Moooi

Moooi is a Dutch furniture, interior, and lighting modern design company. It was founded by Marcel Wanders and Casper Vissers in the Netherlands in 2001.

Name and stated mission

When Marcel Wanders and Casper Vissers started Moooi in 2001, they promised each other to create a legendary brand. Today, the venture is currently led by Marcel Wanders and Robin Bevers. Moooi is named after the Dutch word for beautiful – the third ‘O’ in the brand name stands for an extra value in terms of beauty and uniqueness. Moooi doesn’t tell designers what to do, but listens to what designers want to make, and realizes their dreams. To create the unexpected welcome and elicit the extra ‘O’. The result is a multi-sensory and comprehensive lifestyle collection. Eclectic and always on the edge of commercial reality and cultural interest. To trigger, to create conversation pieces which make your environment more special, a life extraordinary.

History and ownership

Designer Marcel Wanders first approached Moooi co-founder and former CEO Casper Vissers to help him market a designer lamp shade. Together they founded Moooi in 2001 with the intention of working with unconventional designers.

Wanders acts as both the Art Director and a designer of Moooi.

Moooi's first international show was the Salone del Mobile in Milan in 2001. In 2002 entrepreneur Hans Lensvelt, owner of the LENSVELT brand of office furniture, became a 33% owner of the company. Prominent Italian design brand B&B Italia acquired a 50% share in the company in 2006, which it held until 2012. That year, founders Wanders and Vissers became the majority owners again after buying back half of the stock owned by B&B Italia and the remaining shares held by Lensvelt (by this time 10%). In 2015 Wanders and Vissers, who previously owned 50% of the company, again became the majority shareholders.

Vissers stepped down as Moooi CEO in 2015, and he and Wanders announced Robin Bevers, the Managing Director of the Marcel Wanders Studio from 2005 to 2010, as his replacement beginning in September of that year.

Products

Moooi's collection is always original, unexpected, eclectic, rebellious and sophisticated and is always on the edge of commercial reality and cultural interest. A well-curated mix of lighting, furniture and accessories that outlast everyday interiors, define personalities of spaces & deliver the extra touch of creativity and beauty that is always unexpected and yet so exquisitely welcome. The Moooi collection contains work from emerging talent and internationally recognised designers. Together, we are intensely curious and on a search towards unique and innovative designs, concepts and materials.

The company carries lighting, furniture, accessories, wallcovering and carpet collections. Moooi designs are available in 82 countries: via (e-commerce) retailers, project- and contract dealers, agents & distributors, their own (brand)stores and their website moooi.com.

Every design in their collection is an original Moooi design, but a few of those designs grew out to be Moooi fan-favourites and are called ''Moooi Originals''. Extraordinary designs, well-loved by people all over the world!

Moooi Carpets

Founded in 2015, Moooi Carpets reinvented the carpet by introducing a technology that generates extremely high-definition prints. Moooi Carpets offers a rich and refined carpet collection with an extensive assembly of unique, iconic, and breathtaking designs. An endless mix of colours, playful illusions of depth and photo-realistic designs, Moooi Carpets’ technology creates revolutionary and exceptional flooring solutions. In the 2015 Milan exhibition, carpets designed by Studio Job, Ross Lovegrove, and Neri&Hu were shown.

In 2019, Moooi presented "A Life Extraordinary" at Salone del Mobile, showcasing collections o
Moooi WallcoveringMoooi Carpets
and other additions to the collection.

Moooi Wallcovering

Moooi Wallcovering with its imaginative patterns and revolutionary materials, broadens design horizons by adding a new vertical dimension of creative luxury. In 2018 Moooi presented The Extinct Animals wallcovering collection in Milan. Each pattern inspired by the characteristics of the Extinct Animals. Early 2020 a capsule collection inspired by the Indigo Macaque, the latest addition to our Extinct Animals family, was launched.

Locations

*The company is headquartered in Breda, Netherlands, and the Moooi warehouse is located in the same region.
*Moooi's 700 m² flagship showroom and brand store, opened in 2008, is located in Amsterdam's Jordaan neighborhood. Until 2013, the showroom and shop was known as the Moooi Gallery and also hosted special exhibitions, such as the 2010 exhibition by Lorenzo Petrantoni. In 2013 the brand decided the space should show only Moooi products.
*In 2010, a showroom was opened in London’s Paddington district.
*Moooi opened a showroom in Milan’s Zona Tortona in 2010. It was closed in 2013.
*A New York City showroom and brand store opened in April 2015 in a 3,875 ft² (360 m²) showroom in the city's NoMad area.
*Moooi products are offered in various design stores in 82 countries.
*In September 2021, Moooi store The Hague opened in the Westfield Mall of The Netherlands.

