Sorry for the lack of updates, things have been hopping here at Maku HQ!

Check out our newest retail and ecomm partner!

Vivavi (vee-va-vee): combination of the Latin Vivir meaning "to live" and the stem Avi meaning "sign"

Josh Dorfman and his crew at Vivavi have an amazing contemporary program that is surrounded with eco conscious products and philosophies! They develop forward thinking ventures designed to enable modern green living and you should not only check out the Vivavi site and buy something from them (hint -Maku!) but their sister website is a great resource - Modern Green Living

Aside from running the Vivavi Showroom in NYC and their websites, Josh is also known as The Lazy Environmentalist and has written a book of the same title as well as hosts his show on sirius satellite radio. Dwell Magazine says The Lazy Environmentalist is "... a guide to going green without resorting to birkenstocks and brown rice casserole.."

All of us at Maku (ok all 2 of us...) are really excited to be working with a group that is truly at the forefront of sustainable design and green living!

Kassia, Keir, and The Riz!

Longboarding in France, Snowboarding at Mt Hood, and Huge Barrels at the Mexican Pipeline. The Maku Lifestyle Ambassadors Kassia, Keir and Rizal have all been super busy the past few weeks.

Check it out,

Kassia is in Biarritz France right now for the Roxy Jam World Longboarding Championships. She just advanced to Round 3 and word has it she is killing it! Good Luck Kassie!



Keir just competed in the Burton Abominable Snow Jam 1/2 Pipe at Mt Hood and pulled off the best trick with a huge alley-oop mctwist! Congrats!





And last but not least, Rizal jetted away from Beautiful Bali to the Mexican Pipeline of Puerto Escondido to compete in the X Games Surfing Event for the World team.

A BIG high5 to Charles and crew down at Mixture in San Diego. They are our newest retail partner. I am honored and really excited to have them on board!

The really cool thing is they are in the old Taylor-Dykema skateboard factory. TD was pretty much the original and largest domestic skateboard factory starting back in 1978 making boards for Stacy Peralta, Tony Alva and eventually for companies like Girl, Chocolate, Crail Tap and a slew of others. TD also had a snowboard facility down by the Coronado Bridge and a super cool guy named Ernie DeLost ran the factory. Ernie taught me everything I know about snowboard manufacturing as TD was the factory that made all of the boards for Lamar back in the early 90's when I first got into the snowboard industry. Pretty rad how everything comes full circle! Here is a great History of snowboarding by my friends at Method Magazine

The Morning After Mess...

The Surfrider foundation, Sun Diego Boardshop and Billabong put a beach clean up together for July 5th. Again this year the kids and I (As well as 50 or so others) went down to our local beach "Ponto" and spent a couple of hours cleaning up trash leftover from the 4th of July. We actually topped last years number (77lbs) with over 100lbs of junk between the 4 of us! The good news is there were far less Cigarette butts to clean up this year but I am still curious as to when the Carlsbad City Council is going to step up and join the rest of the Coastal Communities in SD county and outlaw Smoking at the beach. Hello Mayor Lewis and council are you listening...!?!

By the way, cigarette butts are the number one item found in urban runoff pollution. For those of you that smoke do us all a favor and hold on to your butts!


Mason, Ally, and her friend Averi reaping the rewards of some Billabong goodies after a long morning of picking up trash.


The Bounty of bags, pallets, and other assorted trash we gathered.


The crew from Billabong gave away lots of goodies throughout the morning, many thanks to So.Cal rep Gary for the donations.

Maku on cover of Decor & Style

Greetings from Maku PR!

I think most of our close friends know this already, but for those who we have not had the opportunity to bump into during the course of the last two weeks, I wanted to let everyone know that Maku is on the cover of the July issue of . Johnny and I are both extremely excited about this as it's our first cover for Maku. Inside we have a nice little picture of the arm dining chair, along with credit info for our two SD retailers, Mixture and Grounded .

Special thanks to D&S's Georgette and Nadia, who have helped champion Maku internally over there.

More good things to come from Maku in the news.

Back from Indo!

After a brutal 24+ hours of travel I'm finally back at Maku HQ. Albeit a little jet lagged.... Overall a great trip and it's pretty incredible to be able to combine living the way you want and working with a brand that reflects that lifestyle!

The production guys in Java are doing a great job
and the product is looking better than ever.

(hahaaa! sorry Jeff, couldn't resist putting the Monkey picture up...) In all seriousness, the crew is doing an incredible job with production and I am confident that Maku will continue to set the bar for quality in the outdoor furnishing marketplace. Better get your's soon or we'll be sold out....

Of course all work and no play makes for no fun right? After a few days of working away in Java my good friend and neighbor Dave joined me back in Bali for our annual surf trip. The funny thing about surf trips is you always have a "crew" of 4-6 friends that are excited to go each year but somehow after all is said and done that "crew" ends up being just another buddy to travel and surf with. Which is cool because as the saying goes, "Too many cooks in the kitchen..." Great waves, warm water, and the most hospitable people on the face of the earth make Bali truly a special place.

Here's a few shots from the trip

"Impossibles" doing it's thing!


The Barrel Machine that is "Bingin"




Just your average local Balinese ripper!


Sunset Session at Kuta Beach

Maku on Design Crack

Greetings from the Maku PR department, which has been very tardy in letting everyone know about the great love we've been getting from the blog world and traditional media.

I'm going to get more proactive about making posts showing who out there loves Maku and here is the first.

I like the Design Crack (www.designcrack.com/v2/) blog for a bunch of reasons. Brandon (who runs the site) is an architect in SF and has some solid ideas on design. What I really like about his site (besides the name of his daily newsletter - "Design Crack Dealer" - I know, I'm lowbrow) is that he covers things most others wouldn't (like today's recent entry on some sort of leg springs for jumping). He also has a nice little project going on about graffiti, more specifically really bad graffiti, which I think is a great idea.

