Have we met?: USM

I was once described by a friend as a design classic.

It was a compliment, rather than a slight, you understand. (Or, at least, that’s how I chose to interpret such a comment.) The message was more ‘You never seem to grow old’ than ‘We’re getting tired of your (tired) face.’

Classic brands can be a bit like people. Familiarity can sometimes tip over into, well, over-familiarity. So innovative and game-changing a manufacturer’s product or products, so distinctive its proposition, that we listen attentively to its story, consume it, and then proceed to file it away at the back of our minds.

Great. Got it. Thanks.

But often we forget that a brand is a living thing, and that a classic, while forever immortalised in the design history books, is, at the same time, constantly changing – either through new contexts into which it’s introduced, or via considered evolutions of its original design.

Take premium Swiss manufacturer USM and its iconic Haller system, for example. Designed by engineer and USM’s CEO at the time Paul Schärer, together with the eponymous architect Fritz Haller, and loved by design professionals since it was first launched in 1965, the ultra-rational, modular storage and display programme – known for the confident, yet friendly, expressiveness of its highly architectural exoskeleton – has an enduring quality to it. The epithet ‘timeless’ is often spuriously applied to products, but here it would seem entirely apposite.

Long a mainstay of the doctor’s surgery and the lawyer’s office – so goes the cliché in the German-speaking world, at least – the Haller system certainly has an air of quality, dependability and, dare I say it, respectability about it. No surprises. Or are there?

Iconic its products may be, USM isn’t in the business of manufacturing museum pieces. While appreciating the cultural status of its designs, the company isn’t afraid to evolve them. Carefully, of course. ‘USM isn’t trendy,’ says Thomas Dienes, Group Product Development Director. ‘We don’t pursue short-term solutions. Rather, we’re a long-term trendsetter, working away on innovations in the background.’

One such development is the award-winning Haller E system – where the classic Haller programme is complemented by built-in lighting. The architectural play of volumes and voids that its modularity provides is heightened thanks to the integration of energy-efficient LED elements, which perform a dual function: on the one hand, they serve to create atmosphere via two different light temperatures (one warm, the other cool), while at the same time illuminating, or even highlighting, the units’ specific contents. The macro and the micro, if you will.

There’s more than meets the eye, however. To preserve the pared-down USM aesthetic that architects have come to love, the famous ball-and-tube construction that makes USM Haller so distinctive has been modified slightly to allow power to flow safely through the furniture’s very frame. This means no cabling. What’s more, super-discreet USB chargers can also be incorporated, providing further functionality.

Dienes admits that it’s somewhat of a balancing act, making modifications to a product that enjoys such a revered status as the Haller system. ‘Evolving a design classic is about finding the right balance between, on the one hand, retaining its foundational principles, while at the same time, constantly improving its quality and integrating new and future-oriented technologies.’ It’s certainly no job for the faint-hearted.

A further USM innovation comes in the form of its online 3D-configurator tool. An open-ended modular system means infinite possibilities in terms of how USM Haller (and USM Haller E) are deployed; with the configurator allowing architects, planners and others to design furniture to meet their clients’ precise needs, according to its spatial context, and utilitarian and aesthetic purpose, the creative act becomes a joint undertaking.

It also underscores the fact that USM Haller, in and of itself, is never over. Always expandable (and, indeed, contractible), it is as much a future project as it is a present product. Which, of course, makes it supremely sustainable. There’s no USM Haller graveyard somewhere where old units go to die.

The internal modus operandi at USM, when it comes to creative thinking, is open-ended, too. Under Dienes, a culture of innovation has been firmly embedded. ‘We’re focused on the long-term, not passing trends. This means that we reflect deeply on logic and real value. At the same time, we trust our team, and give them the space and freedom to find new solutions.’

USM isn’t back in fashion. It never went away.

© Architonic