ICFF set up

I arrived in NYC on early Thursday morning after a wonderful red eye, no sleep and ready to go! After 14 hours of setup and over 36 with no sleep I decided to get to the hotel and get some rest before finishing set up today (Friday) Took lots of pics but of course like a knucklehead I forgot my usb cord to the camera so I could download them for daily updates. So I resorted to the dreaded cell phone pics. Not the best but the booth is starting to look great and the entire Left Edge group is a very talented and amazing group of people and brands! More to come in the next few days as we launch the brand to the world! By the way, check out the amazing artwork from Beth Weintraub.

ICFF Limited Edition Chair Preview

If you're at ICFF this weekend, you'll be among the first to see the new limited edition Maku lounge chair in person.

These chairs feature unique frangipani carvings under the arms and are part of a very limited run (250 in total). Like all Maku seating and dining elements, these chairs are created from sustainable plantation grown teak.

Details on the piece can be found on the Maku site, but I attached some pics if anyone wants to pull them down.

If you're heading to ICFF this year, definitely stop at the Left Edge pavilion to see Maku and the other great California based companies.

Did a quick photo shoot last weekend to highlight a few pieces with different color cushions as well as in different settings. That and to shoot a new Limited Edition Piece that everybody will find out about in the very near future...

Big thanks to my good friends Cec and Katie for letting us shoot in their backyard. Juxtaposition between contemporary cement forms and traditional materials in contemporary form made for some great shots. Of course I have to mention what a fabulous job Cec did as honorary prop master for the day!

By the way, Cec is the guy behind Brave Art. Check it out!

Equally big thanks go out to Ashley Ettwein Photography, if anybody is looking for a terrific photographer to shoot products, Ashley is your girl. Great job Ash and thanks for all of the help!!!

Vernare

Vernare is our newest retail partner up in West Hollywood and they just had the premier opening featuring Dr. William A. Embodens collection of African Tribal artwork entitled "Sacred Objects of Africa" quite amazing artwork!

But even cooler than the art collection is Daniel and his staff direction within the retail community. With a flourishing interior, landscape and architectural design business already in place it only made sense to create a retail environment for their customers. While that is nothing unique, the approach they are taking to the retail side of the business is quite different in that they are only offering sustainable and green products such as Maku.

To take a bit from the Vernare website "we seek the highest quality designer furniture, sustainable fabrics and wall-coverings, innovative and energy efficient lighting, lush, yet water-wise indoor and outdoor gardens, energizing fountains and more. With every item that we create or search out, we aim to have as little impact to the environment as possible."

What a refreshing view point and I am quite sure they will be successful! Many thanks to Dan and the rest of the Vernare crew for letting Maku be a part of their amazing store!

By the way, Vernare is latin for "Growing Green"!

Maku in HFN Magazine

This is long overdue, but I wanted to show everyone Maku's debut in HFN (Home Furnishings News).





This was actually the first print/trade piece to run about Maku (in April) and I remember being very excited when it came out (and when a retailer called Johnny asking if we'll be at ICFF.

BTW - Just to confirm what was blogged about earlier, Maku will be at ICFF this month. We'll be located at booth #2338 as part of the Left Edge pavilion.

More info on Maku @ ICFF and media hits to come soon!

Check out the installation we just did at Stone Brewing Company in Escondido. Greg, Chris and the rest of the Stone crew do an amazing job. The Bistro and Gardens not only offer incredible food and beers but an amazing setting to enjoy it all.

Maku Premiere at Grounded in Encinitas

That's right, we've gone public with the collection. On Friday April 20th, over 150 VIP's joined us for the debut of our first collection at Grounded Garden Shop in Encinitas. Juli and Rich (the owners of Grounded) have been some of the most gracious, kind, and helpful people I have ever met. Without their support we would never be where we are right now! Everybody should go and buy something from Grounded, check out their site here and if you buy something from the site try and make it a Maku piece...

Like any new start up things have to go wrong every once in a while and this time mother nature was no help. The biggest winter storm to hit So.Cal this year barreled through all day Friday and pretty much drenched the place. But we must have some good karma stashed somewhere, by 4 pm the sun was shinning and it looked like a beautiful evening was in store. Of course it rained again but that didn't stop the fun as we moved under the tents or inside the store. The hero of the night award goes to the wait staff for enduring the rain and holding their ground despite being wet and cold, many thanks Suzanne!!

All in all it was a great night of design and lifestyle appreciation with the furniture taking center stage and silent auction featuring imagery from the Transworld Sightings Gallery to benefit the Surfrider foundation San Diego Chapter. Here are a few pics from the event and thanks to everybody that joined us as well as everybody that helped put the evening together. Chef Pascal from Savory cooked up some incredible eats and the crew from Stone Brewing made sure nobody got thirsty.

