MEET EVERYTHING ELEVATED

Though they generally prefer to remain anonymous, designers Marius Myking and Martin Nichols have held firmly to their goal of creating a name for themselves.

Split between New York and Oslo, their studio, Everything Elevated, has gained international acclaim for work that includes a wooden Swan made in collaboration with Danish design pillar Normann Copenhagen, and the Norwegian Design Pavilion they constructed for Design Week in New York City last year.

Founded only two years ago, Everything Elevated seeks inspiration in the earliest human tools. They describe the lemon juicer they created for OTHR, for instance, as one part hand, one part lemon, and one part 3D printed object. It’s a tool that reflects a theme of contrast that’s deeply embedded in their work—theirs is a space where nature meets construct; a thoughtful process trumps speedy production; and time-honored methods of manufacturing meets cutting-edge technology.

Wandering the streets of Oslo, the pair discuss ambition, anonymity, and the expanding world of Norwegian design, to which they’re handily making a lasting contribution. Slowing down—for the moment, at least—seems implausible. “I’m usually content for a couple of hours when we achieve a goal, then it’s onto the next thing”, says Martin matter-of-factly. “We don’t want to have any regrets.”

What’s a typical day—say a Monday—like in the Everything Elevated studio?

Marius: We don’t really have a typical Monday. That can be great and sometimes a bit stressful, in the sense that every day and project is unique. We start every project as if it’s something completely new and unknown to us, and we try to get as deep into the material as we can. It’s great really, that there is no typical Monday, no typical Tuesday, and so on. Our work is project-based and each one is different.

Let’s talk a bit about your choice to work as anonymously as possible. Your website contains no info on who Everything Elevated are, and no bio. Why is that?

Marius: It was important that our practice was about the services and the knowledge that we could deliver, and not about where we came from and who we were as people. We think that focus tends to quickly shift to the wrong things otherwise. We wanted to keep it on what we thought was interesting—which was in no way the two of us.

You do seem to be drawn to many different types of projects, from exhibition design to more straightforward product design. How does each one come about, and what motivates them?

Marius: Most often, we build a relationship with someone before we build business collaborations. When it comes to making a commitment and starting extended collaborations, you want to work with people you actually like.

Martin: It can be about the values of those people, the chemistry—it can be several things—but for us, it’s important to only work with people who have a similar level of ambition as us, and who want to achieve something new. There needs to be room for us to be a part of that so we can help them reach their goals.

What is your level of ambition? Can you expand on that?

Marius: Ambition levels can be quite personal, in the sense that ambition can mean different things to different people. We want to be able to practice design on the highest level and take part in even more interesting and challenging projects. That is what it boils down to. We want to see how far we can stretch our potential. We don’t want look back and say we didn’t try hard enough.

That must be difficult, but it also must be an incredible source of inspiration. Art forms often inspire other art forms, right?

Absolutely. Perhaps it might be very cliche to say this, but the best designers of all time, the Eameses, always did this. They’re such an inspiration because their studio was obviously predominantly a design studio, but they also worked with film, cinematography, choreography, dance, interiors and more. They have such an incredibly wide-ranging portfolio. That’s such a tremendous source of inspiration for me.

What’s behind your creative process? Are you the type of person who dreams up new ideas at night and wakes up to scribble them down? Or do you think up new designs at random places like the pub?

Oh, I do that, most definitely. I’ll be walking down the street, and I’ll see some small detail on something, anything. It’s usually something random like a piece of cast concrete on the sidewalk. Then that will sort of start the process for me, and a new idea might arise. Actually, I often send myself emails with photographs of what I’ve seen, or even just quick notes so I won’t forget. I end up doing that all the time.

Tell us about your collaboration with OTHR. What was most exciting to you about this project?

I was interested in the fact that OTHR are a production company working with 3D printing. I think that’s what drew me in really, because not a lot of people are focusing on 3D printing right now—standard manufacturing techniques seem to reign supreme. I thought OTHR had come up with a very clever project that I ultimately wanted to be a part of.

What inspired you to collaborate with OTHR?

Martin: We’re interested in exploring new production methods and new ways of doing things. OTHR represents a new way of making, a new business model within design. We found that very exciting.

Marius: Most often when you work on projects, there are some natural limitations to what you can do, but the 3D printing technique has no apparent limitations. Because of this, our first collaboration with OTHR has perhaps been one of the more challenging design projects we’ve worked on thus far in terms of determining the essence of the idea.

How did the idea for the lemon juicer come about?

Martin: We have spent a lot of time walking around The Natural History Museum in New York, looking at what people have been making through history. The lemon squeezer sits in a contrasted relationship between high technology and objects from the Stone Age.

The idea is that you take a lemon or orange and hold it over a container, and the fruit becomes part of the tool. The movement is very natural. By itself, it’s also a reference to monumental stone obelisks. We added a mathematical language to the squeezer, but it also has a very simple function. The grooves in the porcelain serve a double purpose—they work to squeeze the lemon, and at the same time, they provide a firm grip.

You’re split between Oslo and New York. Are there ways in which this situation has influenced your work or your products?

Martin: Definitely there are, both in the way we work, and also in regards to what inspires us. You are given two different ways of looking at the world when you live in different places.

Marius: We try to take the best from the two worlds. We have a solid Scandinavian design background, and we’ve learned more about strategy and how to work in a large market from spending time in the States. It’s affected how we work—we spend more time getting into the essence of the projects we work on. When we’ve found the best way of carrying them out, that’s when the actual process of designing starts. From our experience, the more thorough that part is, the easier the actual design work becomes.

"For design to survive and really hold value, you need to be able to make a living from it."

Let’s talk a little bit more about Oslo. How do you see design evolving here?

Marius: The field has grown quite a lot the last couple of years. To some extent, we’ve been a part of it. You can understand that it’s been demanding for young Norwegian designers to create a value system that works for them. There is so little production in Norway, and part of what we do is to try and find a way to make a business out of design. In the long run, we hope to be a part of pushing Norwegian design forward. Our opinion is that for design to survive and really hold value, you need to be able to make a living from it. Which is probably an American way of looking at things.

Martin: We’ve tried to do our part in creating interest for Norwegian design in New York and the States. We’re very proud to be a part of this design field. We have some predecessors, as well, who have done a lot, and we hope we have contributed in our own way.