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Photography: Tessa Ross-Phelan
NOMI is a truly unique furniture store. Based online, NOMI sells a range of customisable designer furniture from chairs to storage units. You can change colour, size and the number of shelves, giving you the ability to create pieces individual to you and your space. What’s more, it’s been designed to come flat packed saving on delivery costs, yet offers an intuitive ‘no-tools’ assembly system. It’s like a really, really well designed Ikea. Actually it’s nothing like Ikea. With NOMI furniture there is no sense of “mass-produced”.
So who pulled off this amazing feat? NOMI is a collaboration of Sydney locals Michael Grassi, Henry Gresson and Tomek Archer. Michael Grassi is a Sydney Property Development Executive who formulated the incredible idea behind NOMI, while Henry Gresson deals with the technological side of things, which allows for NOMI’s seamless, user friendly, online experience.
“We wanted to offer something special and unique, something that hadn’t been seen in the furniture space before,” says Co-Founder Michael Grassi. “Our vision was to provide affordable designer furniture and create a place where people could interact with our products in new and exciting ways.”
As a consumer, this idea of being able to tailor furniture to suit your own style had me incredibly excited, but, I did initially have concerns over how this would materialise in terms of useability online. Co-Founder Henry Gresson explains how the customisation process works, “Our rendering technology allows the user to see their design come to life right before their eyes, giving users the freedom to explore their creative side”.
The final member of the NOMI team is the man behind the actual design, award winning furniture designer Tomek Archer. For those of you who haven’t heard of Archer, he’s basically the bee’s knees of the design world. Along with designing the Campfire table in 2002, Archer has also founded Tomahawk Studios and architectural practice Archer Breakspear. And for all you synth-rock fans out there, he was also the drummer and co-writer for the Australian band Van She. Talk about an overachiever, right?
But, the best thing about the NOMI concept is its simplicity. Website navigation, the customisation process and the actual furniture design is clean and simple. Each piece exudes a sense of neutral Scandinavian elegance that can be completely transformed with a change of colour to emanate an inner city pop art vibe. Seriously, the furniture’s ability to evolve into a completely different style with really basic changes is remarkable. Archer explains how he achieved this transformative style, “The collection has been conceived as a range of basics, informed by a series of studies into fundamental furniture types.
“Constructed from solid timber, the adaptable series of chairs, tables and storage each have timeless and enduring qualities that are equally suited to blending in or standing out, depending on the customiser’s efforts.”
Archer has achieved what countless designers have been attempting for decades. In fact, as a whole, NOMI has begun to fill a massive gap in the market by providing Australian made, impeccably designed, custom furniture that is actually affordable.
To find out more about NOMI or to check out their customisation options head over to their website.
