#robert segal

[jmota-blog]

Robert Segal’s Unison Home

    Two weeks before going on our final undergraduate spring break, we had the pleasure of taking a little off campus trip up to Unison Home where we met with Robert Segal. Robert is the founder of Unison Home, which is a retailer specializing in making designed goods more accessible to people who appreciate good design.

    It was really nice being able to see one of our guests in their element, where they actually conduct some of their business from. Having a chance to see their products and collectively see their entire brand and to get a sense for their branding language was very insightful. Robert talk to us about his origins and what it was like to bring so much design under one roof to make it consistent.

    He talked to us about how having a brick and mortar location helps you stay true to your brand and to also be able to see everything as  a whole and not individual components. He also enjoyed making designed goods available to a market who might not be aware of design for design and not design for ease of manufacturing.

    I would like to take this opportunity to thank Robert Segal for taking time out of his busy schedule and allowing us to visit him in his brick and mortar location! Before going to UIC to earn a bachelors in industrial design, I did not consider design accessible. Design to me was what I would see in magazines and online. I really appreciate Robert, who makes design tangible and accessible for a broader audience who might not otherwise have the opportunity to recognize design as something attainable.

[l-alcara-blog]

Robert Segal - Unison

Weeks ago...

We went to Unison and had the pleasure to chat with Robert Segal. 

Unison began in 2006 when husband and wife team Robert Segal and Alicia Rosauer returned to the States after four years designing in Finland at Marimekko. The two worked to establish a product line that would bring modern design into practical daily life with a mix of organic and graphic inspired motifs with their bedding, throw pillows and table linens.

The line expanded in 2011 with a full selection of baby and kids bedding and decor as their own family grew. Robert and Alicia also share a strong passion for collecting modern glassware and ceramics which has translated into Unison showcasing other designers on their site and in their Chicago store, rounding out a full collection of modern home furnishings.

They are dedicated to use high quality materials and participate in local productions - their pillows and table lines are made in factories around Chicago.

Besides the textile goods, Unisson also has a selection of glassware, ceramics, etc, very well curated and supporting local designers.  

“A feeling that our products offer honest design. We think good design can be very pure without being cold. Adding colors or patterns bring vibrancy to your space, and sometimes something very plain and simple brings and element of ease and happiness to a home too. Of course the most fun you can have is ‘designing’ your space — whether it’s bedding, art or cookware. We want people to feel inspired that they can do that easily with the products we offer.”

Thanks Robert for the chat!

[purplesunglow-blog]

Visit to Unison Home and Chat with Robert Segal:

Last Thursday our class had to meet up at the Unison shop around the Wicker Park area. Coming to the shop you can see a lot of nicely made and cohesive setup of products that gave it a homelike kind of feel. Looking at the tags or labels you can see that what highlights these products is that it shows the creator’s names next to them. We were told that these are collected from designers at housewares shows. Robert Segal was at the store to talk to us he mentioned that he looks to see if they can fit with the products he is displaying at the shop.

Why interested in handmade products?

Well the timeless quality of a manufactured product with rich materials makes it valuable verses a product that is cheaply made and can be thrown away. Robert and his wife Alicia Rosauer would like this store to appear in other places. They try to keep the store alive by making magazine catalogues throughout the year.

Product layout in store

The products are carefully showcased within the store. Each product highlights another, the packaging sits near the product so customers can take what interests them home right away. This store is a good place to test to products to see how well they sell.

To have the customers are interested and feel the quality of the products is what they go for. Robert doesn’t want his store to be like a museum place where nothing is touchable but they allow it.

 Takeaways and Thoughts

Everything within the store takes such consideration and thought. I really like how packaging really highlights how nice the product is. I wonder if it weren’t there would the presentation be just as nice. Love the showcasing of artists with their products as we got to see their style and if I were to get a nice place I would like to have products that have their own timeless quality. Would like to thank Robert for the invitation to come and here him talk. Learning about new places within the design world is really inspiring.

Ashley

[sara-v-ramirez]

unison home/robert segal - week 9

today we all took a trip to unison home in wicker park where we got to meet ½ of the founding team, robert segal (the son of the couple who founded crate & barrel, no biggie. not to be confused with npr’s robert siegel of ‘all things considered’). he founded unison with his wife alicia rosauer and they started with textile design. over time, they started adding other brands to their store’s selection to complement their textile goods and created what’s now a beautifully curated collection that features awesome, contemporary design for every day life in the home.

secretly i want to own a design shop and be a merchant because it means searching and shopping for good design, sharing good design with others, and curating collections and interiors. as an outsider to that sort of work it looks super appealing but as robert showed us today, there are a lot of challenges that come with being a brick and mortar merchant, especially when you also design your own objects to sell.

it was a super informative talk; thanks robert for the gifts and for your time! it was great seeing so many of my favorite brand’s things that i’ve only ever seen photos of. there’s a real magic to brick and mortar design shops. i’ll definitely be back soon!

[vohugaona]

Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist. Initially a collaborator with Sigmund Freud, the two later split and Jung went on to found the Analytical Psychology school of psychotherapy. ...

[brotherswren]

"Robert Seagull"