Media: The Entrepreneurs - Podcast by Monocle
Interviewer: Tomos Lewis
Published Date: 4 May, 2022
Introduction
Monocle’s "The Entrepreneurs" podcast features innovative entrepreneurs, who share their inspiring stories, covering the best in hospitality, design, fashion, and retail.
Tomos Lewis, former BBC News Broadcaster and Monocle’s Toronto Bureau Chief, interviewed ecoBirdy’s co-founders Vanessa and Joris. For the first time, they shared the personal story behind Charlie Chair, talked about how the home base town Antwerp inspires them, and shared their journey from designers to entrepreneurs.
The extract of the conversation
Tomos Lewis: It's from Vanessa we hear from first, speaking from their studio in Antwerp in Belgium, who tells us the story of how their award-winning design for a chair for children, the Charlie Chair, begins
Vanessa: Charlie is the name of my godson, also Joris’ nephew; my sister-in-law asked me to be the godmother when she was pregnant. She also asked me to recommend any kids' furniture that she could buy for her older son. I looked into that, and I couldn't find any valuable options; eventually she bought one chair, but it ended up being very dangerous for the child. It kept on tipping over every time he got on the chair. I was so surprised to see this! Product designers study adults’ ergonomics so much, and I thought that kids deserved better too.
That was the moment when we decided to design a kids’ collection, and I decided we were going to make the best one.
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Listen to the full podcast episode with ecoBirdy on Monocle.
