With headquarters in Poperinge, Belgium, Extremis has been designing and making furniture for 25 years. Their design ethos is derived from a Shaker quote: “Don’t make anything, unless it is both necessary and useful… and if it is, don’t hesitate to make it beautiful.” Recently, Extremis announced a new collaborationwith Steelcase to bring its outdoor designs to more workplaces in North America.
Extremis founder, owner, head designer and big boss Dirk Wynants leads the company he began decades ago in his garage as a labor of love where he built a table for his wife. His designs stand the test of time. Many have remained in his collection for 20 years. Wynants is still very hands-on at Extremis. In fact, the day 360 spoke to him, he had just helped his team load a truck full of designs bound for a New York show. We asked him to share his expertise for designing outdoor furniture Extremis calls “tools for togetherness.”
360: You have always been drawn to making things. How did you start up Extremis?
DW: I’ve been making stuff since I was a very small kid. I worked in my father’s shed with all kinds of tools, my father complained every evening about the damage I did to his fine woodworking materials. From the time I was a child, it was automatic to create things.
I decided that I would start my own company at the age of 30. So, as I approached 30, I was thinking, “What kind of furniture do I want to make?” Looking at the competition,there was a big gap in outdoor design. You could find classical or plastic things, but nothing like I was looking for. In fact, my wife asked me to buy an outdoor table and I couldn’t find anything that pleased me. So, I designed it myself. That was the start. Today, we consider ourselves a design furniture company that happens to make a lot of stuff for the outdoors.
360: How has your business changed as people have begun seeking a more residential vibe at work?
DW: When we started, we mainly focused on residential — people who wanted something different for nice, contemporary houses and couldn’t find anything that fit. We didn’t change ourselves to the corporate market, it was the corporate market that changed in our direction. We can’t take any credit as visionaries. The corporate market evolved to place a higher importance on buying good furniture, and the reason for that is quite simple. For every company today, the biggest asset is the people that work in it. The importance of good quality working environments has increased exponentially and will continue to increase. Of course, it’s not only about adding extra furniture, we have to offer a lot more. But, making a nice environment to work in, to spend time in, to feel good and to feel safe is super important. We have to make spaces where people feel good.