Amid all the excitement of 3daysofdesign in Copenhagen this year, you could have missed the emergence of new brand Nine. There was minimal fanfare around its introduction, but the 11 products that make up its first collection didn’t require it. Simple yet smart, they speak for themselves.
Nine is the brainchild of nine colleagues (all from Nine United, a conglomerate that owns companies including &Tradition, Stellar Works and Verpan) who shared a dream to create a truly pan-European design brand. They selected nine designers to work on Nine’s debut collection, with a strong showing for UK-based names.
Some were well-known – Daniel Schofield created ‘Landmark’, a range of ceramic side tables glazed by hand, and John Tree the ‘Skinny’ chair – while others were less established, such as the Butterfield brothers, Tom and Will, whose ‘19 Outdoors’ range of aluminium furniture is the duo’s first-ever commercial project.
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It was one of Nine’s family of designers who best described the magic that all the pieces share, according to Katherine Hoeger, one of Nine’s founding partners, noting ‘a sort of fresh directness combined with a strong sense of economy and utility’.
This idea of utility is important to Nine. ‘Products are designed to be easily repaired, upgraded; parts repurposed or recycled,’ says Hoeger. That designs are compact to ship and easy to assemble is also a key concern. The ‘Tee’ table by Matteo Fogale, for example, arrives flat-packed and, explains Hoeger, ‘snaps together in seconds – no tools required’.
Sustainability is considered holistically, across the entire supply chain, with all packaging plastic-free and fully recyclable. ‘There’s a product being launched next year that will be made with 100 per cent post-consumer waste from recycled white goods,’ adds Hoeger, who also teases the tantalising prospect of a second outdoor range, this time by Note Design Studio, planned to launch in spring next year.
Expect more names to be added to Nine’s growing roster of designers all the time and, with the team looking to the finest design universities across Europe for talent, there is a high likelihood they will be ones you haven’t yet heard of. Watch this space. And, in the meantime, if you want to see the first collection from Nine for yourself, the work of its London-based collaborators is being showcased in Twentytwentyone’s Islington store during London Design Festival (16-24 September). nine-furniture.com
