What a welcome! When I was invited to visit the home of the design force behind the revitalisation of iconic British brand Falcon Enamelware, Kiwi & Pom, I jumped at the chance – and was greeted by their Flip Dot clock, designed for the Slow Tech Exhibition, part of 2011’s London Design Festival. You can make it say anything you want simply by texting it – calls for more tea seemed to the most popular messages!
Housed in a former print studio, it is a light airy space with gorgeous wooden floors. And the team are keeping the print heritage alive with this gorgeous Adana press which they use to hand print boards for presentations – now that’s commitment!
Kiwi & Pom was founded in 2008 by Emma (the Pom) and Kam (the Kiwi) Young to work on product design and interior architecture. With Falcon on their list of dream clients, and spotting that the recession might bring about a resurgence in utilitarianism and functionalism, they pitched some ideas around product development and design identity and Falcon loved them.
Falcon still lead the manufacture and production side of things, with Kiwi & Pom leading on the creative direction of the brand. They teamed up Peter Hames who oversees the business side and Hugh Morse to develop the brand identity, inspired by the classic blue rim.
When they moved into the space, it was just Emma and Kam rattling around, but the team has since expanded and they share office space with Morse Studio and even a member of the Falcon team.
It’s a really creative space bursting at the seams with prototypes, finished products and design classics to inspire them.
With their other clients including Marks & Spencer, Wallpaper* and Hulger, the creativity in, creativity out model certainly seems to be working for them.
But it’s the little things, like a chart on the wall of the kitchen detailing how every member of staff, freelancers included, takes their tea, that really offer an insight into the kind of people they are.
Long may their good work and good vibes continue.
Further reading for the especially geeky:
- creative spaces :: bulldog drummond
- creative spaces :: stockholm
- creative spaces :: jailmake
- creative spaces :: godrich interiors
Looks like a really fun place to work! Love the green frame on their work desk. Having a list of how everyone likes their tea is a great idea – I am going to do this for our builders and tradesmen on site!
is the kiwi&pom clock for sale? It’s lovely!
Thanks for this Katie. I’ve worked with Kiwi & Pom remotely for the past three years but never been able to visit. So it’s great to see some details from their work space.