TEN QUESTIONS, TEN ANSWERS: Absolute Zero Degrees on Mini Moderns

Together Mark Hampshire and Keith Stephenson of Absolute Zero Degrees, a graphic design outfit based in south London, produce Mini Moderns, a homesware label for kids with more than a little adult appeal too.

They have ridden the wave of the new market in children’s interior design, and have become, within 4 years of their launch, one of the world’s most inspiring design companies for children.

Mark, 41, (shown right in the picture on the left) from West Yorkshire, holds a degree in English literature and loves New York, Negronis and Radiohead. He dislikes red sports cars. Keith, 42, from North Yorkshire, has a degree in graphics, used to work with Wayne and Geraldine Hemingway at Red or Dead, and loves Autumn, gigs, The Festival of Britain, and the Amalfi Coast (ED: but then who doesn’t?). He hates prejudice, heights and laziness. Here they talk design, eco issues, and being online uncles to their growing legion of fans….

LittleBig: Most people turn to design for children when they have kids themselves, and become frustrated or disappointed at what is on the market. You don’t have that justification so what’s your reasoning for Mini Moderns?

K & M: Our friends, who were all starting families around the same time, found what was available on the market to be very uninspiring and asked the question - ‘Why didn’t we do wallpaper for kids’ rooms and nurseries?’ We couldn’t find a good reason not to. We also wanted to be groundbreaking and do prints that would have a crossover appeal for all ages.

K: We also have 3 godchildren and several nieces and nephews between us. My three young nephews have ‘Knock Knock’ wallpaper and love it, and I have a niece who is into pink and ballet and loves our pink ‘Battery Square’ print. Our godchildren are ages 3, 2 and 18 months, although the 3 year old is more interested in collecting pictures of us from magazines to be honest and not really our work!

LB: What were the first things you knew you just had to start the Mini Moderns collection with and why?

K & M: Wallpaper. We had already built a good reputation with our first collection of wallpaper for Places and Spaces in London. The collection, including Swallows, was shortlisted for the Elle Decoration Awards in 2004. So a wallpaper collection was a good starting point for us as we already had the production sorted out.

LB: What are your best selling ranges and why do your customers tell you that is?

K & M: Our wallpaper again! ‘Tick Tock’ (pictured below) and ‘Do you live in a Town?’ are our most popular for older kids and adults, and ‘Moo!’ And ‘Six of One’ are the best sellers for younger kids.
We’re told ‘Moo!’ (pictured right) is liked because of its details like the rabbits in their burrows, and the fact that although the print is softly retro it is bang up to date with things like wind turbines. We aim to make our designs real as well as interesting and decorative. Our ceramic giftware has also been a big success for us - especially our china moneyboxes, because they’re great for birthday, birth and naming ceremony presents.

LB: What feedback do you get from your buyers?

K & M: We get a great response - they have seen us growing, so in a way feel involved in the development of the brand. We get emails with design suggestions - how their decorating is going at home, and a lot of ‘due’ dates. We are like online uncles!
We get pictures sent in of finished rooms too. We post them under the title “We love Mini Moderns’ in the news section of our site. One of the coolest has been from a little boy called Malcolm Critchley, in the US. He has the ‘colour me’ ‘Sitting Comfortably?’ wallpaper [pictured top] up in his room which has been co-ordinated with red accessories. It looks very cool and modern. Some interiors also come as a surprise to us - the same print has been used in the shop fit of a UK fashion chain, and we have just had three of our wallpapers picked by Conran and Partners for a new hotel in Shoreditch, London.

LB: Who are your design heroes and how have they influenced either the look of Mini Moderns or the function/utility of the brand?

K & M: The attitude of our prints and branding is influenced by Midcentury Modern designers, more than a direct visual influence. Designers like Lucienne Day, Marian Mahler, Susan Clough Ellis‘ designs for Portmeirion pottery in the 1960s, and Paul Rand. We love the work of Alexander Girard too - and his environment enrichment panels of the early 1970s - his attitude of intelligent design for kids was definitely a big influence on us.

