launched the project three years ago, we wanted to show that “consuming better” is not a fad. This already existed fifteen years ago. Today, it is a priority that encourages people to consume differently. Not a day goes by that we don't hear about recycling, consuming well, etc. This reassures us. We have a proposal that makes sense and has a real purpose today. More in our market. We are the only ones to offer products of this type. This requires a lot of development. It's not enough just to find plastic and a designer.
When you see a product at NOMA you can't imagine that everything is made from recycled materials. So we are not changing our direction. If we could change things, we would have more volume and lower prices. We know that we are on a high price range and that this can be a commercial drag. Today, we offer our products at the right price. We have a relevant design, sustainable products and made in France from recycled materials. Being a young company, we work in small series. In France, in the field of decoration, the brands call on retailers, who increase the margins. As a result, the products are more and more expensive. Launching a brand is not done in six months. For now, we continue in this direction.
In your opinion, do decoration and furniture have an impact on our moods and our well-being?
I subconsciously think so. We can see it when we are in the office or working from home. If we don't have a good chair to sit on, we are not well. Concerning the decoration it is for me a visual well-being. When we have beautiful objects, it contributes to well-being. Also, if the furniture is comfortable, it goes hand in hand. It's the same for bedding, for example. So yes it is important.
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Do you have a project, personal and/or professional, that you dream of realizing one day?
On a professional level, I wanted to create a furniture brand. With Guillaume, we are realizing this dream. We have a lot of desires for NOMA, such as designing and editing a luminous product. We know that the problem with this type of product is not the pretty recycled material lampshade but how to work with the electronics. Succeeding in working with recycled electronics is a real subject and on which we are working. This is one of the somewhat difficult subjects on which we are looking for solutions. On the personal side, everything is going well. I try to balance professional and personal life.
What are your sources of inspiration? Do you have any recommendations of social media accounts or brands that you like?
Our inspirations revolve around this notion of beautiful objects, although this is subjective. We are very curious and we are inspired by what affects us in terms of design. We have no limits. With Guillaume, we have similar tastes. It makes the task easier. We are sensitive to original and offbeat designs. We try to put them in our collections but this is not necessarily what will be put forward.
Today we have some pretty timeless designs. We work with all types of materials. It is true that for our first collection, we used plastic a lot. Today we will develop new things on different materials. The main thing is to like what we offer and that our products meet all our constraints. We are inspired by social networks and the press. On the internet it is a bit of a permanent watch on this type of questioning.
For brands, we really like “Eaux fragiles”. They do the dishes. There is also a French brand that makes furniture in Africa from cast metal. It's quite interesting. There are also brands of materials that we really like, such as “Le Pavé” in Paris. They come to collect plastic waste to make plates and we buy to transform them. They are young qualified architects who invest a lot of time and money.
We try to collaborate with French boxes. There is “SCALE” which makes a material from fish scales. We also have “Seconde Vie” which recovers old mattresses to make recycled foam blocks. These are French initiatives for the recovery of French waste with the production of primary and secondary materials. We also work with the Emmaüs workshop, which is developing a product from recycled wood. It is an insertion workshop. The social aspect is very relevant for us.
And finally, what do you think of the Pegboard and the modular design? Should we prefer a single function object? Or does the multifunction provide solutions in line with our lifestyles?
We work more on the single function. However, for a storage unit or shelves, the modular is useful. But, for the seat or the table, these are not easy subjects. This does not prevent us from releasing a table in September which is not modular but on which we have worked on the double function. A table to eat but also a table on which you can telework. It is a table with a double top that allows us to store our work things. When we want to eat, we can put all our things in it
Do not hesitate to consult our last article: The Ammo Studio
Interview by Clara Didier
Formatting by Coralie Mottu
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