Tradition Meets Contemporary Design
Ribrand is a modern brand of wooden products which reflects a collaboration between the design studio Mashoni and the Ribnica Handicraft Centre. Ribnica Valley is a Slovenian area known for its rich heritage in woodenware making. Contemporary products preserve the knowledge of Ribnica’s cultural past from the field of wood processing and combine it with present-day technologies and expertise.
There is a story behind every brand and ours started when Janez Mesaric was invited to hold lectures on industrial design at the Ribnica Handicraft Centre. Janez is an established Slovenian designer whose ancestors originated in Ribnica. Acquainted with and very fond of Ribnica’s cottage industry, he had long had a wish of designing a range of wooden products, and thus he, together with his design studio Mashoni, partnered with the Ribnica Handicraft Centre to create an inspiring new brand of sustainable products at affordable prices.
We aim to raise awareness about the Slovenian design walking hand in hand with the cottage industry to send out a message that we are the ones who should exploit our natural resources, instead of selling them abroad as semi-products. We believe this is the way to set an example and promote our country.
In the future, we intend to invite other Slovenian designers to get involved and design new inspiring collections.
a word from
the designer
Coming up with the name Ribrand was simple. It’s a composition of two words: Ribnica and brand. But the word also appealed to me because it is pronounced as “rebrand”, which means changing something that is already established. And this is exactly what our aim is: to take on Ribnica’s heritage of making woodenware and spice it up with a new, modern approach. We wanted to show the craftsmen working in the area, and wider, of course, that you can take something that has already been done and transform it into a story that is completely new.
To me, Ribrand is a synonym for quirky and useful wooden products. Products that are simple and inviting, with a consistent approach that functionality is the key to success. Wood is a very much alive material which transforms and reflects how it’s being treated. If you treat it with care, it will stay with you for years to come.
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