10 Questions With… Studio Goons

Recently, St Vincents gallery in Antwerp, Belgium, presented Evolving Forms, the first solo show by Paris-based design atelier Goons, founded by erstwhile fashion designer Mia Kim—formerly of Hermès and Chanel—and architect Paul Trussler—who developed his craft by maquette-making alongside Frank Gehry and then leading his own architectural studio.

The couple work with humble—often reclaimed—materials like plywood, stripping them to their essence while exploring volume, form, and utility. Often inspired by the spontaneous needs of their daily life raising a young family, their handmade pieces are deeply pragmatic yet precisely crafted. “The name goons is rooted in our strong desire for simple solutions,” says Trussler. “Judged lightly these solutions might be considered dumb, even rudish, yet there’s a strong philosophy and quiet sophistication behind each piece.”

Over the years, the pair have built an intuition for things that are “goons”, and turned their talents to numerous projects, from making pieces for the set of a ready-to-wear presentation for fashion brand Amomento to furniture for a chapel at Loyola University in New Orleans. We chatted to them about their design philosophy and latest endeavors.

Studio Goons Executes Unique Concepts With Detailed Precision

ID: Can you share a bit about your personal journey—what first sparked your interest in design, and how did that passion evolve into Studio Goons?

Mia Kim: Before meeting, we both came from a background in design. Paul pursued architecture and worked as an architect and a designer for many years. I studied fine arts through university and then entered into a more rigorous luxury design field with fashion design. We were already well established in our careers by the time we met, but we shared a lot of the same intuitions. Slowly over time, we started to merge, and Goons was a natural result. It’s kind of a meet-in-the-middle situation for us—definitely in terms of scale, production time, and a really accurate combination of our design sensibilities.

ID: Can you identify a recurring theme or question that your work consistently explores, perhaps without you initially realizing it?

MK: When we started the studio, we knew that we were going to design things that could last for a long time, would be cherished, and would be adaptable to people’s lives. This was born out of a combination of an architect’s perspective on the lifespan of a well-designed building and a fashion designer’s perspective on how luxury products should be treated and worn. There needed to be a robustness, a quality, and precision to the work to create this type of furniture and this was the launching point for our exhibition with the gallery St Vincents titled Evolving Forms. We imagined that this collection would exist on a long time scale in people’s homes, and endure through all of the changes and events in their lives. 

ID: Do you fabricate your pieces yourself? If not, what does your usual design, prototyping, and making process look like? 

Paul Trussler: Between the two of us, we have hand-built every Goons piece. We do a lot of mock-ups and experiments in the studio; we draw, sketch, and model a lot as well. 

ID: The architectural DNA in your work is evident, with references to concepts like Le Corbusier’s Five Points, and Paul, indeed you have previously worked for Frank Gehry. In what ways have architectural principles influenced your furniture designs?

PT: When you work as an architect, you manage thousands of intricate details for a project that can span years. Studying or working with a renowned architect reveals a vast repository of solutions. Once the curtain is pulled back on these secrets, techniques, and methods, you carry them with you for the rest of your life, and they’ll pop up anytime you’re working on a design problem.

ID: Mia, you’ve worked as a fashion editor and designer for several renowned fashion houses in Paris, including Hermès and Chanel. How has this sartorial background seeped into your design work outside of that sphere? 

MK: The fashion industry, especially in Paris, is operating on an intense schedule. It means that you have to quickly develop the ability to trust yourself and be confident in your decisions while aiming at perfection. Because of the way we set up Goons, having the ability to quickly say yes or no to design decisions or to the direction for the studio is essential. 

ID: Your “3 and a half hour bench” was created spontaneously before a dinner party. How did this experience influence your approach to happenstance and problem-solving? 

PT: We think this kind of thing probably happens all the time when two designers live together, and the situation wasn’t all that rare for us. But in this instance, it was really a benchmark moment. This exercise taught us how to simplify a problem down to the essential questions and the essential physical effort to produce something beautiful and precise. It represented for us what the business needed to be; not just the designs, but also every other decision it takes to start a studio and be successful.

ID: Which material are you currently obsessed with exploring, and what qualities draw you to it? 

MK: We almost exclusively use a single material, and it’s a conscious decision to simplify the production processes. However, we are curious people, and we often catch ourselves collecting discarded architectural timbers, scrap pieces of stone, leather, or wool. We are obsessed with simple materials. To answer the opposite question, we will never explore fussy materials that require complicated production techniques.  

ID: You recently designed furniture for Trahan Architects’ new Chapel of St. Ignatius at Loyola University in New Orleans that mirrors the spiritual simplicity of the architecture. How did you approach this brief, what did you make, and what details repeat throughout the pieces?

PT: When we joined the project, the building design and overall vision were established. We approached the problem reverse-order, designing a tiny detail for the chair leg penetrating the seat. This decision was deployed to all 13 designs and 250 pieces of furniture, pre-instilling a simple, delicate connective tissue throughout the project.

ID: Which unexpected or overlooked sources have provided the most compelling inspiration for you?

PT: Strangely enough, we talk a lot about restaurants and specifically restaurants that serve one item. If you can do one simple food very well and you don’t complicate your restaurant, you’ll succeed.

ID: You’ve mentioned that Studio Goons doesn’t align with any particular ‘-ism.’ How does this openness influence your creative process and the diversity of your designs?

MK: Design history—especially art, architecture, and fashion—can be pretty academically rigid about particular -isms. Abandoning that rigidity gives a lot of freedom. That’s not to say we don’t respect a history of design, but we’re not trying to fit into any boxes.