Over the past few months, I've juggled multiple roles: creative strategist, designer, and project manager, all while managing my shop and workshop. It was a busy period, made even more complex by the fact that I was developing two concepts at once.

My extensive experience with USM furniture was a significant advantage. Since 2010, I've designed and built thousands of pieces, giving me a deep understanding of the system's possibilities. This knowledge made it much easier to generate new and innovative ideas.

A large part of the process was dedicated to research, testing, and sourcing materials. This involved experimenting with various ropes and knots, as well as finding the right tiles. I also used Google Gemini+ Nano Banana to help visualize my concepts. While not all of my ideas could be realized within the project's time and budget, I gained a wealth of new concepts for future Re-Framed™ projects. The positive reception and requests from other designers have confirmed my plan to continue this work.

One of the concepts I developed is an evolution of Henry Julier's Woven Structures project. While he uses a traditional Danish weaving technique, I opted for a macramé technique that works better with the thicker ropes I wanted to use. I chose orange rope to reflect our brand identity, and the open weave adds a sense of lightness to the piece. To ensure no material went to waste, I used all the rope and left the excess hanging down the back.

The idea for tiling a bench was born from a simple insight: I flipped a USM panel over and realized its indentation could be filled with different materials, creating a unique surface.

For the posters, I collaborated with illustrator Wes Robertson. I was looking for a playful aesthetic, and his mood and charming, sympathetic illustrations were a perfect match for the project's vibe.

The metal tubing for this exact project, were sourced from old filing cabinets that once belonged to Kredittkassen bank (now Nordea). These first-generation USM structures, dating back to the mid-1980s, feature four steel rails welded onto the 750mm tubes. Originally designed to support extension drawers and filing frames, I imagined the rails would prove useful for the re-designs, as they allowed for the seamless integration of new materials.

I salvaged these parts about 15 years ago and spent nearly three months dismantling them into individual components. I then stored them at my combined warehouse showroom and workshop. Since then, I’ve restored and rebuilt them into a variety of custom USM solutions, including Hi-Fi Racks, vinyl record solutions, sideboards, and kitchens.

Since this year's Designers' Saturday theme was "Re-purposed," the brief was to use only upcycled and surplus materials. The designers were also responsible for sourcing their own materials. For my own designs, I used a combination of online ads, my professional network, and direct outreach to find the best materials for the concepts.

For the weaving, I initially used old climbing ropes from Klatreverket to test various techniques. I then experimented with different designs and Nora Cecil Paulsen did the hard work with the final weaving. I was also introduced by Wai Tsui from the clothing and equipment brand Hiking Patrol, to Jonathon Williams at Mammut, who generously sent us a box of discarded ropes with production defects.

My search for tiles led me to Emilie Engelstad at Ita Design, who got me some beautiful surplus Fired Earth Onyx tiles.
This project will also have leftover materials, which I plan to use to create a few more benches in the future.

Since StudioM3 are USM specialists we work with re-design, configuration and upcycling on a daily basis. We work with both living and working spaces and help clients adapt the furniture to meet their ever changing storage and furnishing needs.

In our daily operations we save all of the consumables we use for packaging and deliveries like cardboard boxes, styrofoam, and plastic and re-use them multiple times. This saves us money and time, in addition to being good for the environment. We also distribute the furniture with electric Maxus van for city central deliveries and even use my own bio diesel modified 1978 Toyota Land Cruiser for smaller deliveries. It runs on any plant based oil.