Projects and collaborations

The company frequently collaborates with photographers such as Erwin Olaf to present collections, beginning with the brand’s first Salone del Mobile in 2001. Collaborations have included “Naked Portraits” (2002-2006), “Super Heroes” (2007-2008), “Luxury Accessories” (2008), “Inside the Box” (2012). For Moooi's new collection presentation in Milan in 2013, Wanders asked Olaf to select photographs from his personal work, a collection of interior design photography. For the 2014 exhibition, the brand collaborated with photographer Massimo Listri. In 2015 it was Rahi Rezvani. Levi van Veleuw's work was installed in the Amsterdam and London showrooms in 2013. Rezvani's work is also currently featured in Moooi's new NYC showroom.

In 2012 and 2013, Moooi collaborated with Frame magazine to reward the designer who submitted “the best custom-created lamp or furnishing designed for a specific interior” with €25,000. The final winners in 2013, before the competition was discontinued, were designers Itay Ohaly, Thomas Vailly, and Christian Fiebig for their piece “Impulsive Furnishing Unit,” a portable furniture fabrication unit. Entries were judged this year by Jana Scholzte, the Victoria & Albert Museum’s contemporary design curator. Designer Philippe Stark was the judge in 2012, and the winner of the 2012 award was Bertjan Pot, now a frequent collaborator with the brand.

Moooi worked with IDEO and roboticist Catie Cuan on their Piro project, a dancing scent diffuser robot launched for Milan Design Week in June 2022.

Exhibitions

*New York’s MoMA museum has acquired two of Wanders’ chairs (one produced by Moooi) for its permanent collection.
*In 2013, Moooi collaborated with photographer Erwin Olaf to present The Unexpected Welcome during Milan Design Week’s 2013 Salone del Mobile.
*During Milan Design Week 2014, Moooi presented their new collection with large-scale interior photography by Massimo Listri. This exhibition was also called The Unexpected Welcome, Moooi’s brand tagline.
*At the 2015 Salone del Mobile in Milan, Moooi debuted their 2015 collection, including the new carpet collection, alongside the photography of Rahi Rezvani.
*Moooi also created online walkthroughs of the 2013, 2014, and 2015 Salone del Mobile exhibitions to extend their accessibility.
*Moooi paired with Listri for an exhibition at the International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF) in New York City in May of 2015, where the brand previously exhibited in 2014, 2013, 2010, 2009, 2008, and 2004.
*Wanders’ Mermaids project, a photographic collection of human “mermaids” exploring Moooi's lighting and furniture collection, showed at the London Design Festival in 2011. The brand also appeared in the 2013 and 2012 editions of this festival.
*Moooi exhibited at the Stockholm Furniture Fair in 2013, 2011, 2009, 2008, 2006, 2005, 2004, and 2003.
*Moooi has also exhibited several times at Design POST during the imm Cologne furniture trade show, in 2013, 2012, and 2007 as well as in Cologne’s Orgatec fair for interior office design in 2012.
*Additional exhibitions Moooi has participated in include:
**Amsterdam’s Via Milano New Dutch Design exhibitions 2002–2006 and 2008–2010;
**The 2011 HD Expo & Conference in Las Vegas;
**The CIBONE exhibition at Designtide Tokyo in 2008;
**The 2004 “Brilliant” exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London;
**The 2003 “Somewhere Totally Else” exhibition at the London Design Museum;
**The 2002 Dutch Design exhibit at Apartment Zero;
**The “Skin: Surface, Substance and Design” exhibition at the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian design museum (2002);
**The 2002 Milan in a Van exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum;
**A 2001 exhibition at the LIMN gallery of contemporary art in San Francisco, California; and
**The 2001 traveling Hitec-Lotec exhibition in the UK.

Awards and recognition

*100% Design Blueprint Award for the Best Design of 2002 Elle Décor UK award for the 2002 Best Lighting Design and the Elle Décor International award for Lighting & Accessories for Light Shade Shade by Jurgen Bey
*FX International Interior Design Award for Best Furniture & Lighting
*100% Design Blueprint award nomination for Best Product of 2004 for the Carbon Chair and City System
*2006 Woon Award for Best Home Interior Professionals
*2006 Elle Décor's Designer of the Year (Marcel Wanders)
*2007 Elle Décor International Design Award for the Best Lighting Design for the Paper Chandelier by Studio Job
*Shortlisted for the London Design Museum’s 2012 Designs of the Year for the Heracleum chandelier by Bertjan Pot (All shortlisted designs were exhibited at the museum.)
*2013 Rotterdam Design Award nomination for the “Unexpected Welcome” exhibition at Milan's Salone del Mobile with photographer Erwin Olaf
*2014 LEF Award for Boldness in the first EH&I awards by Dutch interior design magazine Eigen Huis & Interieur (“Own House & Interior”)
*Best Lighting Brand design award from Harper's Bazar Interiors magazine for the Prop Lamp by Bertjan Pot

References

External links

*{{Official website, http://www.moooi.com/

Design companies of the Netherlands
Interior design
Luxury brands
Furniture companies of the Netherlands
Dutch brands
Design companies established in 2001
Dutch companies established in 2001