Let’s start out by learning a bit more about your company. What makes your brand and products unique?
Oly presents an enchanting world of furniture, lighting, and unusual objects, where graceful forms have a modern edge and straddle familiar and fantasy.
For two decades, designers Kate McIntyre and Brad Huntzinger have culled a collection with a consistent vocabulary that reflects a point of view and sense of place, where ideas are refined, manipulated, scaled, and finished, resulting in the unpredictable and undefinable. To hear the remark “That’s so Oly” is not unusual.
Often referencing the natural world and marked by an exquisitely playful or surreal twist, Oly, at its essence, is simple yet sublime and elegantly utilitarian.
Do you have a favorite piece in your collection or a new item or collection coming that designers might not know about?
The Oly Muriel Series of chandeliers consisting of the Muriel, Muriel Cloud, Nimbus and Muriel Scones are proprietary Oly classics and A&D favorites!
Who or what inspires you most when conceiving of your designs?
Design principals Kate and Brad’s creations are inspired by nature, travel family, fauna and flora.
What is the process behind initiating new designs/products?
Spontaneous, anti-trend, always opposing, wit a singular, concise vision. In 30 years of designing product, our look and style has changed minimally
What is your favorite part about the manufacturing process?
The small batch, hand-made process where we constantly look for perfecting inconsistencies to create pieces with soul. It is relatively easy to consistently produce a machined, perfectly finished product. Delivering a carefully calculated variance in the finishing process is an art, mastered by few.
Please speak to the custom nature of your lines.
Our couture line “Ironies”, distributed exclusively to the trade through Holly Hunt, Jerry Pair and Kneedler Fauchere handles all custom requests for Oly. Oly’s core line of products is option rich, meeting most designers needs, except when Hospitality Projects are being specified. Owning our own factories allows us to to make the quoting process quick and accessible for A&D professionals.
Please give us an overview of the more personal side of your business, who’s behind it, how did it come to be, any interesting stories about the origin or the founders you can share?
Uninspired by furniture stores in the late 80’s, friends Kate and Brad started creating their own high-end, custom wall murals and wrought iron furniture in 1989. Word of mouth spread quickly about product designs that nobody had seen before. Ironies was formally conceived. Oly arrived 15 years later based on many customer requests to get similar and unique hand-made products but with a more affordable price point. Oly was originally designated to become a retail line for the likes of ABC Home but the designer response was overwhelming and the decision was made to keep it largely to-the-trade only.
