Interviews with JOHI Furniture & Design

Designed to tuck away bits and bobs while jointly displaying household favorites. We strove to highlight weaving, as it is an important technique used in my family's cultures, Arab and Hawaiian. As modern homes tend to get cluttered quickly, it was important to create a clean aesthetic that could provide ample storage. Together, the wood and laced danish cord are intended to bring a warm modern feel to the home.

Ultimately, we wanted to design a contemporary, low fuss piece that felt true to ourselves, while leaving flexibility for clients to impart their own style and interpretation on it.

We are offering this design on a made to order basis, where clients are able to customize elements to suit their personality and spaces. We see this approach as a way to lower the barrier to heirloom quality furniture. Every piece is an opportunity to collaborate, to bring clients something uniquely their own based off of the original design. They may prefer different weaving patterns, combination of woods, or accent details.

We developed this design over 2 months.

We developed this design first for our own home. At the time, we were actively designing a collection of pieces that featured weaving. From the first realized iteration, we made adjustments in material choices, weaving style, and fittings to improve the design.

We intend to produce the work ourselves from our design and fabrication studio in Maui, Hawaii. We are always available to quote shipping and delivery both on and off island.

In our first collection release, we knew we wanted to have a mix of interior furniture, outdoor grade furniture, and a decorative yet functional surf piece. The Pohihi Entry Console, Hibal Coffee Table, and indoor/outdoor Planter Benches were the first collection designs we pursued.

It really ranges from our perspective. In our design goals overall, we hope to lower the barrier to heirloom quality furniture for families. We want to encourage home owners and renters to look for high quality, long lasting furniture rather than settling for pieces that may deteriorate within two - five years and end up headed to the dump. We hope to develop quality products for all budgets.

Our personal approach to the design highlights a handwoven touch that is not common in mass produced designs.

In our design names, we share both Hawaiian and Arabic words. Pohihi, from Hawaiian, represents two thoughts for us. The first is the console’s function of hiding your belongings. It also represents a unique complex time, navigating the first few months of small business ownership.

In line with our typical design process with and without clients, we started with pen and paper. We like to model our designs in CAD and gather material options before getting to work on fabrication in our studio workshop.

Much of our design decision making was driven by personal interest in how cultural representation works together with contemporary practice. We pursued qualitative information from this perspective. We also researched weaving materials for longevity and accessibility.

One of the most challenging aspects of designing a piece with multicultural intent is leaving flexibility for future clients or customers to impart their own style and interpretation on it. There's also much more to share from a cultural and locale perspective than what is stereotypical. There is more to island style than white washing wood; more to Hawaiian design than kapa motifs. There is more to Arab art than calligraphy and geometric pattern. Our goal was to design a contemporary piece that represented a common ground of our cultures and felt true to ourselves.

It was a difficult decision to make as early business owners. Really it came down to us and our brand being based in a small community. We figured, why not try? This leap, more than anything at the time, was an option to challenge ourselves and the walls we inevitably create with our comfort zones.

Growing up on a farm meant that I was never shy of trying to fix and make things. Eventually, I attended Stanford University where I studied Mechanical Engineering: Product Design. This program was my first introduction into the study of design and design research.

I view design as a toolkit to help us problem solve. Going through the design process always results in more thoughtful and crafted outcomes.

Our primary focus is on furniture, home decor, and wooden surf gear. Carefully crafted furniture can bring us closer to people we love and the places we call home. While we have primarily focused on private spaces inside the home, I hope to spend a little more time thinking about the shared spaced and experiences out in the public realm.

Good design should be timeliness. It should place emphasis on quality materials and values that are good for the planet and people who call it home. It is our job as designers to ensure that those values are held in the highest regard, and crafted in an accessible and affordable way.

I spend a great deal of time thinking about overall home designs - watching videos about designs for all sized spaces. I hope to design and build our own home in the future.

George Nakashima is a master furniture maker whom I hold in high regard. His pieces are wonderfully crafted and designed, but even more humbling is the respect and attention he showed each piece of wood. Trees are humbling in both life and death, and he designed his work with that spirit in mind.

I think everyone’s processes are different, but what works for us is setting aside a good chunk of time to work through our ideas. Thinking through sketching is also a great way to get the creativity flowing at the start of a project.

Design is about taking a thoughtful approach to problem solving, using the tools and strategies at hand to work collaboratively and iteratively towards a solution.

My wife Holly is my biggest supporter. It is helpful to have someone who understands when and how to push you.

We have been cooking up a new collection of furniture and home decor pieces that feature two to three materials for added interest and function.

When we deliver furniture to a client’s home, it is always a satisfying experience. Knowing that these pieces will be an heirloom in our clients' families for years to come is a humbling opportunity.

Projects generally take one to two months from inception to installation.

For us, paper and pen are the best place to start any new design project. It is a fast and simple way to get lots of ideas out of your head and into the open. Choosing a design direction too early in the process is never a good idea, and sketches are less likely to trap you into that mistake.

