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profile
Born in Los Angeles in 1971. Exposed to design by father, William Simonian, architect, and one of the original founders of the Southern California Institute of Architecture (Sci-Arc). Discovered surfing. Studied industrial design at Art Center in Pasadena, California and in Art Center Europe in Vevey, Switzerland. Developed interests in both design and invention. Worked with Lisa Krohn in Los Angeles designing furniture. With Lisa, developed the Tuffet Stool which became part of the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Concentrated on experimental products in and out of school. Worked with Fitch Inc., a large product, engineering, graphics, and multimedia design firm in Columbus Ohio. Worked with Dutch designer, Maaike Evers. Moved back to California with Maaike. Project Director at Astro Studios in San Francisco, California. Developed an interest in lifestyle-influenced design and gained experience with both high tech and low-tech product development. While working at Astro, Cofounded Flowlab LLC with two partners as a laboratory for physics-based experiencial products. Flowlab's first product, the Deep Carve System was released in 2000. Began a collaboration with an engineer to develop and patent ergonomic products for licensing. Experiments with furniture and jewelry design with Maaike Evers have resulted in MandM, short for MikeandMaaike, a platform to explore perpetual motion, clean ideas and uninterrupted creative stimuli. MandM's first edition, the M-series mobiles are exhibited in galleries in San Francisco. Many more MandM designs are in the works. Inspired by brother, John Simonian, a growing interest in social justice, environmental, and political issues will influence future projects, as evinced by the 24110 project, a monument to nuclear waste. Mike is currently working independently as well as collaboratively and consulting with international clients.
© 2004 Mike Simonian
