Marvell Lahens; Designer; Maker; Dabbler; Tinkerer; Breaker-er of things;

Read.cv    Hit me up    Self™    Maison Ogé

Marvell Lahens (ML) is a Chicago based designer whose work spans digital and physical products. As a self-taught designer, he is particularly interested in the capacity of technology (specifically generative design) to invite non-designers and end-users to partake in the design process. 

Through his custom line of products offered through Self™ (an experiment in furniture and object co-creation between brand and consumer), he seeks to help bridge a deeper connection between people and the objects they use and surround themselves with.



Self™
2023 

Self™ is a radical experiment in empowering people to design their own furniture. Here's how it works : 1/ Generate the shape of a table-top using our configurator and various pre-defined shape types, or define a custom shape yourself. 2/ Select between material (steel or plywood), color, and leg type. 3/ Place your order. 4/ Your design is produced in Chicago by local makers, and shipped to you. 5/ Show it off to your design "friends."

Product Design, UX / UI
Industrial Design


VSCO™ Type
2019
As an initial introduction to text on VSCO, we leveraged pre-defined layouts as a simple starting point for creators. Their purpose was to serve as a catalyst for creation, providing constraint, with room for expression.

In this context, templates are pre-formatted, pre-positioned blocks of text that a user can apply on-top of their image, video, or montage.

c/o: Marvell Lahens; Maggie Carson Jurow

Product Design, UX / UI, User Research


VSCO™ — Vision
2019
A vision for VSCO as a dynamic, multimodal experience with a full suite of creative tools, features for dialog and collaboration, and live + streamed experiences and events. 

c/o: Marvell Lahens; Christina Loo; AKQA London: 
Rishi Ramdaras; Lionel Agbadou)

Product Design, UX / UI


Self™ Pop-up at NYC Design Week
2023
Design it your SELF™ – Experiment with generative furniture design, featuring the work of Norman Teague and Max Davis

Event details

As part of NYC Design week, Self™ invited the public to experiment with generative furniture design in an interactive workshop experience, featuring the work of Norman Teague and Max Davis (both individual works as well as those co-designed with SELF™).

Guests could generatively design an 18″ x 18” side-table, defining the table-top shape, material, and color, and choose between sets of pre-defined leg types. Optionally, guests were welcomed to purchase their design and have it produced out of plywood or powder-coated steel (Made in Chicago and shipped anywhere in the US). 

SELF™ is a custom, made-to-order furniture line led by Marvell Lahens (ML), whose products are generatively designed by the consumer. SELF™ was conceived as an experiment in co-creation between brand and end-user: inviting, enabling, and empowering people to design the everyday objects they use and surround themselves with. 

Experiential, Furniture, Product Design, Art Direction




Maison Ogé — Collection 01
2018 
My first collection, “Permutations of the Mundane”, comes from the derivative nature of all things, where a modest re-alignment of what is expected, alters what is perceived. Neither male nor female, it exists as is.

Maison Ogé is an experimental design practice and clothing brand founded by Marvell Lahens, based in Oakland, California. We exist out of a frustration with and as the antithesis to what is expected. Our beliefs lie in the gender neutrality of apparel, the derivative nature of objects and things, and the power of the simple and of the obvious.

Our collections re-conceptualize staple pieces through the proposition of alternate manifestations and the use of extraordinary and non-traditional materials and dyeing methods.

We produce a limited number of pieces at a time (sometimes made-to-order), crafted in either Los Angeles or in Oakland, California.


Fashion Design, Art Direction, Branding


Self™ x Norman Teague
2023
A collaboration between Self™ and Norman Teague. The underlying generative design frameworks and principles of Self™ were used in defining a new shape grammar based on elements found in Norman’s work. Of the indefinite permutations possible, 3 were selected and executed as the tables available here.

c/o: Marvell Lahen; Norman Teague

Furniture design



20__ Calendar
2020
You have 10 years. A decade. To... It starts day by day. Week by week. Month by month. Set goals. Set them in writing. Set them in dry-erase marker so you can alter them, evolve them. But set them. Day by day. Week by week. Month by month. Get going.

Product Design


Identity
2010 - PRESENT 
Various marks, some in use, some B-sides.

Identity Design

©Marvell Lahens; Maison Ogé™; Self™Chicago. Towards infinity.