Grovemade® Blog | Product Design Process | Stories & Examples

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Working on an iPad

Five years ago, our lead designer Sean got his first iPad Pro—it's become an integral element in his product design toolkit. He recently upgraded to the new M1 iPad pro, so we sat down to unbox the iPad and talk about design (Apple's and Grovemade's), work, and creativity.

Jade and Chris Towery Office Makeover

Ken returns to Venice Beach to help his good friends make over their home office space.

Unboxing the New iMac

We brought the colorful new iMac into our shop to meet our design team and our products—in person! I caught up with Ken Tomita, our CEO and co-founder, and Sean Kelly, our lead designer, and we took the new iMac for an unboxing spin.

Redesigning the Desk Tray

We designed our first tray in 2017 with the launch of the desk shelf. By 2020 it was time for a refresh.

PRODUCT HIGHLIGHT

The Stationery Collection

Introducing a new way to take notes. Available in three colorways.

Redesigning the Pen Pot and Planter

On a Saturday in 2014, a man walked into an empty woodshop with the goal of making Something Cool. The man was Ken, and the Something Cool was the original Grovemade planter. Six years later, our one-man design department had grown into an entire design team, and it was time to breathe new cool into the planter and pen pot collection.

The new 24" iMacs are a radical, colorful splash from Apple, and it got our design team excited to geek out on the details—the good, the bad, the "chin"—and talk about how it might impact future Grovemade product design.

Meet Cole & Lea Anne Gerst

Our friendship with Cole Gerst began nearly a decade ago when he was a featured artist in the Grovemade artist series. Today we collaborate again, putting our workspace products in a beautiful rental home that he and partner Lea Anne created on the Oregon coast.

BEHIND THE SCENES

Making The Leather Desk Pad

Our leather desk pad is all about the premium vegetable tanned leather—but it's more than just that. The unique process and materials combine to make a desk pad that stands out.

FRIENDS OF GROVEMADE

Keycult Collaboration

Keycult makes the best mechanical keyboards available. They're good friends of ours and when the chance came up to collaborate, we jumped right in. Our design teams worked together for months to create a one of a kind keyboard setup...

PRODUCT HIGHLIGHT

The Wood iPad Stand

A sturdy place to put your iPad. A premium stand solution for the new workspace.

PRODUCT HIGHLIGHT

The Laptop Riser

A premium laptop stand solution for your workspace, designed to fit into your workflow and onto your desk.

FRIENDS OF GROVEMADE

A Chat with Matthew Encina

Our good friend Matthew Encina reached out recently about a project he was working on to redesign his wife's office—we were excited to dive in, and get involved in the process to build a very unique creative workspace.

FRIENDS OF GROVEMADE

A Chat with iSetups' Sebastiaan Chia

Sebastiaan Chia started his iSetups Instagram feed when he was in high school. Six years in, he has 425K+ followers, a business partner, and opportunity ahead. Grovemade staff writer Laura LaPlante recently sat down with Chia to find out more about his story, and what makes iSetups tick...

PRODUCT HIGHLIGHT

Some call it a desk mat. Some call it a desk blotter. We call it a force field, but more on that later. The desk pad is sweet, whatever you name it, and we’re believers.

PRODUCT HIGHLIGHT

The Desk Notebook

Introducing the desk notebook collection—a line of refillable notebooks designed to fit into your workspace and your workflow.

Notebook Lookbook

Made for your workspace, wherever that may be. The Grovemade Notebook was designed to be used, from notes to doodles to napkin math.

Natural Vegetable Tanned Leather

All the leather we use in our products—from notebooks, to mouse pads to desk pads—is natural and vegetable-tanned. Read on to learn what that means and why we choose it.

Natural Linoleum

Linoleum is made from a blend of natural materials that offer durability and premium feel—it’s an ideal material for our desk pads, mouse pads and notebooks. Read more about how it’s made, and why it’s not what you think of when you hear ‘linoleum.’

Designing The Task Knife

We set out to design a cutting tool for your desk—not a tactical fixed blade that can cut through anything, but something that would look elegant on display while being an effective tool for opening boxes, and other light duty desk tasks.

PRODUCT HIGHLIGHT

The Grovemade Pen

Bringing old school class back to your desk with a modern twist. When paired with the pen stand, it stands out on your desk, easy to grab when you need to jot something down.

Pen & Stand Lookbook

Made for your workspace, but equally at home in the kitchen, on the credenza, or at large; the Grovemade Pen & Stand weren't designed to be hidden.

BEHIND THE SCENES

The pen begins its life as a solid bar of metal, otherwise known as a billet. We order these bars in brass and aluminum.

