I visited Moupila & Friends, a design shop in Belgium’s Dikkelvenne a couple of years ago and was struck by the ingenuity of a pair of designers combining a workshop, an office, a weekend shop and their home all in one hardworking space. The furniture and interior design studio was founded by Mieke Keukelier and Tim Schokaert, who make smaller pieces in-house and work with furniture manufacturers for larger pieces. They sell their own work, alongside furniture, accessories and gifts by local emerging designers in their shop. I caught up with them to find out more – we talked “truth, goodness and beauty,” the importance of preserving local traditions, and the joy of yellow…
What’s the most important thing to know about you?
Mieke: That we’re in it for the quest for truth, goodness and beauty and everything we do in our private or professional lives fits that purpose.
When you were five, what did you want to be when you grew up?
Tim: Something to do with animals and nature.
Mieke : I can’t remember what I wanted to be when I was five, but when I was ten, I wanted to be a fashion designer.
And now?!
Tim: Designer and maker of long lasting, beautiful, honest, sustainable and functional objects that contribute to other people’s happiness.
Mieke: I just dropped the “fashion” and became a designer.
How did you first get into design?
Tim: In secondary school we had a very good aesthetics teacher who really inspired me. He showed us beautiful architecture and design. Long before that, when I was a little kid, we lived close to a restoration workshop for antique furniture and I played in that workshop with the son of the cabinetmaker. When I smell certain woods and waxes, I get flashbacks to that time. But that’s a long time ago, and for me it’s been only three years since I became really involved in professional design, and less than a year that I’m working full time on Moupila. Mieke’s love for creating furniture and objects seems to be contagious.
Mieke: I grew up in the 1970s in a small town and my next door neighbours were really into design. Their living room was black and white, with a fluffy carpet, Togo sofa, B&O hifi, Panton chairs and Knoll table. Real design lovers. It made a big impression on me. I think that’s where it all started for me.
Can you tell me a bit about the space you’ve created at Moupila?
Mieke: Studio Moupila at Dikkelvenne is our headquarters. It is located in the countryside, not too far from our hometown, the city of Ghent. We rebuilt a 1970s building into a small shop and office and in the garden we have our atelier for prototyping and producing limited editions of some of our own designs. We enjoy the quietness of the countryside when working on new designs – nature seems to inspire us. We started the shop to show our own collection. And since we have the space, we like to offer a very personal selection of local young designers to our clients. The shop is open only on Fridays and Saturdays. By appointment, clients for interior projects are welcome during the rest of the week.
Why is it important to combine working space with selling space and collaborate with your friends in doing so?
Tim: When we are travelling we are always enjoying and looking for the local traditions and objects. The way the world, the economy and industrial development is going, these things are becoming endangered species. Increasingly, you just find the same stuff everywhere you go. Same shops and same brands. We like to celebrate diversity, small scale production, local ideas and craftsmanship, so working with young and upcoming designers in Belgium comes naturally for us. We also like to make some of our own designs in our own workshop. Those pieces are more labour-intensive and unique or limited edition. To be able to sell them directly from producer to customer enables us to reach a price that is still reasonable to most people.
Mieke: Over the last few years we have came into contact with several designers and some of them have became friends. We like what they are doing, and it is always nice to chat with them. The interaction between designers is great. I like to have long talks and get inspired by them. I hope that our house will be a warm nest where our friends can spend a lot of nice days and evenings.
How do you overcome creative block?
Tim: Thinking of something else for a while, or going camping for a few days in the forest.
Mieke: There’s nothing better than doing some bookkeeping for a few hours – then I feel the creativity coming back!
Talk me through your design and making process from initial idea to final product.
Tim: Most ideas start at home, while doing some everyday things. Brainstorms between us can start spontaneously at any moment. Some ideas take lots of time and lots of brainstorming sessions before they are concrete enough to make a small scale model in paper or cardboard, let alone a first full scale prototype. Others can come a lot faster and are ready for production in a few months. Some designs require many mock-ups and prototypes before we are satisfied with the result, while others have only one or two intermediate trials before they are ready for production. When the final prototype is ready, we decide whether to do a small scale production ourselves, or commission production with a bigger furniture maker. In the future we would also like to just sell certain designs, and let a bigger company do production, distribution and sales.
What’s your favourite part of the process?
Tim: Maybe making the first full scale prototype and seeing that it’s working. But the whole creative process from brainstorming to finished piece is great. Selling it and everything that comes with that, like bookkeeping, distribution, marketing, advertising, … are less my thing.
Mieke: For me, it’s finding just the right detail in a new design.
What’s your favourite tool?
Tim: A Japanese saw.
Mieke: Tim! And pen and paper.
Describe a really good day and a really bad day in the life of Moupila & Friends.
Tim: No comment. (I’m having a bad day!)
Mieke: I don’t like bad days. Sometimes I wonder whether the way we are doing our job is the right way. But then I like to think how lucky we are. We have everything we need, and we are doing the things we like. Bad moments are part of life, and luckily we have a lot more good than bad days. But the best days are the days with little nice moments of joy. When you see a prototype and it is even better than you thought it would be. Or when you deliver a project to a client and see the smile on their face.
What are you most proud of?
Tim: That we decided to go forward with our dream of creating beautiful objects together.
Mieke: The Collectionnaire – the first design we did together. Tim created the prototype without any previous eduction in woodworking. He studied Philosophy and Photography. We had a little help from a professional woodworker, but Tim did most of it.
What advice would you give to a new designer?
Tim : Don’t give up.
Mieke: Exactly, don’t give up.
And finally, what’s your favourite colour?
Tim: I don’t have any particular favourite colour.
Mieke: For the moment, it’s yellow.
Further reading for the especially geeky:
