Münster

Fritz und Franken

At the end of November 2016, Miriam Franken and Friedrich Gerdes opened their online shop www.fritzundfranken.de. This was the next step for the couple after founding their own company in 2014. They live in Münster with their two children, and also have their office with connected showroom there. In the showroom as well as online, you can find the same attitude in all its products. Regardless of whether it concerns candelabras, shelving systems or picture frames: their designs are an invitation to join the creative process. The modular shelving system "build_up", for example, works intuitively: the open cuboids can be placed or laid down anywhere, attached to or stacked on top of one another, without having to first look for the appropriate allen key in the toolbox.
For Miriam and Friedrich, modern living means staying mobile with your own possessions . With build_up they enable this flexibility. Their colour concept is also selected in such a way that the entire product can be combined with different interior styles as an equivalent object. Not too noisy and not too quiet. This power of innovation also becomes evident in the selection of material: instead of wood, they use so-called HPL (high pressure laminate), which consists of heat- and resin-pressed paper webs, commonly used, for example, in the construction of houses to build façade panels. Friedrich says about this: "We are both skilled craftspeople and we value this, but we always go one step further and change constructions by transferring a certain technique to a new material and thus creating new functions." And this is proving to be successful. Build_up was awarded the German Design Award in 2015.

While Miriam and Friedrich are often inspired by their own needs and requirements in the design process, they are mainly inspired by journeys they shared. The experiences they had in Central America, even before they started their studies at the Münster School of Design, still characterise their work: "There, we learned how to make really good things with tools that would not even be used on a construction site here." The process of developing ideas and implementing these is now flowing, explains Friedrich. One of them has the impulse, then together they research and experiment. The children are also motors for new products. "Both like to paint and the paper piles were getting bigger and bigger. There was no appropriate context to show the paintings."Now, there is "Rosa", a set of three framed blank paintings that you can design yourself and also paint over again. This way, quick drawings become works of art.

For the future, the start-up would like their business to grow as organically as possible. For the time being, they want to maintain their cooperation with larger companies, to be able to generate a scope, while producing their own product series with the help of a small team, which are then distributed via the online shop. In addition to the office and showroom, a separate workshop for making models will be created. If you want to get a picture of all this, visit them in their showroom in the Ferdinandstraße. In the rooms of an old butcher shop one can not only see their innovative products but also try them out.
Author: Judith Pielsticker
Foto (Flur):Christian Diehl

Ferdinandstr. 8
48147
http://www.fritzundfranken.de/