DaWanda Backstage

Hi guys,

In today’s interview with a DaWanda seller, we have the pleasure of meeting Jolyon Yates, the designer behind ODE, the label which brings us beautiful handcrafted furniture, wall decals, bags, accessories and more. The ODE design aesthetic is simple yet stunning, elegant yet playful – it has something for everyone, yet maintains a distinctive individuality.

Check out Jolyon’s DaWanda shop, and read on for a fascinating insight into how these beautiful designs come to life:

Please tell us a bit about yourself:
I trained in Product and Vehicle design and have worked in Germany, Australia, England and New Zealand (where my mother comes from). I am a determined, hardworking, earnest, constructively cynical, unconventional 41 year old male.

How did you discover that you have creative tendencies?
I discovered I could do little else. I had a hunger to find answers in things visual. I felt I could sense poetry in form and always wanted to pursue that.

Where do you find your inspiration?
Always nature, often the ocean, Princess my cat

Do you have any role models/inspirations in the area of Design? If so, who and why?
Yes, Charles and Ray Eames for their wonderful and simple manufactured furniture and their general sense for art and creativity, Le Corbusier for his amazing buildings and the influence he continues to provide to designers today, Arne Jacobsen for his great furniture, cutlery and accessories and my Father, Peter Yates who was a remarkable architect and painter, observant and creative.

How did you come up with the ideas for the products in your DaWanda shop?
Over a long period, by developing a philosophy and a feel and applying that to all my work.

Which materials do you use to create your products?
Wood for my chairs – mostly birch at the moment as well as some oak and some ash. Vinyl for my decals and plastic sheet and card for my mobiles.

Please give us a brief summary of your creative process?
Think, look, think more, draw, struggle, try again, stress, think again, pull hair, walk, sleep, wake, resolve, improve and evolve.

What characterises your products/your style?
Cool, charming, pure, organic, elegant

What do you want to achieve in the future as a Designer/Creative?
Respect, a decent wage, freedom to do more of it

What role does DaWanda play in your daily creative life?
Checking, answering questions and responding to customers daily. I tend to try to focus on my own work – and not look too much at other peoples work. I hope that this will change in the future as I have more time to explore .. haha ! Because I am trying to make a living from my work, this brings a certain sense of immediacy, so Dawanda is very much a tool to me – and a nice tool at that.

How has your life changed since you opened your DaWanda shop?
It’s a lot of work to develop a shop – it needs time and thought to evolve. There are lots of similar shops out there – so you have to take a punt on which ones are worth the effort

Please give us the names of three of your favourite shops on DaWanda:
– Zeneak
– lillee-mack
– johannawagner

Has anything weird or wonderful happened to you on DaWanda?
I have had lots of incredibly kind comments from all over the world – and this proves to be a great source of comfort for me when ideas don’t work out or sales don’t happen .. oh and I got threatened by a certain outdoor equipment manufacturer for drawing my cat’s paw print.

Any closing comments?
It’s been a very busy year, not just creatively, but organizationally – there are lots of new ideas in the pipeline – some new chairs and some chairs that I hope to progress tentatively to low volume production, so 2010 promises to be exciting !

I believe that the high street has homogenized into a very unattractive collection of either cheap tat or me-too products. As people use products to define themselves, they see more and more that choice has been taken away from them in the interests of mass-commerce. Web stores are the counter action to this. They restore the individual as both the creative producer and as the buyer. Neither need fit in a mold.

Of all the craft based sites out there – I have found Dawanda to be the best organized, the gentlest and most generously spirited site. It is therefore I think one of the most personal and ultimately most successful web shops I have come across. The combined creativity behind Dawanda is remarkable. It’s been a great place to meet people and spend time.


P.S. If you’d like to be considered for one of our Monday seller interviews, then please send a filled-out questionnaire to azra[at]dawanda[dot]com