UK start-up success story
Above: Designed by UK-based Makers Cabinet, Iris is a compass with an adjustable circle modeled on a camera lens.
UK start-up Makers Cabinet is a London design company focused on creating premium, beautiful product designs has launched Iris, an upscale product for stationery and gift market. The campaign sailed through its original £25,000 target in less than 72 hours and has since gained 1,800 backers and counting.
The Makers Cabinet team, left to right: Benjamin Weininger , Odin Ardagh, Noah Bier.
This shouldn’t be a surprise for the three founders from London’s renowned art college Central Saint Martins, after all, Iris is their second successful Kickstarter campaign. Their first, focused on a pencil sharpener named Høvel which was designed to be practical, environmentally friendly, and beautiful. The Kickstarter audience agreed – 452 backers helped them exceed their goal by nearly 250% to bring the project to life.
The Høvel pencil sharpener also functions as a mini plane.
Their second project was inspired by the feedback from their first triumph. Supporters spoke of current artistic drawing tools lacking innovation and generally were manufactured cheaply, unergonomically, and with a design philosophy that seemed to promote short-termism and lack of sustainability. The Makers Cabinet team seek to focus on pairing the beauty of design with the practicality of use. A work of art to create art.
Iris, the first of its kind, mimics the base use of a compass and the aperture mechanism of a camera lens, it’s stainless-steel leaves rotate inside of a solid brass casing, creating the perfect adjustable circle – a mechanism that has endured for 200 years. Iris is the perfect replacement to the inadequate rotary drawing compass, inspiring artists with every stroke of their pencil.
Director Noah Bier comments “People love the intricacy and beautiful aesthetic of Iris. I also think they value and understand our intention to create a tool that’s designed with as much love as they put into their profession”.
What does the future hold for the team? Noah continues “After we have delivered on this campaign, we aim to continue with our stationary drawing tool range. We have a few ideas in the works which we are tremendously excited by. From there, we aim to broaden out from the desk to home and work life. We feel our design philosophy transcends many boundaries”.
Iris is now available for £81 / $90 through Indiegogo Indemand, with delivery in time for Christmas.
Learn more at www.makerscabinet.com