Designing The Pen

We dipped our toes into designing a pen back in 2015, but didn’t feel it fit with our lineup at the time. Fast forward to the launch of the Desk Shelf and a new focus on the workspace.

Virgin Merino Wool

We use 100% pure virgin Merino wool in everything from our mouse pads to our coasters, desk pads to laptop lifts. The quality and purity affects how the product feels, and to get the best hand feel we had to keep the product pure.

PRODUCT HIGHLIGHT

The Headphone Stand

The wood headphone stand makes a statement on your desk with premium materials and a unique form.

BEHIND THE SCENES

Making the Desk Tray

Our desk tray is designed to work seamlessly with our desk shelf system. Come behind the scenes in our workshop to see how each tray is made. Natural cork with machined pockets for just the stuff that you need.

Rounding Corners

We sweat the small stuff to design and make the best products we can. In this series, Details Matter, we’ll dive into a specific detail of one of our products. First stop—rounding corners with our desk accessories.

Designing the Wall Shelf

How did we design the Grovemade Wall Shelf? We started with the materials we know and love, added time and thoughtfulness and then plumbed our souls to see what we should make.

PRODUCT HIGHLIGHTS

Simple Charging

Wireless charging is awesome because it’s simple—place your iPhone down and presto! Charging. When we designed the wireless charging pad in 2017, we took that principle and ran it through our design process—we wanted to create a wireless charger that was beautiful, had excellent build quality, and worked.

Know Your Woods

Maple and walnut are the two types of hardwood we use in our solid wood products. What’s the difference?

BEHIND THE SCENES

Grovemade has a new home, a permanent place to pursue our blend of design and manufacturing. Over the course of 13 months, we found a space, bought it, built it out, got permitting, and moved all of our stuff three miles north, from our old space in the Central Eastside Industrial district to our new neighborhood in North Portland.

A Place For Everything

We've looked at hundreds of customers’ desks, and we're constantly excited to see all the ways the desk shelf system is used around the world. Whether you’re into knick-knacks or minimalism, our desk shelf helps you get your best work done.

PRODUCT HIGHLIGHT

Working on a Laptop

The laptop is the workhorse in most workspaces. The way you work is unique, which is why we designed three distinct laptop solutions: the laptop riser, the laptop stand, and the MacBook dock.

Designing the Measure Collection

Most rulers are punched flat from sheet metal. It’s efficient and inexpensive—a flat ruler measures well and helps you draw straight lines. Functionally, you’re kinda all set. But we wanted our measuring tools to stand out.

Knife Handles 101

The design of the minimalist knife is focused on radical simplicity, and the metal makes all the difference.

Designing the Wireless Charging Pad

When Apple announced that their newest phones would be compatible with Qi wireless charging, we started thinking about designing a charging pad for them. We felt that the new iPhones deserved a well designed, high quality wireless charging pad.

Meet Joe Mansfield and Raechel Frogner

Product design and material explorations meet contemporary architecture in SE Portland, OR. Add a dash of traditional processes and do-it-yourself mentality, and it's a potent and beautiful combination.

PRODUCT HIGHLIGHT

The Wood Wall Shelf

We’ve designed wall shelving with natural materials and clever engineering, to give you clean lines and subtle functionality.

Designing the Desk Shelf System - Part Two

Back in the design studio after cruising all over Portland to look at workspaces, Ken and Sean worked to create a complete system for your desk.

Designing the Desk Shelf System - Part One

It had been four years since we’d launched our original desk collection. It was time to take the next step and add to the collection.

PRODUCT HIGHLIGHT

Wallet Style Guide

Our wallets are both on the minimal end of the spectrum… but functionally and philosophically, they’re very different.

PRODUCT HIGHLIGHT

The wall hook floats on your wall and gives you a clean resting place for everything from a backpack to a ballcap. They’re designed and built to look great even when there’s nothing on them.

Meet Jade and Chris Towery

From Korea and Ventura to RISD, and back to Venice Beach. A crafted life filled with design.

BEHIND THE SCENES

Making the Wireless Charging Pad

We start by machining the cork, creating a precise pocket for all the electronics and leaving a thin layer on top to allow the charge to transfer efficiently.

PRODUCT HIGHLIGHT

The Wireless Charging Pad

A wireless charging pad is always out on display, so we designed it to be clean and simple, to better complement your space and your phone.

Meet Greg Hennes

Hustle and soul collide in Joseph, OR, at the Jennings Hotel—one of the many brainchildren of Greg Hennes.

Meet Kirk Cornelius

From Nashville to NYC, Portland to Kalispell, we go on a journey with digital music consultant Kirk Cornelius to find what matters.

