DI: What is the main principle, idea and inspiration behind your design?
: The aim was to introduce warmth and comfort into our product range by utilizing the natural characteristics of timber. We were driven by the tactile aspects of the user experience.
DI: What has been your main focus in designing this work? Especially what did you want to achieve?
: Preserving that homely feel associated with comfortable everyday use while still upholding high quality, contemporary styling.
DI: What are your future plans for this award winning design?
: constant refinement and a greater emphasis on sustainability and artisan crafts that compliment contemporary interiors.
DI: How long did it take you to design this particular concept?
: Roughly four years from an idea. It was a slow but meticulous development process.
DI: Why did you design this particular concept? Was this design commissioned or did you decide to pursuit an inspiration?
: We strive to create personalised products that beautifully fit the needs of the time, which is how the Monte Timber Collection came to be. It complements the emergence of sustainable architecture and interiors that bring the outdoors into the home.
DI: Is your design being produced or used by another company, or do you plan to sell or lease the production rights or do you intent to produce your work yourself?
: We exclusively produce and sell the product ourselves in-house. You can view our website and make an enquiry if you wish to purchase or gain more information on the range.
DI: What made you design this particular type of work?
: We listen carefully to the needs of our customers, and with the widespread use of timber in architecture it presented us with an opportunity to further expand upon our product offering.
DI: Where there any other designs and/or designers that helped the influence the design of your work?
: We were only really influenced by our customers, in particular when it came time to determine how we would finish the timber since our company is all about making products personal.
DI: Who is the target customer for his design?
: Primarily architects, interior designers, and home building designers.
DI: What sets this design apart from other similar or resembling concepts?
: Consistency and being able to purchase pull handles, levers, cabinet hardware and more while still exhibiting aesthetic consistency across the board. It enables our customers to purchase timber door hardware without having to make compromises.
DI: How did you come up with the name for this design? What does it mean?
: We consistently try to give our products names that mean something to the people in the company and our customers simultaneously. We often lean on our cultural heritage to inspire the names we give our products and usually do this with the core company group over a coffee in the dream room.
DI: Who did you collaborate with for this design? Did you work with people with technical / specialized skills?
: We work closely with our customers and many architects and interior designers. We believe seeking out and utilising feedback is critical to design. We drew upon our design acumen, the technical and practical skills of our in-house fitters and turners, and the feedback from the stakeholders mentioned previously.
DI: What is the role of technology in this particular design?
: Additive manufacturing has improved efficiency a lot. We print dozens of prototypes to refine every last detail before commercialising our designs. In saying this, we still create hand-made prototypes during conceptualisation and early development.
DI: What are some of the challenges you faced during the design/realization of your concept?
: Our user feedback revealed our main design challenge. How do we develop a small range of timber levers to suit any modern or contemporary interior setting? While still complimenting our existing product offering? After many conceptual design iterations and a large number of hand-made and 3D printed prototypes we shortlisted a few refined lever designs.
The solution to our challenge? The blend of traditional door hardware materials and timber. Lever designs with clean lines, simple curvature, timeless silhouettes, refined proportions and the ability to be purchased in over 100 finish combinations so that you can personalise the finish to your liking.
DI: How did you decide to submit your design to an international design competition?
: It comes back to the importance we place on feedback. We strive to improve continuously and we want to be respected as a design-led business that produces products that invoke desire and pride. We use design competitions as one of the ways we can assess our design outcomes, and ensuring our design acumen is recognised at an international scale.
DI: Any other things you would like to cover that have not been covered in these questions?
: Not in particular, however we’d like to sincerely thank you for showcasing our work and your time.