Wanderlust: Derlot

The border-busting nature of social media may make a village of the world when it comes to sharing news of happenings and trends, but when thousands of miles of ocean and disparate time zones separate your business from much of your potential market, global expansion requires even smarter thinking. It’s what faces Australian entrepreneurs in the design industry, and what, for the most part, keeps the business of making furniture and designing interiors here, local.

There’s one Brisbane-based designer, though, that even Covid can’t hold back. Confined he may be, at present, to getting to know his adopted homeland more intimately, Derlot founder Alexander Lotersztain, is nevertheless committed to taking his 15-year-old brand ever further and wider around the globe. Currently consolidating the two branches, Derlot Editions and Les Basic under the banner ‘Derlot’, the brand is gearing up to be an international player in a post-viral world of blended interiors.

With an office in LA and manufacturing in the US, Italy and Australia, Derlot has nosed out a formula for thinking global but acting local. For the large part, it has happened organically through conversation and collaboration with architects, designers and manufacturers around the world, but its decentralised approach is something that makes a lot of sense for a business community increasingly committed to responsible growth. The end-user benefits through reasonable pricing and quick lead times, the earth gets a lesser knock from carbon, and significantly, it is giving back to the communities that are buying the brand. ‘If we manufacture products in the US for an American project, we can proudly say that the product is American-made. It’s a sign of respect. it’s not about imposing, it’s about collaboration,’ says Lotersztain.

Derlot’s wanderlust is perhaps inevitable given that Lotersztain was born in Argentina and founded Derlot after stints living in Japan, Barcelona and Milan. He arrived in Australia with cross-continental experience of both life and his chosen profession, something that has kept his gaze outwards. Rather than look at Australia’s remoteness and the relative infancy of its design industry as restrictive, he has seen the lack of design heritage as freeing, creatively and commercially – the rulebook is empty. And while he may shun an island mentality for sometimes shackling creative processes, he credits the Australian ‘give it a go’ attitude for liberating his thinking.

It certainly helped shape his designs into Derlot Editions, furniture suitable for homes and hospitality, office, health sector and airport, that is bold and often playful in shape and colour, but grown up in attitude. It also responds to the Australian habit of taking life into the garden – the brand was early in developing product suitable for both indoors and outdoors, now an international preoccupation. In 2016, the off-shoot Les Basic was established to put the magnifying glass over the living habits of the millennial generation and explore the essential needs of future markets. The more the latter made inroads into understanding where markets were heading, the more the two branches started to feed off each other, until today, with the restart button that the virus has presented us prompting more commonality in living habits between the generations.

The model of this streamlined, culturally self-assured, ten-strong, multi-disciplinary studio in Brisbane, linked to a global community of architects, interior designers and manufacturers – a network of about 300 – is not just socially sound. ‘it makes us nimble – we can develop solutions almost in real-time.’ says Lotersztain. The modular seating solution Caterpillar launched last year, for example, is already updated and evolving after interaction with architects ‘We have open discourse with clients. They might say “hey, have you thought about a 30-degree turn?”. It means we can release products that respond to a need.’ Another product on its way is a media screen called Forum, Derlot’s positive and progressive answer to hybrid working needs. It may be a day away from many of us, but collaborative, adaptable and agile, there’s a lot to be learnt from this island brand.

© Architonic