Featured Designer: Joe Manus of Shiner International
What do you do when life gives you a Shiner? You wear it like a badge of honor and fight with everything you’ve got.
That’s what modern furniture designer Joe Manus did, when the fallout from a burst housing bubble upended his construction business. “We didn’t feel it right away. After a year, the phone rang less…and then nothing.” Joe was faced with the sobering truth that he couldn’t keep his doors open.
Thirteen years ago, a skater friend of Joe’s asked him if he would make a rack for it. Joe embraced the new challenge with the trademark mantra: “Let’s do it!” The eye-catching result attracted a passing bar owner who stopped to admire Joe’s craftsmanship as Joe applied the finishing touches. “I need a new bar, can you come in?” Joe had never built a shelf, let alone a bar. But excited by the challenge, he said he could do it. This marked the birth of Art Through Labor, a company that Joe and his friends built into a thriving commercial and residential custom construction business until 2009.
Not one to go down without a fight, Joe put it all on the line. He had read an article in Furniture Today about a contest at the America’s Mart trade show. The article said that if you were selected for the best booth, your space would be paid in full. “The closest I got to a trade show was skateboarding at America’s Mart,” Joe reflected. Instead of paying the rent, he decided to risk it all to win the best show.
To obtain the exhibition space a portfolio of prototypes is required. Without this, Joe photographed pieces he had built for his home, built mostly from scrap materials. “A lot of our materials I call bastard materials – they get a new home and a new beginning.” Joe explained. “Proudly damaged goods,” he calls them “a badge of honor.”
His request was accepted without the usual specifications or prototype lines. From his home PC, Joe put together a new identity. Shiner International was named for the black eye that inspired the reinvention of Art Through Labor. He printed his own order forms, business cards, and set up a self-created website. He made the show. The reception was spectacular. It’s not so easy to find a new twist on modern furniture that woos the jaded furniture market. But the modern interpretation of Joe is not derived from formal training (he is the first to say that he never visited his first museum until he was eighteen). His unique vision is the product of unconventional inspiration. Joe sums it up simply: “design is a genesis.”
His cardboard lighting was conceived by chance, as he noticed the play of sunlight through the corrugated cardboard stacked near a window. At the end of the day, the studio was literate with fantastic modern lighting prototypes. Joe calls the Pant Chair his “Tour de force chair.” Gasping, bruised and bloodied, Joe pushed his motorcycle to safety after an accident. The pain eased as he became mesmerized by the twisting rotation of the bent front wheel. Ditching the bike and running back to the store, Joe drew the design concept on a napkin and completed it in a day.
Although Shiner received critical acclaim at America’s Market, the volume of orders required for Shiner to maintain viability was still not sufficient. His wife, his 3-year-old daughter, and the production team of staunch friends supported him in his leap of faith. “It’s easy to sell the truth,” he maintained. “Customize what we do – our true logo.” But his determination was in sweet hooks on the last day, when committee members came to present him with the award: Shiner International had been named Best of Show for visual merchandising at the Atlanta International Gift & Home Furnishings 2010 Market.
Joe packed up and staked it all out again to exhibit at NYIGF (New York International Gift Fair) and then The High Point Market. The exhibit of him was sitting in the coveted “Inner Hall”. “Giant companies try to break into the Inner Hall for years,” Joe recounts, with undisguised disbelief. In the wake of this honor came worldwide recognition; 16 interviews, and most importantly, a buyer’s order writing line, in some cases exceeding 600 pieces per individual style.
Joe’s modern furniture and lighting can be seen in 15 magazines this month. He’s on the “What Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolee Like” list. But what made it all real for Joe were the congratulatory voicemails from Architectural Digest: he had no idea what they were talking about. Rushing to a mall and madly flipping through a copy, the magazine flipped open to reveal a spread with his desk. “I started jumping up and down like Rocky!” Joe affirms.
Joe is both excited and overwhelmed by his sudden success. “I’ve completed 10 trade shows in nine months and I’m in 15 magazines this month – it’s crazy.” That’s a lot to take in for this self-described “accidental environmentalist” and “late developer.” But there is little time to savor success. Joe and his team have 10 new prototypes lined up to wow the High Point Spring Show, scheduled to open the day he and his wife are due to give birth to their second child. And Joe has found a comfort zone based on the genesis of change. “When my line is available and people start doing knockoffs, I’ll do something new. I’m happiest with a van full of scraps and junk. I’ll reinvent myself. If I can build something that I can give to my kids, well, that’s what it’s all about.” “.
See Joe’s Modern Furniture and Modern Lighting Pendants at www.MyHomeFacelift.com – coming soon!