“No JUNK”

CAD software makes it very easy for us to communicate high fidelity renderings to our clients. While we don’t like to start on the computer, we always make sure that our clients can visualize the final piece well before beginning the actual fabrication.

JOHI is a full functioning wood shop with all the usual suspects of woodworking machinery, from the joiner to the bandsaw. The majority of our renderings are done through Fusion 360. As a small business, we put on many hats and rely on Adobe’s creative suite to help with branding and communications development.

I put a lot of emphasis on the use of traditional joinery techniques in our designs. This wisdom has been created and passed on for centuries and is what allows us to create pieces that last the test of time. Understanding how these joints are created allows a client to better appreciate the craftsmanship of their furniture and how to care for it.

We love chatting about creative ideas, partnerships, and collaborations. Should you have something in mind, feel free to reach out at holly@hellojohi.com. You can follow along with our adventures and new creations on Instagram @hellojohi, Facebook @JohiDesign, and Pinterest @JohiHome.

I’ve always enjoyed making things. As a kid I would keep my pocket knife handy at all times and find any excuse to whittle a piece of wood and try to make something. As I got older the ideas became more complicated and so did the making of them. I became comfortable with the use of larger tools and would go out of my way to bring those ideas to life.

Eventually, I found myself at Stanford University studying Product Design, which was my formal education and introduction into the field.

For me the process of design is a way to improve the world around us. I believe my mission as a designer is to bring us closer to the people we love and places we call home. We keep that mission foremost in the choices we make when developing products and services.

At the moment furniture design has me most captivated. It can make or break spaces and is all too often considered a luxury. Our mission with JOHI is to develop pieces that are accessible across a wide range of budgets, homes, and cultures.

Directly out of school I started a company with classmates of mine from university. We spent the better part of two years designing and developing a platform to help us deal with loss. We designed an app and website that allows users to share memories of loved ones and heal through the process.

We love to work with hardwoods. Trees can be magnificent in both life and death and creating pieces that show respect to the their lifecycle is very important to us. Knowing where the tree was grown and why it was harvested brings our customers closer to the furniture they put in their home.

Creativity comes and goes. I think it is important to actively make an effort to sketch, especially when you are not in the mood. That way when the idea strikes you feel ready to tackle it.

Designing a new piece of furniture is both exciting and at times nerve racking. While we rely on past experience and knowledge to guide a design, there are always unknowns. Will the client like what you have done? Will it stand the test of time?

Nothing is more exciting than seeing you hard work pay off. Taking an idea out of your mind and into the real world is often such a drawn out process that it can be hard to stay motivated through its entirety, but, when you reach that finish line there is nothing but pride for the diligence you’ve put in.

I think the only way to judge a design is on the basis of it staying true to its original objectives. Design is often a series of choices that send us down one path or another. It can be challenging to set aside a personal belief in order to choose the path that best solves the problems at hand, however, it seems to me the best designs always keep the brief sacred.

I think all humans have a moral obligation to make choices that benefit humanity and the world. Luckily, we live in a world where people will increasingly hold us accountable to that obligation.

The biggest influence on my design style comes from growing up in several different countries. Experiencing different cultures and ways of life breaks down the walls we often put on ourselves. Our hope is to design pieces that reflect this multiculturalism.

Design is iterative and collaborative. The best designer for your job is one with whom you can be honest and excited.

Designing a piece of furniture is all about collaboration with our client. We begin defining the basic guidelines and requirements for a piece. With that in hand, we will develop 3+ design directions that are often quite different from one another. From there begins a process of back and forth refinement that culminates in rendering of the piece to be built. Only then do we actually begin the fabrication.

Sketch paper

Pens, pencils, and anything I can get my hands on to mark the page

CAD software

“No JUNK”

Design always begins on paper. Spending as much time as possible sketching an idea is the fastest and most informative way to refine a design idea. Once I have exhausted my abilities with a pencil, I will move into CAD. CAD helps bring these ideas into a more explanatory 3D environment that can be understood and manipulated by the client.

Inspiration is found all around these days. Out in the world and online. It is important to take a break from these when beginning your own sketches as they often put up more walls that doors.

It's funny how often people ask "You made this?" as we stand in conversation next to our handcrafted pieces. In western society, we have become so removed from the process of making that is often a shock to people that things are still made by hand, one by one.

While most of our clients are individual homeowners we also work with interior designers and business owners.

We would like to develop more standalone products that can be purchased in the < $200 category. These products will be crafted with the same quality and attention to detail as our larger products, but at a price point that makes them more accessible. We’re also working on a new collection of furniture pieces, which we hope to release mid 2020.

My wife and I work together. Two brains are always better than one.

We have been working on a new collection of home decor lamps and trivets. These can be purchased online at www.hellojohi.com. We are also working on a new collection of furniture pieces, which we hope to release mid 2020, on our website as well.

Email holly@hellojohi.com. You can also find us on Instagram @hellojohi, Facebook @JohiDesign, and Pinterest @JohiHome.