Moooi
Theatrical furniture and lighting, bold design, Amsterdam since 2001
Philosophy
Bold Dutch design since 2001. Marcel Wanders, European manufacturing, reconquered independence. Beauty with an extra O.
History
Amsterdam, 2001. Marcel Wanders and Casper Vissers. The name plays on 'mooi' (Dutch for beautiful) with an extra O because mooi.com was taken. Wanders was already famous for the Knotted Chair (1996). Moooi refuses ambient minimalism. Random Light, Smoke Chair, Horse Lamp - a life-size horse turned floor lamp - are instantly recognizable icons.
B&B Italia held 50% from 2006-2012, then founders bought everything back. Full independence. 82 countries, showrooms in Amsterdam, NYC, London. Polarizing design: theatrical, narrative, exuberant. Love or hate, never indifferent. Moooi doesn't make furniture, it makes spectacle that happens to be functional.
Iconic Products
Random Light
Fiberglass suspension randomly wound around a mold. Each piece unique by definition. The first Moooi product to explode, summarizing the approach: controlled randomness, filtered light, suspended spectacle.
Horse Lamp
A life-size horse turned floor lamp. Front Design for Moooi. The most polarizing object in the catalog: genius or grotesque depending on sensibility. Also the one that best embodies Moooi's philosophy: design as performance.
Smoke Chair
A chair burned then frozen in epoxy resin. Maarten Baas, 2002. Each chair hand-burned, each one different. Destructive design: creating by destroying. The kind of object you put in a museum. MoMA did.