LB: What do you really really want to add to the range and why?

K & M: Bags in ‘Tick Tock’ [shown left as wallpaper and cushion] and ‘Sitting Comfortably?’ prints as well as a collection of trays. And we have just completed a collection of clothing with Clothkits - simple shift dresses in 7 of our prints you sew yourself. We would also love to concentrate on the textile side of things, including bedding and more fabrics, also stationery, and ultimately we’d like to create our own furniture too!

LB: How do you feel about the eco question?
K & M: When we started 4 years ago we always had the policy that we produce in the UK. Now our principles have paid off. Our carbon airmiles are kept to a minimum, and producing in the UK means we see all our factories and know who is producing our products. Ethical is as important as eco.
Our wallpaper is printed with water-based inks on certified paper from sustained forests. This is how we have always produced it so we do not really shout about it. We just do it. Our location is also very helpful. We are based in a collection of live/work studios where we can ‘skill swap’ with other businesses based here. Our crockery is fired in kilns in the studios opposite, the majority of our cushions are made by the wife of our Mini Moderns’ portraits photographer and mum of our models, Max and Oscar. The micro photography of our ceramics [see the money box, pictured below right] are taken by another neighbour who is a food photographer who keeps our freezer full of everything from ice cream to beef! In return we provide whatever IT support, artwork and design work that we can - as well as paying some of them!

LB: What are the best things you remember from your own childhoods? Have they influenced your work at all?

M: Absolutely everything from our childhoods influences our designs - and most of our prints have some personal aspect to them. The original four prints in the collection were called ‘Playtime’. The name came from both the 1967 Jacques Tati film, and also a range of biscuits much enjoyed by Keith as a child. The colourways and print designs were also influenced by the colours and pattern designs which decorated these biscuits.

‘Do you live in a Town?’ was named after the closing title phrase of the first urban children’s TV programme, Mary, Mungo and Midge. We can still be found watching back to back episodes on DVD.

K: We also grew up in close proximity to the country - and ‘Moo!’ includes Mark’s bad tempered horse ‘Pepper’ he had as a child.

We try to sum up what made you feel good as a child with our prints. And with prints like ‘Moo!’ and ‘Do you live in a Town?’ we purposely designed detail and imaginative involvement into them. As children we both loved detail and wanted to convey the excitement of imagining driving a tractor around the many fields with their farm inhabitants in our ‘Moo!’ print or riding a bike around the streets of our ‘…Town?’ print.

LB: Your new cushions Nana (pictured left) and Ruby are unexpected. Are you widening the Mini Moderns remit on purpose to give it greater appeal? Will there be other products using these prints?

K & M: ‘Nana’ and ‘Ruby’ were prints that we loved from our print design backlog - and we had been waiting for an opportunity to give them an outing. So when we had the opportunity to work with Clothkits they seemed perfect for dress fabrics. Initially they were designed for trays - and will be soon developed as such. They are very warm personal prints. They have a bit more personality than the others. There is no reason why a ‘Nana’ cushion with its chintz jigsaw pattern isn’t just at home in a Barbie pink bedroom as it is on a Eames rocker or a comfy cottage thread bare sofa. What unites our designs is their vaguely retro appeal without them being too twee. We have always wanted to make things that would take you from baby to teen - without dating - and possibly beyond.

LB: Aside from the Mini Moderns collection, what do you wish you’d designed?

M: The original Mini.

K: The Eames rocker. It looks modern and cool (still) and unlike some modern pieces of furniture is incredibly comfortable. It is also incredibly compact in design so will fit into the smallest living space. And being able to rock is always a great thing!

*www.minimoderns.com.

**Mini Moderns is profiled in great new book - Designed For Kids: A Complete Sourcebook Of Stylish Products for the Modern Family - an encyclopedia of the best modern day design labels and products for kids by Phyllis Richardson (Thames & Hudson). Find it in our Amazon store.