Featured Chapters
ELEMENTALS
Good design is thorough down to the last detail. Nothing must be arbitrary and left to chance. Care and accuracy in the design process show respect towards the consumer. – Dieter Rams
Drawing inspiration from function, form and elements of our natural surroundings, our Elementals Chapter focuses on silhouette – an experiment in identifying how we move in the clothes we wear and how they, in turn, shape us. Clean, structured lines and elegant draping are saliant features across this collection. Constructed with monochromatic finishes, we celebrate the majesty of the human form and the grace in which it moves.
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LA VIDA ... ETREUM AL
in collaboration with Carlos Luna
A piece of gold that wants to shine must pass through fire first. – Yoruba Proverb
Unknown Union unveils its Chapter with world-renowned artist, Carlos Luna. This collection touches on themes that are personal to Carlos Luna and at times autobiographical, including the rural Cuba of his childhood, where the beliefs of African Yoruba culture were particularly strong, and Mexico, where he trained in ancient pottery traditions and met the love of his life. While personal to Luna, the experiences captured in his work are equally universal. VOLUME 1 of this capsule collection invokes the richness of these cultural influences on Luna's expression of life, death and all that the journey entails.
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ORIGINAL ROYALS
If you are not noble in your thoughts and actions, no title awarded by any king or queen can make you so.
What began as a gift from Queen Victoria to King Moshoeshoe in 1860, today forms the basis of a proud cultural heritage and blanket-wearing tradition that is interwoven into the very social fabric of Basotho life, from birth, through rites of passage, and even in death. As the Basotho say in their native tongue, "Kobo ke bophelo" [trans. “The blanket is life”].
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PHILOS
In comparison to the ancients, we stand like dwarves on the shoulders of giants. — Bernard of Chatres
According to Joseph Campbell, the hero's journey is a symbol that binds two distant ideas: the spiritual quest of the ancients with the modern search for identity. Our Philos collection pays homage to philosophies, like Campbell's hero's journey, that inspire us to seek transformative experiences by engaging, among other things, the thoughts and perspectives of those that have come before.
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ROSETTA
..translations construct cultural bridges and enlarge our horizons.
Translated in the early 19th Century, the Rosetta Stone provided the conduit through which Egyptian hieroglyphics could be deciphered and translated from Greek. This bridge provided the fertile ground from which greater research and study of Egyptian thought blossomed throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. Our Rosetta Chapter analogizes this significant historical event by highlighting additional graphic writing traditions and symbolism designed to transmit knowledge, construct cultural bridges and enlarge our horizons.
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PROCESS & THE VALUE
OF THE THINGS
PROCESS & THE VALUE
OF THE THINGS
SOURCE
MATERIAL
1.
IDENTIFY
NARRATIVE
2.
NARRATIVE
DRIVES
DESIGN
3.
DRAPED
IN A
STORY
4.
ACTIVATION
AND
COLLABORATION
5.
Brand Story
Brand Story
A MESSAGE FROM CO-FOUNDERS & DESIGNERS
Convinced that there must be more to life than achieving financial success, we exchanged our corner offices in the U.S. for a small design studio and a mission to unearth a different kind of wealth. We believe that knowledge is humanity's most precious and underappreciated resource, and that our tendency to rely on contemporary sources of knowledge (to the exclusion of ancient and indigenous sources) mistakenly limits our perspective to far too narrow a point of view.
As intimated by Bernard of Chartres, "..in comparison to the ancients, we stand like dwarves on the shoulders of giants." To reach our fullest potential as a modern-day people, we should drink from the vast pool of knowledge accumulated over the entire arc of human history.
Diversity of perspectives and sources of knowledge allow for a more robust understanding of the world, they destroy preconceived notions, shift our viewpoint from myopic to panoramic, and compel us to evolve into fuller and more complete versions of ourselves. Through storytelling, we tap into these sources and form an intimate bond with the storyteller -- a bond that transcends culture, geography, language and even time.
We, who answer the call to amplify this bond, are unidentifiable by age, ethnicity, language or appearance.
As a cross-generational group of visionaries unified in our purpose, we embrace the vastness of our combined intellectual inheritance.
We are the seekers.
We are the journeyers.
We are the Unknown Union.
- Jenifer Storey & Jason Storey