BEHIND THE SCENES

Design Inspires What You Do

We believe that design inspires your work, life, and play. We believe that when you surround yourself with people and objects that matter, it subtly yet powerfully inspires you to do better in all things.

Meet Megan Osborne

Megan is a graphic designer cherishing her time close to family and doing meaningful work for local companies in her hometown of Whitefish, Montana.

Designing The Belt

The winding path that took us from 2015 to 2017 saw us start with a wild initial prototype, enter a long hibernation period filled with other projects, and come back, reinvigorated, for a second deep dive into the design process...

PRODUCT HIGHLIGHT

The Leather Apple Watch Band

We focused on clean design and premium materials for the leather Apple Watch band.

Podcast with Sean Kelly

Sean Kelly has been designing products at Grovemade since 2011. He’s worked on seminal projects ranging from the pocket knife to the catchall...

Know Your Metals

All our key rings have the same design—circular body, integrated bottle opener, slot for attaching to belt loops or pockets—but the prices and materials are very different.

Designing The Key Ring

What was the inspiration for our key ring? It all started with the desire to create a collection of products that go in your pocket.

FRIENDS OF GROVEMADE

Collaborating With Tanner Goods

When we thought about collaborating with another brand for a contest to highlight our everyday carry collection, Tanner Goods was an obvious and immediate top pick.

Desktop Ergonomics

We firmly believe in crafting a space for your work. If you’re working at your desk all day, it should give rather than take...

Happy Valentine's Day

Having a day to focus on loved ones is great. We should probably be appreciative of those around us every day, but that can be hard to do. Valentine’s day gives us the chance and the nudge to be grateful.

Designing The Wood Watch 02

As with all of our designs, the Wood Watch 02 started with the people on our team, and took us on a challenging and rewarding journey.

BEHIND THE SCENES

The Year In Review 2016

When taking stock of 2016, we couldn't believe how much took place since last January...

Designing The Bifold Wallet

The Bi-fold Wallet took a longer journey to create than we could ever have imagined. Luckily for us, we enjoy the struggle just as much as the destination. Grovemade Co-Founder Ken Tomita shares that story.

FRIENDS OF GROVEMADE

A Visit From Nomad Film Co.

A team of filmmakers from Southern California, Nomad sent us an email detailing their summer project. Like us, they were on the hunt for inspiration...

Designing The Laptop Stand

The Grovemade Monitor Stand is one of our favorite and most popular products to date, but many of us here are laptop users. While we love the ergonomic and organizational benefits while using our iMacs, we wanted to extend those perks to the laptop...

BEHIND THE SCENES

Grovemade is located in a former auto-shop in Southeast Portland, Oregon. Inside, bare bulbs hang from exposed rafters, and the poured cement floors are pocked and scratched after decades of use...

PRODUCT HIGHLIGHT

Wood Speaker Listening Party With Alex Nelson

What follows is a conversation between Alex and Jim in which they discuss acoustics, growing up audiophile, and how well our system handles three favorite (and demanding) tracks.

Grovemade CEO & Co-founder Ken Tomita really got into the spirit of things and decided to not only reset his desk but to build a new one entirely...

How To Make A Custom Desktop

Grovemade CEO & Co-founder Ken Tomita recently reset his home office space, making a simple but effective desktop to fit into a tight corner. Follow along with the instructions below...

Designing The Minimalist Wallet

The Grovemade Minimalist Wallet, part of the Everyday Carry (EDC) collection, was designed for simplicity and ease of use...

BEHIND THE SCENES

Making The iPhone Case

While minimalist in scope and profile, our cases require numerous technical steps to take them from start to finish. Follow along for a step-by-step look at what goes into making each and every wood iPhone case...

FRIENDS OF GROVEMADE

A Chat With Jordan Edmonds

If you’re looking to cast blame on that anonymous someone responsible for the ads that are constantly scrolling across and popping up and counting down on your screen, we’ve got your guy, and we actually think he’s pretty neat...

Designing The Wood Speaker

We discussed everything from portable, wireless bluetooth-speakers to multi-speaker systems with subwoofers. Ultimately, we decided to make a timeless system that would avoid the digital bells and whistles of the consumer electronics arms race...

BEHIND THE SCENES

Making The Wood Speaker

Using thick slabs of either western walnut or eastern hard rock maple, each speaker is made of two halves that are first CNC machined on one side, then flipped and machined again to complete a rough version of the outer form...

FRIENDS OF GROVEMADE

Artist Interview - Justin Maller

Justin Maller is a digital artist and artistic director, as well as a friend of Grovemade. We recently took a few minutes to chat about his creative process, his influences, and his lucky socks...