Enough about David, more about Maku! Right around ICFF, I turned David onto the limited edition chair Maku is producing and he was very much into it. Maybe because one of our designers hails from the Bay Area, maybe because it just looks great, maybe because he has a teak fetish. Regardless, we appreciated him giving us the attention.

If you're interested in checking out the full post, just click here
Blogger is having some photo posting issues right now and doesn't want to let me put up a screen grab.

Java Java Java!

Spent a few days with Jeff and his crew working on the current production run and everything is looking great!!

The amazing thing about our products is that every piece through out the process is handmade. Sure we use a few templates and saws but for the most part the craftsman in the workshop do everything by hand! Pretty cool...



There has been some talk recently about the rampant illegal logging and deforestation here in Indonesia and I want to make sure that the record is 100% clear that we only use Sustainable and approved wood for all Maku products. While there is no longer any certification for wood here in Indo there are proper channels that one can go through to make sure everything is on the up and up. We purchase directly through the Indonesian Ministry of the Interior not a 3rd party broker, we also take it a step further and send our production people to follow the entire procurement process. From selecting and tagging the wood at the plantation, following it to the mill, kiln, and ultimately back to our production facility.

This is really the only way we can make sure everything follows the right channels and ideals that we have set forth for this company. If anybody ever has any questions about this process feel free to contact us and we'll be more than happy to answer them. By the way, all the doors are made with Reclaimed / Recycled woods!

Back to Bali in a few days and then home. The waves are firing in Bali and I can't wait to get my share!

Bali!

Spending a few days in Bali before (and after...) my visit to our production facility in Java. Even though the surf has been pretty meager the past few day (a new swell is forecast to show in the tomorrow with some well overhead waves!) and the travel time to get here is significantly over 24 hours, Bali still remains one of my all time favorite places on this planet. These 3 pictures kind of symbolize Bali to me.

Just Chilling - They have a saying here - Jam Karat - which means "rubber time" in other words no need to hurry and get things done, enjoy life and the day in a beautiful setting!
This kid is the epitome of the kindness you see here. I was walking to check the surf this morning and he was the first of many to wish me Selamat Pagi or a good morning.

Who says you can't find an uncrowded street in the heart of the bustling metropolis of Kuta!

Off to Indo!

Well it's 12 am Wed morning and I'm sitting here in LAX getting ready for the 30+ hour journey south of the equator and back to Bali and then Java. Going to look at the next round of production and make sure everything is on track. Oh yeah, going to get a few waves too... Look for updates over the next couple of weeks when I can find a good internet connection. Until then enjoy!

Some of my favorite pieces from ICFF

Peter Mann Dining Table


Boodalee modern Bedding for Kids!


Mike and Maaike


Peace Industries


Phase design (what up Rezza!)


Geo Dining Table from Council

ICFF Day 3 and 4

Well our first ICFF show has come and gone. We had a terrific response to all of our products from so many different people - Interior Designers, Retail, Hospitality, every sector of the home furnishing business what really excited with our debut collection. Look for lots of media coverage in the coming days and weeks. Be sure to check out the LA Time Home section on Thursday for a story on Left Edge and the brands / designers involved.

I could not have done this show with out the help of some incredible people. First and foremost are Marc and Emmanuel from EM collection. Not only are these guys 2 of the most generous people I have met but they are extremely talented designers and architects. E&M are responsible for putting the entire Left Edge Pavilion together for the show and without a doubt we had the most bangin and happening section in the show!! Thanks for all the efforts guys!!

My booth mate for the show was artist Beth Weintraub. She's super cool, energetic, and I could not think of a better person to hang out with during the show. Oh yeah, her artwork is really cool too!!!! Thanks Beth, good chilling with ya!

Anyway, look for a full wrap up on the show in the coming days, I've got lots of pics from some of the coolest designers California has to offer as well a few personal favorites from the show.

ICFF day 2

WOW WOW! Ok, that might have been a little too predictable lead in for the ICFF day 2 recap but it was another great day in the launch of our collection to the world. We continue to receive accolades and buy in from the design, architect, hospitality, and retail sectors. We also picked up a couple of new dealers in key markets across the country as well as introducing the brand to many of the top architect and design firms of which Maku will hopefully be included in some of their upcoming projects!

It is truly rewarding to be able to bring this brand to market - from concept to finished product (although being the overly anal person I am I still see a number of areas to improve upon in the products) and see the excitement and energy we are creating in this particular area of design is with out a doubt worth all of the 18+ hour days and trails and tribulations of what I hope will grow into a very successful company! We've got a great group of people supporting us and helping out along the way and the fresh perspective on products I have gotten over the last few days really is energizing.

No crappy cell phone pics today but I did take a lot of pictures and will include them all in the ICFF superpost recap after I am back home and have a chance to gather all of my thoughts etc.

ICFF day 1

WOW, what an amazing day! The aisles were full of design enthusiast, retailers, architects, and designers from all walks of life across the world. The energy and vibe that this show exudes is like non other I have attended before. Even better is the feedback and response to our debut collection! Everybody that previewed our pieces conveyed that we have something exciting and special here. Open, easy going, Non Assuming, Fun, Contemporary, Lifestyle, approachable, Beautiful, Sustainable - were just some the words used to describe the new collection.

Here are a few photos from my cell phone (sorry see the post below...) ICFF sponsored a party at MOMA this evening and most of the museum was open to us for perusing. Lots of great stuff from Frank Lloyd Wright, Le Corbusier, and many other of the most influential fathers of moderism. It was pretty cool to see this collection all under one roof!

By the way, the subway is still the fastest and cheapest way to get around NYC...

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.