aru is a Japanese word that represents a philosophical state of being and existence for things. We believe our vision for design that unpretentiously lives in our environments traces the nature of what this word stands for.
Recently we sense people are starting to question how our current consumer society is overproducing unnecessary products that have short lives and how too many of those mass-produced things surround us. While we have been living for all the convenience where we are never short of things, we sense people are still not fulfilled by living in an environment built for efficiency.
“Life” may be a very abstract and generic word to describe, but we believe life might be about an attitude and how people try to enrich their quality of life by facing each little detail of their daily situations. Our way of thinking about design and craft is the same. We believe in enriching our quality of life through design. This attitude is the pride and the responsibility of artisans, designers, and the people involved in craftsmanship.
Door handles can be found in a variety of living environments around the world and are likely one of the most frequently touched products that go unnoticed.
Then, designing door handles may be one of the most unseen ways to be a part of people’s lives. If this is the case, it implies that designing door handles has the potential to have a large or small impact on people’s daily lives.
By founding aru, we commit to sharing the warmth and depth that arise through dialoguing our design. For example, the temperature difference of materials can easily affect the tone of the dialogue. Taking such a difference or how users may feel when holding the product in their hands, in our opinion, is our care, and this is the type of quality we want to embed in our design. In terms of product quality, the form carved from a block of natural materials has a more profound feeling than products made in synthetic materials and people can feel the life of the materials that come within the form. Furthermore, wood has a natural tendency to patina, and the more it is used, the more charming it becomes. Such qualities are not always visible or tangible, but we can sense them. We would like to convey all of the atmospheres and dialogues that products create through our design.
For the first collection for aru, we aimed to design handles that naturally blend into the living space. It looks very serene at first glance, but when people hold it in their hands, they may sense all the care we took in each piece.
Regarding future activities, we do not necessary follow any patterns to launch new design on a regular basis. But we would rather adjust or add new items to our collections when we feel it is requested.