BEHIND THE SCENES

Why You Should Hire A High School Intern

Sean Kelly is the lead product designer at Grovemade, but he also makes time in his busy schedule to lead our student internship program. Below, he talks about why it's worth the extra energy...

Work Hard From Anywhere

We were inspired recently to think about the best ways you can work hard no matter where you are. Below are the top six things we found for being productive no matter where you lay your laptop...

Designing The Catch-All

The catch-all was initially conceived as a kind of shelf. We found, however, that a single ledge was limited in functionality. We wanted something that was more practical, able to both showcase and store our everyday essentials while integrating seamlessly into the home.

BEHIND THE SCENES

Why We Don’t Make Cases for Android

"When will Grovemade make a wood case for my Android phone?" It’s a question we’re asked often, and it’s a good one. After all, Android devices are the most popular in the world...

Waste & Solutions

Muda, one of the core lean manufacturing principles, is Japanese for waste which can manifest itself in many forms...

FRIENDS OF GROVEMADE

Artist Interview - Reid Schlegel

Reid Schlegel is an industrial designer, an artist, a lecturer, and a friend of Grovemade. We recently took a few minutes to chat about his creative process, his influences, and his favorite pen...

Is “Made In The USA” a Marketing Gimmick?

Recently, there’s been some critical discussion in the media over the use of the “Made In The USA” angle for marketing. While it’s not our place to comment on the actions of other companies, we wanted to take a moment to discuss where we stand...

CREATIVE MORNING

Creative Morning - May 2016

Once a week, our design team meets for 10 minutes to share the things currently inspiring us outside of work. It might be something about a book we're reading, or an extracurricular project, or an insight gleaned from a personal relationship...

FRIENDS OF GROVEMADE

Long Is The Way - A Designer's Hard Road To Success

Oluwaseyi “Seyi” Sosanya is a native of Portland, Oregon, and one of the very first employees of Grovemade. He’s a designer and an engineer, an innovator and a creator...

What Made You Happy At Work Last Week?

Every Monday at 10 o’clock sharp, our crew of 20 drops whatever they’re doing and circles up to share their thoughts on the topic of the week...

EMPLOYEE SPOTLIGHT

Day In The Life Of Edmund Sandoval

In the shop, my workmates are getting ready for our morning huddle, the time when we set our objectives for the day. By seven-thirty I’m at my seat in the assembly area with Misbah, my fellow assembly pal...

Designing The Desk Collection

The spark came in 2013, when Ken and Joe made a trip to San Francisco and toured the newly finished headquarters of lodging-service giant Airbnb...

CREATIVE MORNING

Creative Morning - April 2016

Once a week, our design team meets for 10 minutes to share the things currently inspiring us outside of work. It might be something about a book we're reading, or an extracurricular project, or an insight gleaned from a personal relationship...

BEHIND THE SCENES

Don't Get Comfortable

Co-founder and CEO Ken Tomita explores our adventures in running a small business and the journey to understand the meaning of it all...

What We're Into Right Now

Every Monday at 10 o’clock sharp, our crew of 20 drops whatever they’re doing and circles up to share their thoughts on the topic of the week...

BEHIND THE SCENES

An Outsider's Take On Grovemade

We recently invited our friend Thomas McCracken to our workshop to talk to a few employees and give us his observations on the Grovemade company culture...

BEHIND THE SCENES

How Our Prices Are Determined And Why They Change

Launching a new product is an exciting time here in our shop. It’s the moment where an idea transforms into an actual, physical object. One of the least exciting things about launching a new product, however, is getting the price right...

BEHIND THE SCENES

Fresh Space = Fresh Minds

We dramatically change our space on average every two months. It’s symbolic of our core value of being open. It forces us to be flexible and keeps us fresh...

Our Biggest Vulnerability

Every Monday at 10 o’clock sharp, our crew of 20 drops whatever they’re doing and circles up to share their thoughts on the topic of the week...

EMPLOYEE SPOTLIGHT

Day In The Life Of Product Designer Sean Kelly

I toss my bag into the design area and begin my morning ritual of walking around the shop, wishing everyone good morning, and instigating our daily morning warmup by screaming “STRETCH!”

BEHIND THE SCENES

Why We Apply Our Oil Finish by Hand

We finish all but one of our wood-based products by hand with a mix of plant-based oils and waxes. The process is simple, but time consuming...

BEHIND THE SCENES

The Origins Of Grovemade

As makers and small business owners, Ken and Joe shared a common bond. In their late twenties, they were just as happy to talk about potential projects as they were to finish current ones...

Design Inspires

Build your dream workspace, so you can get your best work done.