Isabella Chair

“I’d be ripping my hair out if something took more than half an hour to put together,” says Resident founder Simon James on the subject of flat-pack furniture, something he knows quite a lot about. “Most of our products wouldn’t have more than five or six screws, maximum, nor do they take longer than 5 or 10 minutes to put together.” That’s just one of the innovative qualities of the New Zealand contemporary design and manufacturing company established in 2011. With equal parts dedication to an authentic brand of craft and an eclectic but refined aesthetic, Resident has quickly made a indelible impression.

Set up in a cleverly international way with a small head office in Auckland and a distribution hub in the UK to equal the supply-time equal of its European counterparts, Resident manufactures both in New Zealand and Europe. (Partner Scott Bridgens’ knowledge of logistics comes from previously working as operations manager for Brit design firm Tom Dixon.) A small stable of designers, artists and architects—all New Zealanders and based in various parts of the globe—keeps things tight design-wise. As Simon says: “We’ve gone with people we know and whose work we admire.”