“Play is a crucial part of the creative process and we believe the best ideas come when you least expect them,” says Kate Stokes and Haslett Grounds, the talented design partnership behind Coco Flip. And perhaps the same could be said for Kate and Haslett themselves who, as husband and wife, first met serving drinks at a friend’s art exhibition and eight years later are designing a range of furniture and lighting undoubtedly filled with warmth, personality and character. “Our business is very personal to us and an extension of our values and aesthetic.”
With a background in industrial design, Kate started Coco Flip in 2010. Successfully growing the business to such a point she couldn’t manage everything alone, Haslett, an experienced architect, came on board as a partner in 2013. “Our partnership evolved quite naturally,” Kate explains. “There was always a lot of discussion at home and Haslett was always involved in resolving designs and nutting out details.”
Kate and Haslett’s ideas and design directions are shaped by their shared personal experiences, especially travel. “New destinations and cultures help us see things from a fresh perspective and renew our enthusiasm for design.” This is combined with a design process that begins with what they describe as a mood or a tone. “Whether it’s a place, character or feeling, we want to imbue objects with personality.” They use raw and natural materials that have warmth and beauty to create objects with clean lines, elegant forms and expressive, almost-animated geometry. Certainly, this combination of personality, playfulness and foreign inspiration is evident in the products’ names and descriptions: the cartoon character-like Puku takes its name from ‘chubby belly’ in Maori; the sculptural Mayu collection is inspired by Iceland’s distinctive landscapes; and the Coco pendant, influenced by Scandinavian and Japanese aesthetics, “is like a heavy yo-yo at the end of its string.”
Kate and Haslett work closely with local manufacturers who handcraft the individual components that are checked, assembled, and personally packaged at the Coco Flip studio. As supporting local design and manufacture holds significant appeal to a great number of architects, interior designers and individual buyers, Coco Flip products have subsequently found their way into residential and commercial spaces, “from kid’s rooms to airports and the great hall of the National Gallery of Victoria.”
Coco Flip has a nine-point design philosophy that reads like a reflection of the couple. It includes celebrating the good things in life, balancing the timeless and the contemporary, and creating the kind of products Kate and Haslett want to own themselves. “We believe a considered purchase is a purchase for life,” they explain. “In design we strive for quality and longevity so our customers can enjoy our products for a very long time.”
Coco Flip
cocoflip.com.au
