“We do not offer 10,000 positions, but only an exclusive range of furniture and decor that adheres to three main principles: modern design, sustainability, and functionality.” This is the position of the capital-based company “MAIIMO” in the furniture market. To clarify, it’s the domestic furniture market, as the company exclusively sells Ukrainian-made furniture. And that’s fundamental.

From such an introduction, one might get the wrong impression that “MAIIMO” is just one of hundreds of furniture retailers in our country. But no, it’s not just that. It’s also a manufacturing company, a furniture maker with over a quarter-century of history. It all began with a family decision to make custom furniture, honing technologies and perfecting craftsmanship in the process. In 2020, the first designer serial collection was created, marking the start of the “MAIIMO” brand.

The founders of the company were inspired not only to create their own furniture collections in collaboration with young and talented designers and unique manufacturers but also to gather the best Ukrainian product designers and manufacturers on one platform, those aligned with their values, concept, and style.

The war and the business conditions it imposed on the Ukrainian economy and private enterprise pushed the company’s partners, Olena Malovana and Oksana Pozhydaeva, to strengthen this platform-based aspect of their business even more, expanding it by bringing in a greater number of talented, creative, and interesting product designers for mutually beneficial collaboration, as co-owner Olena Malovana shared. To ensure that these designers understood the principles of collaboration with “MAIIMO,” the company formulated a manifesto of their approach to furniture making with positions such as: “Simple things speak louder,” “Nature inside,” “Modern and practical,” “Every space with ‘MAIIMO’ is one you want to hurry to,” “Furniture in your rhythm, your style, with your character,” and “MAIIMO the best.”

In conversation with Olena Malovana, it became clear that the company continues to practice both small-batch production and fulfilling orders for comprehensive furnishing of private homes and corporate spaces. The collaboration with designers is tailored to these tasks.

— What does this collaboration look like?

— It’s the usual model in such cases: we create technical specifications for the designer. If these are fully met and the project goes into production, the designer receives a predetermined percentage of the sales of their authored items, with strict adherence to copyright requirements.

That’s how we work with product designers we’ve known for a long time. We’re familiar with their creative preferences, style, strengths, and the level of experience and competence, so we select designers for each specific project based on these characteristics.

— Can designers, including those who aren’t well-known to you, propose their developments and services for collaboration?

— Of course. We are open to such proposals, especially since we’ve expanded our online platform for selling designer furniture. We’ve had productive examples of such counterproposals.

Naturally, the selection of these proposals is quite stringent, especially when a designer proposes their development, as we value not only interesting design and creative solutions but also the technological, economic, and functional aspects of the project: it must be easy to manufacture, resource-efficient, and convenient and reliable in use. In this kind of selection committee, if you will, I, my partner, our constructor, and our marketer are involved. Of course, we also consider the opinion of our in-house designer.

— Is the promise that your furniture can be purchased or ordered to match the customer’s lifestyle and character just an attractive marketing phrase, or does it have real substance?

— It has substance. We know our target audience. These are primarily young people and families who are mobile and lead active lifestyles, fully satisfied with minimalist comfort. It’s for this kind of client that we and our partner designers create furniture.

— If mobile, active users need active furniture, the first thought that comes to mind is that these should primarily be transformable furniture pieces that can change their function. Moreover, such furniture is convenient for use in modern smart apartments, where young people often live.

— Exactly. Modular furniture systems are an integral part of our assortment. In this context, we can also mention the appropriate stylistic direction, which is modern, with a touch of loft style.

— We wish you continued success in expanding your platform, which, among other things, contributes to the development of the domestic furniture industry.