And last but not least it was good to see my friend and business partner Mike! I know he had a tought time leaving the islands to come back to crowded and cold San Diego but it was good hanging out!! I'm coming over to Maui next time though!

Here's a few pics from the evening

A little pre Premiere warm up for the crew!


Chilling inside Grounded(sorry, can't figure out how to rotate this image and it's been an 17 hr day..)


Rain rain go away, but it sure looks nice on the table...


Rich, Juli, MJ, and Jdub (had to choose this pic so the trio of baldness didn't blind Juli...)

First Production Container!

Alright! Our first container of production arrived today from Indo and it looks great! Long day yesterday unloading, inventory, and getting product prepped for our VIP premiere on Friday.

Speaking of 1% For the Planet...

The good folks @ Apartment Therapy took note of some well designed home brands that are a part of the 1% For The Planet alliance.

Besides making a note about Maku, they also highlighted the Modern Twist and Bambu. We're in good company for sure.

More recent PR coverage to be posted in the next few weeks, but for now, I think we're all focusing on the big event @ Grounded this week.

1% for the Planet What an amazing group of companies and brands! It's no secret that I have long been a supporter of educated and proper environmental causes. Growing up in a small ski town in Colorado, working in the action sports industry, and most importantly enjoying the surf, snow, mountains, and beaches the world has to offer we need to make sure we take care of planet's resources. I couldn't under good conscious start a company that didn't somehow give back to not only the people surrounding our production facilities but to the environment as well. Global Stewardship is each of our responsibilities and I hope more and more companies will continue to join and support 1% For the Planet

It's a big commitment to give 1% of your total sales to charity, but well worth it in my humble opinion...

OK, I'll get off my soapbox now.... :)

WOW!!!

It's April 15th and it's been almost 4 months since I made a post.... Where o where has the time gone??? I gotta tell you as a small business owner (Ok start up since we have yet to deliver any product) the road is filled with ups and downs.

Thankfully though we have mostly had the ups (So far...) Where to start. Well lets see production is going and our first container will be delivered this week!!! The production photos that Jeff and crew would send us to stay updated look amazing and I can't wait to see the finished products sitting in my courtyard, backyard, and of course our warehouse :) Thats right we have a warehouse now instead of the alternative of storing everything in my garage.

The website is up and going (Thanks Josh and sorry for keeping you up working so late!) The site looks amazing and there is no way we could have done any of this with out the amazing help of the Vapor Studios crew and Ignacio Tecnological himself.

PR PR PR, lots of good PR happening, some really cool design blogs are picking up on the furniture and we are starting to see some good support from the print media as well. We'll be sure to post each time we get some cool PR.

I'm gonna make it a better point to give more updates and stuff on our blog. There just never seems to be enough time in the day lately to get everything done and one of these days we are going to have to hire some people to help run this company. I can't wait until that point!!! Until then, I am sure there will be plenty more 18hr plus days. Bet hey what's life if you don't work for it right...?

By the way, the waves were really good last week and it's good to be the boss and be able to go for a paddle with out having to be tied to a time clock or have to sit in some corporate meeting type BS!

Uggg Vegas...

Been here for 8 days and it's time to go home and get in the water. There is a solid NW swell filling in on Friday!

Of course leaving the Ski show is always bitter sweet. To quote a friend of mine "where else can you get t*ts smashed in your face, stay out all night, and then sell a bunch of snowboards..." Ahhh the joys of Las Vegas.

Still No waves

Oh yeah, the waves are flat here. I decent swell since the first of the year and couple of fun small days but nothing like last year so far...

And it's fricken freezing here to boot! Who says Global Warming is a myth...

Off to Vegas...

Time to make the annual pilgrimage to Las Vegas for the SIA (ski and snowboard show). Gotta push some wool to keep the wheels on the furniture bus. I think this is close to my 15th year of going to this show and every year is just as much fun as the first!

The guys at I/O Biocompatibles are super cool and the Merino wool products they are producing are incredible for not only layering but as some really bitchen cutting edge apparel as well. Check them out, it's up and coming for sure. Plus it's sustainable and much more eco friendly than synthetics like capilene or polypro.

ICFF!

The first work day of the new year has brought snow (wow, that's a Freudian typo...) what I was trying to type was the first work day of the new year has brought good news. Maku Furniture has been accepted to show at the International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF) this May in NYC!

Instead of having a stand alone booth at the show we have opted to join some of the other key design groups from California in a pavilion called "Left Edge". This is a group of the newest and hottest designers and companies from California.

Emmanuel and Mark from em [collaborative studio] had the forethought to create Left Edge a couple of years back. Check them out!

Here are a couple of shots from Left Edge 2 years ago courtesy of Emmanuel.