What do we do when we are more than the person Marlou Breuls? That’s what designer and entrepreneur Marlou and her colleagues at the interdisciplinary artistic studio ‘Marlou Breuls’ wondered. Having a background in the world of fashion, where they created work for artists such as Björk at London’s Victoria & Albert Museum, the musician Sia, Walt Disney and Vogue, they were ready for the next step. They wanted to grow and be bigger than one person. While working more with textiles and textures, and less with fashion, without losing the studio’s DNA.
House of Rubber
How we turned a person into a House of Rubber
Please do touch
The sculptural projects consist of textile materials from the ground up. Because of this, the studio easily got the stamp of ‘fashion’ on itself. While that is not what it is about. It is about blending fashion, everyday objects and the human body to redefine it into a new sculpture. With wonder and open-mindedness, it evokes interaction so that the viewer becomes a participant. Do touch rather than do not touch.
Act like rubber
We used the behaviour of rubber as the basis of the new brand identity. By doing so we created a flexible identity where you can play with brand visibility versus product visibility. Sometimes it’s important to highlight the brand, and sometimes the sculpture. Because the work often has a lot of details, we developed an identity that contrasts with that: brutalist and clear in simplicity.
And then there was rubber
After an extensive strategy and naming process, House of Rubber was born. The name plays with the iconic fashion houses combined with the discomfort of the material of rubber.
The designers at House of Rubber can decide for themselves what the communications look like, using the bespoke tool we developed. Like a brush, they create their composition with the words they choose.
House of Rubber has now exhibited at This Art Fair and Dutch Design Week with Lady in Rug: a soft robotic sculpture covered with 12 square metres of hand-tufted wool.
“A clear visual identity has been a missing element for our studio. Lava has given us a quick, easy and well-designed tool that makes applying our branding a true pleasure.”
– Marlou Breuls, Founder House of Rubber