The folks over at the Bump, the terrific resource for expecting parents, recommend the Sam Crib as one of the top 10 cribs they love.
They featured the Sam Crib with Blue Whale MuuPanel and shared the following:
We’ve been pretty much in love with the Sam crib by Muu ever since we first laid eyes on it a few years ago. And it’s still one of our faves
We’re feeling all warm inside! Check out their website for tons of good information as well as their magazine.
For those of you who are fans of the hit NBC show Parenthood (Executive Producers Ron Howard & Brian Grazer) and developed by Jason Katmis (Friday Night Lights), you may have noticed some familiar products in the “It Is What It Is” episode.
Check out the Julia character assembling the Ray Crib on Parenthood!
Check out the Ray Crib being assembled by Erika Christensen’s character Julia. It’s always fun to see our products on TV, although please never never never assemble your crib with a power tool!
Check out the Ray Crib over in the right corner of the shot
We hope to see the crib making an appearance in future episodes! Thank you to the cool folks at Parenthood who included us. The show airs Tuesday at 10/9C
Check out the profile of Muu founder Robert Kwak in Pregnancy & Newborn Magazine’s January issue. The article is all about making green products and profiles several other cool and innovative companies. The Muu profile is on the last page.
Favorite quote of the piece:
By making our furniture here, we consume less energy getting products to our customers than if we made them half a world away. Making high-quality products means that we are building things to last–and that means less unnecessary consumption, which is good for your wallet and good for the environment.
The January issue of Pregnancy & Newborn is on newsstands now.
We were out in Wisconsin at the factory this past week and we took some photos on the way. If were weren’t in such a hurry (and if it wasn’t so cold) we would have stopped to take more. It would also help if next time we didn’t try to take these while we are driving!
Here’s one of some children in town raising the flag before school starts. I was told that everyone goes out to play for recess until the temperature gets down to zero– I’m freezing just thinking about it .
Here’s another shot driving through town.
Photos inside the factory to follow in our next series.
We love when customers send us photos of their nurseries featuring Muu products. Here’s one from a customer that bought the Sam Crib and Sam Dresser with the White Flowers MuuPanels.
What we love about this photo, apart from the obviously beautiful room design, is how it perfectly shows how adaptable the Sam Collection pieces are to different situations.
Calling all customers: Don’t by shy, send in your photos and we’ll publish them, especially if they are as stunning as this one.
Muu founder Robert Kwak was interviewed by the editors of uber-design site 2Modern.com about the company, making high-quality furniture in the United States and modern nursery design.
Listen to the full interview here. Visit their site to find all of the cool Muu furniture.
We had the opportunity to pick up the new posthumous collection of works by author Shel Silverstein entitled Everything On It. The poems and illustrations are a fitting final addition to his classic works Where the Sidewalk Ends and A Light in the Attic. He’s one of our all time favorite authors, period (not just kids’ authors). His pieces are a combination of silly, heartfelt, absurd, wondrous and insightful–just like kids.
While Silverstein died in 1999, this collection of previously unpublished work stands on its own. If you are looking for a great bedtime book to read, we strongly suggest that you put this collection at the top of your list.
We just received the November issue of American Baby and were excited to find the All Slat Ray Crib on the magazine’s Nesting page featuring Serena Dugan (of Serena & Lily fame). She called out the Ray Crib as a great choice for the “practical and beautiful” nursery.
The violet colors are pretty cool too.
Scanning the New York Times today, we came upon the following article about authenticity:
Credit: NYT Times "All that Authenticity Made be Getting Old" Oct 26, 2011
The article immediately made us realize that a) we haven’t posted the follow up chapters to our Made in the USA series and b) the question of authenticity is intertwined in the story of ‘Made in the USA’. For us, the trend in finding authentic products as discussed in the article reflects a whole host of desires: a yearning for a return to a simpler time when products are not designed to be obsolete within months (thank you iPhone 4S), a desire to assert our individuality and uniqueness in a word where the internet has made everything available to everyone and, for our purposes, a concern for who is making the products that enter our homes and how they are made because of the issue of safety and quality. You can check out the NYT for the complete article as they wrestle with the question from an “authentic as trend” perspective. It’s a quick and somewhat interesting read.
A nice moment from our recent factory visit
For us, the issue of authentic as a reflection of the relationship between makers and buyers was very much on our mind when we sat down to be interviewed for Dwell/Design Patriot last month. We choose to make our furniture here in the USA for a mix of practical and philosophical reasons.
Philosophically, we believe in making our furniture here because it gives us great pride to do so. It means something to us that we are supporting a longstanding tradition of exceptional furniture manufacturing and that by making it here we are keeping this craft alive. This is one of the impulses encapsulated within the longing for “authentic” products, namely that by buying these objects we are connected to and supporting craftspeople. In other words, we are nearer to the people who make what we own and the objects we own have histories and connections that precede their arrival in our home.
Practically speaking, it is important that we are close to the source. Seeing our furniture made in person and getting to know the people who actually make the products– the woodworkers, paint and finishing people, and even the people who carefully fit the pieces into the boxes for shipping– are important to us. We learn from them. We see their commitment to building well made products and we work together to share and reinforce our commitment to quality. While it’s certainly not impossible to share those values with people halfway around the globe, making it here means that we can be more involved in the process. For us, that’s why the issue of authenticity resonates: we know the people who make our cribs and we know what they care about. We know if their son’s football team is undefeated this season (it is) or whether they are expecting their second child. We know about the seriousness of their commitment to quality and safety and their belief in getting the job done right. Bottom line is that we trust them.
Another shot from our visit to the factory
Authenticity (or perhaps a better term is ‘nostalgia’) as a marketing concept may be getting old if you believe the New York Times. However, the values underlying why we here at Muu care about authenticity –interconnection, quality, safety, a sense of history and place– will always be something at the center of why we make our furniture here in the USA.
Muu Founder Robert Kwak was interviewed for Dwell Magazine by Ruth Storc at the cool new(ish) blog Design Patriot about the benefits of making products here in the USA. We were really flattered that Design Patriot and the editors at Dwell selected us for the series as the list of companies selected includes some outstanding designs. Our conversation with Ruth was actually a pretty freewheeling conversation about manufacturing, the economy, sustainability and the ongoing challenges of balancing our role as designers and design facilitators with our role as businesspeople. You can see the photos and entire post by visiting the slideshow section of Dwell’s blog.
Muu founder Robert Kwak holding up a blue whale MuuPanel for Dwell
Not to turn the metaphorical camera lens back on Ruth but we were pretty fascinated to learn about how they started the blog. Like many good ideas, it started with something simple, which in their case was the desire to find a well made toy wagon for their son.
Making things here in the USA seems to be in the cultural zeitgeist these days. Not only did Dwell devote their entire October issue to the topic of American-made products, but we’ve seen numerous pieces relating to making things here, from articles in Wired about companies “onshoring” (our term) production back to the United States from China to Fast Company curating a list of their favorite US-made products for modern product flash sale site Fab.com (a site that has a pretty fascinating history itself) to even the Chrysler “Imported from Detroit” ad campaign featured our favorite line: “It’s as much about where it’s from as who it’s for.”
Fast Comapny Curates a selection of American-Made Products
Emimen Chrysler 2011 Superbowl Ad
Over the next few months we’re going to further share our thoughts about making things here and the challenges and the rewards of doing so. For now, enjoy the piece in Dwell and spend some time on the Design Patriot Blog.