Modern Heroes: Lozi Designs | Spencer Thorpe Bloghttps://spencerthorpe.tumblr.com/post/162348010964/modern-heroes-lozi-designs#_=_ Todays Modern Hero is Soroush Pourhashemi who founded Lozi Designs designers and makers of beautiful plywood furniture lighting and accessories back in 2012. We caught up with him on the opening of their new store and workshop in Hackney. Theyre everyday beautiful products: very minimal and honest Dream Soroush Pourhashemi Founder of Lozi Designs IDEALIST: Soroush can you start by telling us the background of Lozi how did it come about and whats behind opening your new store? Soroush: It was all part of the dream I had. I started woodwork in general and studied design at school. I always wanted to have a place where we can create our work and people can come have a look and just see whats going on and where the focus is. I also wanted to have a bit more exposure for my work. So getting a shopand having a studio workshop aroundit made sense rather than to have two separate places. I want to make it accessible in the city people can come and see the work. Its great to have a focus for a local businesses and Hackney works well as you shop locally for so many things. IDEALIST: And for people who havent seen your product range how would you describe it what characterizes it? Soroush: Theyre everyday beautiful products: very minimal and honest. We try to make most of our furniture pieces out of one piece of wood with minimum joints and when you look at them you can see immediately how they have been made. In the big city there are so many complications and things to see and digest. Coming home is a safe place and I wanted to communicate a sense of simplicity and ease through beautiful shapes rather than challenging designs. One of the things that we do here a lot is bending wood using a specific vacuum press plywood technique Designs IDEALIST: So youve got lighting youve got cabinets youve got tables youve got other kinds of furniture. Whats the starting point for your work? Soroush: If you look at the business we have a standard range like coffee tables lamps table chairs and so on and we also do bespoke interior projects. So its always changing its always interesting for example if we get a commission to interior design a house then there is a lot of new fitted furniture from the kitchen to the wardrobes and shelving and we also bring a lot of our standard products in to match with it. So the entire thing looks like an art the whole design is unified. Its kind of hassle free for the clients because they deal with one person and then we design everything for them. We make it we install it. Its then customer service afterwards. So its a lot of caring for the clients. Maybe they spend a bit more but the result is great and everyone happy. Approach IDEALIST: And what would you say your hallmark approach is? Soroush: One of the things that we do here a lot is bending wood using a specific vacuum press plywood technique. Thats something I started the business with. Bent plywood has been done a lot of times like in your 1930s-40s and through to the 70s and of course its a technique used in a lot of design classics but its an approach that falls in and out of use as its very precise and time-consuming. IDEALIST: But you experiment with other materials too? Soroush: Yes and at the beginning there were a couple of materials we were working with. I was just exploring but at as you keep going you kind of see new things you kind of explore new things and new combinations . And then you develop yourapproach. I recently discovered a company who do surfaces with recycled plastic and so soon were going to bring some of this finish to our range. Its recycled yogurt bottles and the material is called yogurt but it is like a very very compressed white plastic that has a very nice texture which goes very well with wood. IDEALIST: Is sustainability something thats important to you? Soroush: Absolutely our percentage waste is much much lower than the industry average because through bending ply we are keeping the number of joints and pieces to a minimum. So much is made from one piece of wood and we have control over it so there is very little wasted and through the application of very thin layers of plywood at each stage we can carefully control the amount of material we use. Process IDEALIST: But that kind of work is very labour intensive isnt it? Soroush: Yeah its a long process for all of us. We put a lot of effort and time to get it right. For example this is standard range I was telling you. It takes a long time to develop it. We create jigs we create frames and then once we have it all there everything is made to order. Everything seems like a one off piece but its the product of a lot of prior development. our percentage waste is much much lower than the industry average IDEALIST: So what are your ambitions then? Do you want to be stocked in the high street? Soroush: No I dont think so. We got approached by a major retailer and they were interested in some of our products and if you can do it why not? But I like to keep this brand individual. We dont necessarily want to be part of like a bigger brand all the corporates all of this. Starting a business is very difficult and we have passed that point and its very enjoyable now. We want to retain our values and ensure the sort of business we wanted to build we get to continue with. For me this is my passion as well designing furniture. So I dont want to lose that. Heroes IDEALIST: So who are your heroes? Soroush: One of those questions. Heroes. A lot of people most of them are like musicians actually. I really likeLeonard Cohen thats one of my heroes as a person hes a really nice person. His art his work is just incredible. Coming todesign and furniture. I really likeAlvar Aalto. Future Aspirations IDEALIST: What about your ambitions in terms of your designs. Youve mentioned you love working with clients on major projects. What about the product ranges what do you see next in terms of product ranges? Soroush: I would like to develop a range that suits modern living. Technology has developed incredibly over the last 20 years but we still use the same furniture. Many people live in tiny apartments especially in London and other big cities. How can we achieve an environment which enables people to work relax maybe have a little dinner party and how can our designs support that? And we love doing interests interiors projects where we get to explore new ideas and bring new materials. Its amazing to create things that people are likely to keep in their houses for years. IDEALIST: Just thinking from the perspective of the client it must bedifficultyou know finding that balance in the sense that you approach professionals because you trust them and you love what they do and youre willing to invest in that but you want something thats just personal to you so you want to put your personal stamp on it. Finding that sort of intersect between the designers vision and the clients vision it cant be easy. How do you do that? Soroush: Yeah you said it: its not easy. This is another thing in our brand we are trying to create that trust in the products so when people see our previous work they can immediately trust this kind of quality. The design the attitude and we are not mainstream we know that. And if anyone approaches us they kind of know our style their attitude their direction and they know we have this shop this workshop people come and see the entire store. So then they can say okay putting thistogether with this I can start to understand. And its like areal privilege for us do the entire commission as a project. I mean we feel privileged to be chosen. Sometimes clients have strong ideas and inspirational images to work with otherwise its more of a blank canvas. And as we discuss we can help them think through their needs we can give them lots of tips and they say oh! we didnt think about that. And then you can build it up from there to give them solutions that really meet their needs. Find Out More The LoziShop/Workshop is based at 278 Hackney road London E2 7SJ and is open Mon Fri 10am 6pm Closed Saturdays Sundays 11am 5pm You May Also Like Modern Hero: Cornish fabric designer Helen Baker Modern Heroes: George Yabu and Glenn Pushelberg Industrial chic meets crafted elegance chez Arthur Hoopers Save The post Modern Heroes: Lozi Designs appeared first on The Idealist. from The Idealist https://www.theidealist.com/modern-heroes-lozi-designs/ from The Idealist Magazine https://theidealistmagazine.tumblr.com/post/162347780183