How New Works’ Use of Squarespace Helped Result in Opening a Showroom

In 2014, Knut Bendik Humlevik co-founded New Works and took on the position of artistic director along with designing his personal items that might contribute to the life-style assortment they had been constructing. We caught up with Knut to get a greater image of how New Works has modified prior to now 5 years, their new showroom, and what it was like utilizing Squarespace to get New Works’ website off the bottom and operating in a brief period of time whereas making the most of the gallery pages function.

Photograph by Filippo Bamberghi

New Works is a Copenhagen-based way of life firm that runs on the core values of respecting the pure supplies they work with, experimenting with different artists and designers of their work, retaining the tactility of every piece, and hanging onto the craftsmanship of the whole lot they create by means of the tip of the method. Working along with an in depth group of worldwide collaborators, New Works strives to create sculptural objects which have their very own voice whereas additionally complementing each other.

We dug proper into Knut’s thoughts, asking how New Works got here into existence and the way earlier roles in his profession led to opening his personal company.

“I studied on the Royal Academy in Copenhagen, however after receiving my bachelors I began to work for Hay – a small firm then. On the identical time, I additionally started to design furnishings on the facet with a colleague from Hay. After incomes my masters in structure, I additionally realized that I needed to behave on the sensation of success we had skilled from designing our personal product designs.,” Knut shared.

He went on to say, “After a few years within the business I met Nikolaj Meier, who I run the enterprise with in the present day, and we established New Works. I nonetheless design merchandise, however I care way more for the identification and the journey of the model, that’s my design. I’m additionally privileged to work and temporary designers I like and assist them to design at their perfect for New Works.”

We’re at all times curious how completely different manufacturers make use of Squarespace to develop their manufacturers, and whether or not the select to make use of a pre-made template or work with a designer on customizing one thing particular.

“We determined to make use of Squarespace simply weeks earlier than our launch of New Works in 2015. For a very long time we had quite a lot of conversations about how we must always construct our website, what it ought to have the ability to present, and so on. We rapidly realized that this is able to take an excessive amount of of our money and time at that stage. So when a graphical intern of ours offered me with Squarespace it was settled. We rapidly organized a entrance web page – darkish blue, nearly black, with our newly taken photographs. Then we setup the gathering overview inside the store setup as a result of it was so handy. That was an awesome bonus!,” Knut stated.

Knut continued, “We used a pre-defined weblog web page as our journal for some time, however after a while we’ve modified to gallery pages for our entrance web page, mission web page, and so on. These enable for extra freedom, and I’ve at all times favored the “empty” areas they supply. The design is within the composition, like a clean web page. We now have at all times began with a template, after which custom-made it into our personal – it has at all times been designed in-house by our Product Supervisor, Monique Consentino.”

New Works collaborates with so many phenomenal creatives from all over the world, which made us curious as to how Knut and his group select who to work with on every mission.

“The story behind our tasks are primarily based on our 4 core values – pure, experimental, tactility, and craftsmanship. We search the rawness within the materials and attempt to match this with our fascination with sculptural varieties. Our aim is, and has been from day one, to be a design and way of life firm that presents a group on the intersection between previous and new, gentle and darkish. Design and artwork!,” Knut defined.

That stated he shared, “I’m not an individual of mounted rhythm or routines. I consider within the romantic notion that’s pushed by my admiration of design and creation – that is additionally how New Works has chosen their collaborations. We work with a variety of designers, but additionally artists and craftsmen. Their work is once more pushed by completely different values, some assume commercially whereas others act solely on feelings. That is what makes our assortment distinctive.”

One other Squarespace function that many small enterprise prospects have come to depend on is the e-commerce setup that’s nice for aiding within the development of each their viewers and their model.

“The e-commerce function from Squarespace merely helps us attain the world. It makes our assortment out there. The actual fact is that it additionally helps us look skilled, and permits us to have the ability to concentrate on the product and look – as a result of the shopper will make sure you be off in the precise route with few clicks. This is a vital a part of our business, as a result of generally a group might be featured on a degree  that’s out of attain and really really feel troublesome to be part of. This isn’t how we would like our assortment to be,” Knut shared.

Over the 5 years that New Works has been an organization many issues have modified, each in enterprise in addition to aesthetics. How did they adapt?

Knut’s perception says a lot, “Loads has modified, however we’ve saved the identical traits and values – inviting and intimate. We began out with a small assortment of lighting and smaller objects that was offered in a gallery as sculptures. All the time in a darkish blue, nearly black universe. The final years we’ve been searching for the hotter, however nonetheless deep, tones and have taken a extra mature step in our want of proudly owning our personal imaginative and prescient of what Nordic design might be in the present day. Although we nonetheless have the sculptural varieties and pure supplies in focus. Right this moment you discover New Works offered as a residence, an entire assortment from lounge furnishings to creative sculpture, that’s an invite into our house.”

Knut says that he finds a lot of his inspiration in Nordic design, and we agree that it’s ripe with design choices. However what else influences his imaginative and prescient and his aesthetic for the corporate?

“I want to say that I discover inspiration in the whole lot apart from Nordic design, however that’s not true. I’m drawn to the fantastic, the romantic, and the straightforward. I’m not a person to go looking out developments, however to focus on an inspiration. One affect that I’m fascinated by are Belgian interiors by Axel Vervoordt and Vincent Van Duyson,” he admitted.

New Works lately opened the doorways to a brand new showroom – Our Copenhagen House. Situated within the heart of Copenhagen at Frederiksstaden, between Retailer Kongensgade and the historic Marble Church, the area was designed in collaboration with Swedish Lotta Agaton Interiors. The historic location is ideal for offering the texture of a spacious and welcoming house away from house, which has at all times been the tip aim.

It’s improbable to see such a stable firm with such pure design intentions proceed to develop and succeed. With the addition of the showroom, New Works now has an awesome deal with on having a bodily presence in addition to an internet presence by means of Squarespace.

Able to get to work in your website? Take step one with a Squarespace web site. Use coupon code DESIGNMILK at checkout to get 10% off your first buy.

Images by Brian Buchard.
Styling by Lotta Agaton Interiors.