Interview with Maurie Novak

I formed MN Design less than a year ago, although I have been developing some of my projects for longer than that. Having my own company has freed me up to pursue designs and projects that I am passionate about. Architecture is a passion for me, and I aim to develop more architectural projects as the company develops. Furniture and other small items are also key parts of the company. By taking on smaller scale projects that I can develop from start to finish was one of the key reasons I started my own business. It gives me the power to direct a design entirely and pick designs I choose rather than only relying on clients to commission projects.

Design is always subjective. To me good design is always a way of achieving a certain goal in the most eloquent and best expressed way possible.

I like to take on projects that have an element of the impossible to them. A design that is really difficult to realise pushes me the most, forcing me to refine and bring a concept down to its most pure form. This is often found for me in furniture and industrial design, but I aim to take my more exciting ideas and scale them up into my architecture in future.

My first design for a company was in an architectural firm. I worked on many residential homes and apartment blocks during the start of my career.

My favourite material would be timber. It is a material with so much variability depending on species, there are just endless possibilities with timber depending on its density, grain and colour.

My favourite technology would be any that I can achieve myself. I love to work with my own hands, and am always trying to pick up as many skills as I can to use in my projects.

I am always sketching aimlessly, and often inspiration hits me in these moments. But I definitely work best under the pressure of a deadline.

I like to think most about the space around the item I am designing. How does it interact with its space, does it fit or is it designed to stand out. By defining its purpose, I am able to refine a design further.

I must say that the emotion that I feel most when designing is frustration. I always have the feeling that the answer is on the tip of my tongue and just out of reach. But this is useful for me. I rarely feel fully satisfied with a design, which pushes me to keep refining and bettering it.

It is a fantastic feeling to realize a design, but I cannot stop myself from thinking that there may be a better way to achieve my outcomes. I don't believe that any design is ever fully refined. Design is transitory, and is therefore always changing and can be pushed further.

For me, a successful design is one that is pure. It is important to me to take away as much as is possible of the superfluous elements in a design, so it can be viewed in its most basic form.

How do the outcomes reflect the goals of the design. A design may be beautiful and complex, but if it does not fulfil its intended purpose, it cannot be a success in my mind.

I think there is a heavy responsibility on designers to use the best technologies and resources that they can to best achieve their goals in an environmentally friendly way. Other than the obvious reality that resources are limited, and need to be used as efficiently as possible, I think it is an onus on designers to find materials and methods that are as least harmful to the planet as possible.

I also believe that it is a responsibility of designers to create good designs. A lot of items that are designed, are designed for the moment and become outdated very quickly. A good designer should design with the idea that their item should last a lifetime.

I try to hold myself to this standard when designing, and aim to become more environmentally conscious in my future projects.

I have never exhibited my work. I have been developing my pieces over the last few years on the side of whatever job I have had, and having only recently begun my own company. I hope to exhibit some of these pieces in the near future.

Looking around at the world is the best source of inspiration I could think of. I don't believe there are many purely original ideas, all of human enterprise feeds into itself, and it is by looking at what is and has been, with an eye to the future that one can best design.

My design style would probably be described as Modern. I don't feel that I have a particular reason for focusing more on modern design than any other type. It is mainly because of my desire for simplicity and purity of design that my work ends up being modern. I am hoping to in future incorporate - in my own way - some more classical elements into my projects

I live in Melbourne, Australia. Australia is such a young country that I feel that a lot of my most important influences would come from other countries. That is not to say that there is nothing here, there is so much amazing work taking place in this city that it is hard to be seen in the throng of developing designers.

I generally start on a cluttered desk with a blank piece of paper. I just sketch whilst getting distracted by everything around me until I catch a thread of where I want to take an idea. I feel that it is hard to design in a vacuum. My cluttered space allows me to just look around and play - feeding into my ideas.

Strandbeest - My favorite at the moment would be a 3D printed Strandbeest, designed by Theo Jansen.
Tools - I have some beautiful tools that I have inherited from different people.
My 3D printer - which allows me to quickly test and develop ideas.
My library - which I am slowly trying to grow.
Materials - I collect items from the roadside, shops and anywhere I can to try and inform my designs.

I'd consider myself a young designer, and I don't feel I have graduated to a level of giving original advice, but I'd say the best advice I've heard is to always keep trying. To keep developing and testing and making things is the only way to keep pushing yourself and refining who you are as a designer.

A positive of being a designer is the ability to create - to take individual elements and make something new that has not been thought of before. A negative of being a designer would be when you face a void and it seems like there is nothing new or original to be found in your mind.

Never to take on a simple project.

Curiosity is a key skill in design. If you are not curious, you cannot imagine, test or experiment with design.

In terms of software I use AutoCad, Rhinoceros and Photoshop most - the programs I was trained in at university. In terms of producing work, I have a very full tool shed, and enjoy designing pieces that require me to learn how to use a new tool.

Design is time consuming. I always have my designs in the back of my mind. Any task or conversation has the power to spark the key to solving a design.

There is no answer to the question of how long a design can take. In my mind a design is never really finished, there is always a way to adjust and better it.

I enjoy most design work that challenges me. If a client comes to me for a brief of designing something that has been done thousands of times over it does not interest me. I want to attempt to find new ways of doing things, this applies to architecture, furniture or anything else I take on.

I aim in future to grow my business. I have lots of ideas I want to pursue and create. I hope that through a growing exposure I can get new projects to challenge me, and realize some of the designs I have had in development for a long time.

Currently I work predominantly alone. But when I am in the right team, with people of the right mindset it is hugely beneficial. A team can often push an idea far further than one individual can alone.

I have several pieces of furniture that I have been developing for a while. In my current situation I am funding my own designs, and have thus only had the opportunity so far to take my 'Prism' table to production, I hope in future to be able to do the same with my other pieces.

Websites: www.mn-design.com.au www.prismtable.com
By email: maurie.novak@gmail.com
Via facebook: www.facebook.com/mndesignmn
Via Twitter: @MaurieNovak