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JuLY 08 2020

The Making of Olli Miniatures.

Read how we launched a product from our dining tables in Meet Olli Minis.

Making the vision reality.

With our designers and engineers spanning everywhere from Austin, San Francisco to even Laguna Beach, we basically lived on Zoom. We decided on the application, finishes, configurations, and creation. We settled on creating four different versions of Olli to describe four different situations Olli could work in.

Our engineer in Austin took the lead on 3D printing Olli bases, Belay desks, and chairs. From there, he mailed them across the West Coast to our other designers to begin designing their mini WFH vignettes.

We hot glued, cut, stapled, and filed—you name it, we did it.

"I was initially worried about finding time to work on this in addition to my day-to-day, but creating Olli Minis ended up being an enjoyable, creative outlet during my spare time. Model making has always been my favorite part of the industrial design process. I'd say the hardest part was accepting that my paint job wasn't perfect. Working with delicate parts on such a small scale makes it hard to nail the details."

- Elliot, Design Engineering Manager at Pair

We managed to find a nail polish that matched the Pair palette. We spruced up the vignettes using accessories such as small plants (both real and fake), little computers, mini vases, petite drinking glasses, minuscule handmade picture frames, and other eensy-weensy decors.

A standout moment was when one of our designers turned ping pong balls into actual, functional lighting for her setup. (Did we mention our team is insanely talented?!?!)

"Bringing my vision into reality was an unforgettable journey. During an otherwise odd time, I have a lot of nice memories with my team from ideation to the final product."

- Samantha, Design Engineer at Pair

What else?

The final challenge was photography. Everyone has different kinds of phones—some cameras were older and couldn't produce the crisp images we needed. Everyone had to learn photography 101, so we took a crash course in composition, lighting, and angles. Some of the team members who felt inexperienced were a bit nervous, but they pulled it off!

After diligently working on these minis for three weeks (in addition to our usual 8-5 work), we met up on Zoom and presented four incredible setups.

After a bit of back and forth, lighting direction, and a few hours on Lightroom, we have produced imagery that really made their works of art speak for themselves.

Olli Miniature Designer Spotlight.

1 | Olli for the Marketing Team

DESIGNED BY ALYSE, Applications Designer AT PAIR

The application was designed for a Marketing team. There is a lot of room for collaboration as well as storage for swag or other marketing materials. I left the sightlines open between users on either side of the Olli so they can communicate and easily swivel a screen or hand something to each other.

Of all the accessories that make Olli so powerful, I think the stacking storage is the most useful. I love how you can change the horizon of the space and create extra storage, which can either be individualized or shared as a bookcase. They also double as a useful space divider if you want to separate a collaboration zone from the workstations.

Ironically, creating Stacking Storage turned out to be the most difficult to develop. I built them to the specifications that they are manufactured in metal, but out of cardstock. The exactness of my measurements turned out to be the problem, they were always looking a little crooked to me. They also took a surprising amount of paint. Each one has at least 3 coats of paint to get the right shade and coverage. My fingers were Abyss, Rouge, and Sunny for about a week.

My Olli is made from Cardstock, Wrapped Laminate, Camira Synergy fabric, Cardboard, Wooden dowels, aluminum wire, and Nail polish.

2 | Olli for the Executive Team

DESIGNED BY ELLIOT, Design Engineering Manager AT PAIR

In my opinion, Olli's Sidekicks and Elements' versatility and how well they play off each other is what makes Olli stand out. We were able to create a multi-functional system that didn't require millwork to look cohesive. In a world where the future of workplaces is uncertain, it's exciting to have a product that inherently accommodates a variety of needs. To take this concept and do it justice in a miniature format presented its challenges, but I managed to find a way to make it work.

An unexpected element to my design was using an empty beer can to create a post for my Butterfly screen. One man's trash is another man's treasure, right? I also incorporated 3D printed models for Olli's base, actual material samples from the Pair palette (felt, laminate, etc.), fresh plants from my garden for decor, and a product quite foreign to me - nail polish. At the end of it all, I am happy with the final product.

Making an Olli at home oddly felt very appropriate. With all of us stuck in our own homes, everyone was turning to new projects and crafts. Whether it was baking banana bread, trying out watercolors, or making an Olli miniature, it was a time to slow down and sink your teeth into a new project.

First Application

I wanted to try a few settings with my Olli that played on the scale a little bit. My front steps have this magnificent stonework that I thought was different and would provide an interesting background texture. On the porch is a large slatted wooden chair that added some warmth to the scene and a "large wood pillar" that might be found in an old warehouse/industrial style office.

