USM - Modular Furniture

USM - Have we met!?

If you think you know the sophisticated Swiss brand USM - with its iconic modular storage system - think again!

Classic brands can be a little like people. Sometimes familiarity can turn into over-familiarity. Often a manufacturer's product or products are so innovative and revolutionary that we listen carefully to their story, consume it, and then file it away deep in our memory.

We often forget that a brand is something "alive" and that a classic, although immortalized forever in design books, is at the same time constantly changing, whether through new contexts or through evolutions of the original design.

Think of Swiss manufacturer USM and its iconic Haller system. Designed by engineer and CEO at the time, Paul Schärer, together with architect Fritz Haller, and loved by design lovers since it was designed in 1965.

No matter how iconic its products are, USM does not design with pieces in mind that will remain in museums. While appreciating the cultural status of its projects, the company is not afraid to take a step forward and evolve. Director of Product Development, Thomas Dienes says "we don't look for short-term solutions. Instead, we are a long-term trendsetter, working on invocations in the background."

Dienes admits that it is a balancing act to make modifications to a product like the Haller system that enjoys referenced status. "Evolving a design classic is about finding the balance between, on the one hand, maintaining its fundamental principles, and at the same time, constantly improving its quality and integrating new future-oriented technologies."

USM also offers an online 3D configurator. With this configurator, architects and designers can design modules to meet the needs of their customers.