Features

What city are you in at the moment and what's news in your life?

In New York City. I was in Los Angeles where I stumbled upon the mini-city Eric Owen Moss is having built in Culver City which really recharged some of my brain battery. At the moment everything "news" in my life is Nooka related – the launch of the Nooka strip [our belt], AO [wallet] and fragrance. I won't bore you with the fact that all my spare time is being spent trying to find a larger apartment to move to that isn't ridiculously priced, it doesn't seem like fiscal realty has come to NYC just yet.

In Summer 2009 you opened a pop-up store in New York featuring your entire line of products and more recently have opened a section within H5 at Kuala Lumpur. Are you planning to open many other retail spaces within the near future?

To clarify just a bit, the pop up shop in NYC was something we opened directly with the great guys of ODIN, but H-5 is the work of our amazing Singapore based distributor for South East Asia. In the immediate future, we will launch a pop-up experience similar to the NYC shop in Tokyo this October. I'll be flying out to plan that in a few weeks. And of course, I'd love to recreate these successes everywhere we can.

How many watches have you made since you first opened Nooka in 2002?  Is there a favorite one of the lot?

Hmm, difficult question. In 2002 Nooka was a side project of my design studio and I only produced 2,000 pieces in total of 2 designs. Nooka inc. proper was founded in 2005. Between the different lines and material/color variations since then translates to over 60 different choices. My favorite face is the Zen-h and my favorite form is the Zirc.

Which watch are you wearing today?

Our new Zem Zen-v

You have now branched out a range of items this year, including belts, fragrances and wallets.  What direction do you see Nooka moving in the future with other non-time related products?

My motivation as an artist and designer is to create things that communicate universally. This creates a framework for a wide array of potential Nooka Mindstyle™ products. The aesthetics of design are the vocabulary for this process but i'm far more interested in systems. I want to do a phone, but the whole system from billing up, as well as a car. It'd be great to do a line of apparel.

What was the inspiration to jump to fragrances?

My inspiration is the future! Just as I felt I could bring certain accessories up to speed, I also felt fragrance was stuck in an old nostalgic place. I wanted to create a scent that gave a sensorial dimension to the Nooka philosophy. It's been about 4 years since the Nooka watches were relaunched as Nooka inc., and this has created the perception (understandably) that Nooka is a watch company. The true story is that the Nooka watches are the end-product of a design exploration of interface design and universal language with a futurist look-and-feel. To me, Nooka is and has always been a design lab. I wanted to challenge myself to create new Nooka products that express these ideals, so this challenge was to approach a fragrance in this manner. Also, I have a personal obsession with fragrance. Until age 27 I used to be so allergic to fragrance that I couldn't be close to anyone wearing it without getting an asthma attack. After a serious bike accident, my allergies were lessened in their severity and a new world was opened up to me [any doctors out there that can provide a link to a good article on this subject?]. I then approached scent with out any preconceptions formed from having a spouse or lover wearing a certain scent or ever wearing a scent myself.

What has been the biggest highlight of the past 10 years?

More than one, so I'll make a short list and you can choose:

I stumbled into a cool shop off of Meiji-Dori in Tokyo a few years ago that had such a cool curated collection of clothes and art books. It had a gallery on the 2nd floor with a photography exhibition. I thought it may be a cool placement for Nooka so I went to introduce myself to one of the shop boys and he greeted me by name! When I asked how he knew my name, he pointed to a magazine he was reading with a small interview and picture. It totally made me feel like mister international designer, and it was a nice feeling. I then realized it was a shop designed by Tom Dixon which was also nice to know since i'm a consistent fan.

Visiting Melbourne and Sydney for work was an amazing thing as I may never had gotten there without an invitation from our distributor at the time. I've been back one other time since then and can't wait to be back again. 

The response from major US fashion magazine editors when I presented my fragrance at a press event was really amazingly validating. It was great to hear people who are inundated with samples all the time tell me how refreshing it was for them to hear and see someone like me do something new in the world of fragrance.

Most unexpected place you have seen a Nooka watch being worn?

Gosh, I have to be honest with you; I am always shocked to see anyone wearing one! We are still so small, and sightings are so rare that every time is fresh and unexpected.

How many staff do you employ and what's it like working for Nooka as a company?

We have 8 full time staff in the NYC Nooka lab, half creative and half admin/executive. It's a very laid-back creative environment without sacrificing productivity. Everybody wears a few different hats as we not only design the products in-house, but all the collateral materials – so everyone has to write and design and also help with deliveries and shipping (no sleek high-design workspace here, just a functional studio).

Any other brands you are a big fan of?  Any new emerging brands you are keeping an eye on?

I have to say I am very sad that Miu Miu discontinued their menswear line. Always a big fan of Yohji Yamamoto and local NYC brand DDC Lab.

You have released quite a few collaboration pieces in the past, how do you go about picking and choosing the brands you collaborate with?

I choose collabs for one of 3 reasons. 1. My salespeople tell me it will help open doors to certain shops. 2. I think it will add new values to the brand. 3. I love the opportunity to work with other creative geniuses.

Where do you see Nooka in the next 5 years?

I see the watches on more wrists, the fragrance line extended and Nooka designed systems applied to the products of other brands.

You can follow Matthew and his personal thoughts via his Nooka blog which he maintains and writes himself. Of course for more on Nooka products visit the Nooka website, nooka.com and lastly you'll find Matthew and his musings also on Twitter.