Second Application

My other setting is a bookcase where you can really see the scale of the miniature. I thought this did an excellent job putting Olli into a familiar context while framing the scene. I also thought it was fun to use some design books or "basket weaving" books as the walls. The back of the bookcase was too white and bare. Instead of printing a small photo out or making a fake window, I thought it was fun to use an actual framed painting, and the artbook opened to an abstract design.

3 | Olli for the Creative Team

DESIGNED BY HILLARY, Senior Application Designer AT PAIR

Upon starting this project, I quickly realized perfection is a curse and blessing (for most designers, I'm sure). We designed Olli to be a versatile platform so that teams could move, shape, and shift the Elements and Sidekicks to create unique spaces. My favorite element is the Stackable Storage. It's not only storage but a play on visual barriers and definition of space.

The tedious detailing and applying materials on such a small scale was challenging. My Olli is made from a combination of different materials: Felt, Textured fabric, Card stock, Veneer / Laminate, Solid Wood, Wire (tube and flat bar), Construction paper, Nail Polish, Colored Pencils, 3D printed components.

As the WFH season began, I decided my dining room would be my designated workspace. Whatever work happens in my dining room, stays in my dining room. With this Olli Miniature shoot, the same rules applied. Fortunately, my "workstation" has lovely lighting, so it became the perfect backdrop for the miniatures to shine.

The shoot went smoothly for the most part, but being at home presented a few challenges. While most people get Zoom-bombed by their kids, I'm getting photobombed by my four-legged kids. Can't get mad though, they are very photogenic.

4 | Olli for the IT Team

DESIGNED BY SAMANTHA, DESIGN ENGINEER AT PAIR

Making an Olli at home was very fitting, given the circumstances. My goal for this setup was to create a space for an IT team. I had the opportunity to interview Pair's IT department and took their wants and needs and got to work. I was very excited to exercise the crafty part of me with this campaign. Here are some of the "crafty" things I did to create what you see here to give a taste.

I hand mixed nail varnish color to match Pair's Storm finish. I replicated a hickory worksurface by scoring the cathedrals in basswood and enhanced it with markers and Danish oil. The plants came from pressing hot glue and metal wire between two sheets of kraft paper and cutting the pieces into leaf shapes. I busted out my 3D printer to create the vaulted roof and backlit it with LEDs.

I originally made the stacking storage units out of aluminum cans, but they were too frail. The final storage units were made as one unit out of basswood and added parting lines to separate each box. I created the Butterfly Screens from nails with the head ground off, a cereal box and some industrial felt colored with watercolor concentration. The icing on the cake was using ping pong balls to make pendant lighting in the space. The list goes on.

I designed my Olli layout for an IT Team. Before the design phase took place, I interviewed our office's IT rep and asked about her office: how is the general workspace, what does she (and her coworkers) use, what are their likes, dislikes and wants. Our discussion sparked some excellent ideas on what EDC and work accessories would enhance Olli for their needs. It also helped determine what type of meeting and workspace Olli (along with the Butterfly Screens) could help facilitate. I thought it would be fitting to create a setting amongst my vinyl records. My bookcase is against a brick wall, which ended up being the main driver for the IA in my Olli's tableau.

I wanted the space to feel more substantial than the just the square foot that it is, so I set up two mirrors on either wall to expand the area and to be able to see more of Olli at once.

I wanted to tie in my apartment's architecture with the bookcase confines, which led me to make the masonry in the front and the vaulted pendant roof (to hide and soften the LEDs above). I got the roofing idea from art/prints on my now office wall (Tissot, Boullee, Paxton) and my neighborhood coffee shop (one of the few places I've been during the SIP) located in an old Ford Motor Showroom in Alameda. I created a space that takes us to Pittsburgh, PA, like in an old factory that had been converted into an office space. We don't have many old buildings with this type of charm and character on the West Coast, so I created something different. The view from the window is looking out on the Strip District in Pittsburgh, which used to have many factories and mills.

A journey ends.

Over the last few months, our team spent countless hours on Zoom collaborating on the ideation, execution, and final touches for their Olli Miniatures. While everyone was eager to see each others' work, we held firm and waited until the end to debut our final work. After staying indoors and away from our teams for so long, it was incredible to have the opportunity to feel whole again.

Here at Pair, we continuously encourage creativity and outside-the-box thinking. We've fostered an environment where "no idea is a bad idea." With this philosophy, our team has soared higher than we could have ever imagined, and we are proud to share that with you.

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