The Creative Minds Series travels to Stourbridge, UK today to meet Robert Kulins from U RoK Designs.  Robert has been creating houseware objects from sustainable and natural materials that bring a touch of industrial design with a twist in every home. Read about his journeys, his inspiration and future plans, here, on the InconnuLab Blog.

• Can you tell us a bit about yourself and your background? Who is behind URoKDesign?

I’m designer – maker from Baltic States, Latvia. Since I was a child I have always been into designing and making everything around me myself. It has never been an option for me to go to the shop and buy something that I could make myself. At the age of 16 I started attending the School of Arts. I was learning painting, sculpture and art history. After 2 years, I understood that I didn’t really fit in there. You were expected to do and think “old school”. My painting teacher even thought I was color blind.

I quit the School of Arts and followed my other passion, engineering and started studying in Riga Technical University. I love to design and create thinks. I see technical drawings as a form of art and it is great to see something from a simple drawing on a board actually being built.

Five years ago, I accidentally moved to the United Kingdom. My aim was to travel around the UK for a few months. When I started to run out of funds, I decided to apply for cad draughtsperson job, because I was really enjoying living in the UK and wanted to stay a bit longer. Now 5 years have gone by and I`m thinking of staying forever. It has been quite an experience to start a new life from a white page in new place with 1 backpack, two pairs of trousers and a few shirts. I have enjoyed every bit of it.

• You come from a background of technical design, how does this affect your designs and creations for URoK ?

I think my technical background affects my designs a lot. I use techniques and skills which I have learned through my education and work experience and it is what I enjoy doing. The biggest part of my pieces are in industrial style – laser cut steel, glass and involving electricity.

• Your houseware objects have a distinct industrial aesthetic, where does your inspiration come from?

Yes, that is true. I never thought that I would only design and make industrial pieces. It just comes naturally to me. I love natural, rough materials with a little bit of a twist. My inspiration usually comes from things and objects around me, which I want to make differently or using non-standard materials for that purpose.

• You use natural and sustainable materials including wood, steel and concrete- what type of homes do you see your designs in?

It is difficult to define the borders of what piece goes with what type of home. Each home is very unique and special space for the people who live there. I think my pieces fit in a modern urban home as well as in a country cottage.

• URoK Design Studio is a family- run business, do you think people nowadays prefer handmade goods for their homes in comparison with factory-made objects?

I think the handmade and small designer market is growing recently. All the online market possibilities are helping with this. People like unique items around them and the fact that you can buy them direct from their designers makes it a special process.    

• What are your plans for URoK Studio in the future?

At this moment, we are slower with designing new items because we are constructing a new workshop. When it’s finished there will be loads of new products, including furniture and other housewares we have worked on and waiting for a place to made them.