Hello Folks! Hope you're all ready to be super inspired! This is something I wanted to share with you all for some time now! Ages ago [or it sure does feel like it] back in May, I attended Grand Designs LIVE in Excel London. Due to time restraints [boo...hiss] I wasn't able to stay for too long so whizzed through the event. As I walked past one of the stands I just had to do a double-take and back-up my steps to take a look at what was simply, beautiful. It's not many items that make me stop dead in my tracks but Obe & Co certainly did! I managed to grab a quick chat with Graham Marjanovic - Owner & Founder who creates, by hand might I add, these amazing lighting pieces. I wanted to find out a bit more about him, his creations and what the inspiration was behind his story. Take a look...
HOP Did you always know that you wanted to enter the fabulous world of product design
OC To be honest I really don't see myself as a product
designer, I'm more of an Inventor/Artist. Although words are needed to define
things, for me describing my work as a product just makes me wince.
HOP How did you go about changing careers from Newspaper
Printer to successful, creative Artist and learning a new trade
OC I'd not been happy in my career for quite some years but its
difficult to make changes when a job is well paid and buys you trappings. I
dreamt of changing a lot, explored ideas, did some courses but fundamentally
held onto a dream until opportunity knocked with a redundancy announcement and
a call for volunteers!
HOP What challenges did you face once you decided on this
venture
OC Learning a whole new set of skills that have to accompany a
creative idea. Having an idea and making it seems the easiest bit, its all the
rest like running a business, marketing, packaging, people skills, self belief,
self criticism in a constructive way seems to be the hard bit. I've got to say I had zero help from the UK government, which has been hard to get my head round. Big boo hiss! It's a shame as there must be so much talent out there that has just fizzled, which could have been helped and allowed to shine and in turn make the UK
money, providing jobs. Silly really.
HOP I really loved your innovative lighting feature [The Spotty - 3-in-1-light] displayed at Grand Designs 2012. What was the inspiration behind
it
OC Thank you, I'm glad you like it. It evolved from a shape
that I liked when working on the lathe. The finer points and subtle details
within the design and its body shape have evolved as I saw more ways to add
versatility. I love the idea of making something that has more than one use, to
me it's a really worthwhile use of the materials and energy invested into it.
HOP What's next for Obe & Co. Design
OC For me it's been such an explosion of ideas in the last two
years since being freed from a job that didn't allow me to be creative. There
is so much that I have ideas for. I would say that the Obe-lit, Coffee Table
and Spotty are a small fraction of what's waiting to be released from my
creativity.
OC …I'm with my girlfriend.
HOP If I was stuck on a desert island, my three creative
must haves would be...
OC This is great ! I'm such a desert island disks fan! OK, first my studio, build brick by brick and containing all
my stuff, My MAC as its essential, My bath and a supply of hot water as its here that I can
relax and follow shapes and ideas in my head.
HOP What advice would you give to someone who is thinking of
changing careers, who is facing redundancy
OC Well if you have a feeling that you have more to offer and
are unhappy then you should be having a go to change career. If you can look in
the media and see other people making a living doing something that you know
that you could do a better job of you should have a try. Easy to say and
speaking personally I'm far happier now then I ever was although its been, and
is a hard road. Just hold on to the dream and don't let others around you,
(probably out of concern for you) talk some sense into you.
Are you just as inspired as I am by Graham's story? Fancy setting up your own business too? Let me know your thoughts!
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