Klaro Industrial Design (K.I.D) is youthful and has a fresh new showroom in Sydney’s Inner West. With a clear sense of purpose and local touches, its workplace-focused designs are striking a chord.
June 19th, 2023
Alona Klaro, founder of K.I.D, speaks from personal experience for all facets of her exciting brand, which began life only three years ago. As a trained sculptor and interior architect, she knows a thing or two about style, space and materiality. Combine those skills with experience in workplace interiors and the right mix for K.I.D is self-evident.
Klaro felt that she could see a gap in the market for wholesale office furniture. Crucially, however, the point is that the wholesale is combined with genuine design intent. This isn’t a one-size-fits-all designer. In a landscape that can at times find itself oversaturated with cookie-cutter design, the presence of diverse, agile designers has to have positive effects in the form responsiveness.
“I felt that a personalised approach would work,” says Klaro. “We’re very much in tune with the requirements of architects and designers, who we see on a regular basis. It all gets fed back into our design, which then becomes a benefit to our clients — it’s all about having a holistic approach.”
Environmental care forms an important pillar for K.I.D’s work, particularly in the materials it uses. For example, recycled HDPE plastic is currently being used, having been collected from local hair salons and donations from the general public. “The thinking behind it is to raise the value of by-products in order to divert them from simply becoming landfill. As technology progresses, we’re able to put our ideas into practice,” explains Klaro.
The local dimension hinted at in this environmental focus is no less important. The new showroom is located in Enmore in a part of Sydney renowned for its local producers — “a wonderful area with endless inspiration,” as Klaro puts it. One of K.I.D’s longer term goals is to manufacture more and more locally, while the general integration with the surroundings is part of a philosophy that understands the importance of having a space to show the designed objects in use.
Visiting a showroom means being able to touch, see and use objects. It’s part of the wider philosophy that refuses homogeneity, arguing that commercial fit-outs should not have to forego personalised, quality design. Again, it comes back — as do most good design stories — to Klaro’s personal journey.
“I think a lot of things have come together to give me an eye for detail, an understanding of shape, volume and geometry, how items might sit in space, project requirements and so on,” she adds. Various perspectives are at play, from interior architect and manufacturer to client and designer.
The culmination is a showroom that is integrated into the local design community and provides the opportunity to use the products. Indeed, Klaro explains how she “wanted to show a little bit of the chaos that comes with using a workspace.” She continues: “I wanted to make sure that we show furniture while it’s being used, and that’s why we call this space a studio as well.”
K.I.D is defining itself through a personalised approach that values the local and emphasises environmental care. It embodies a gesture away from the bland, homogenised office, instead making a statement that having a commercial workplace fit-out does not mean missing out on good design.
Klaro Industrial Design
klarodesign.com.au
Photography
Courtesy of K.I.D
We think you might also like this story on innovation at Klaro Industrial Design.
INDESIGN is on instagram
Follow @indesignlive
A searchable and comprehensive guide for specifying leading products and their suppliers
Keep up to date with the latest and greatest from our industry BFF's!
To honour Chef James Won’s appointment as Gaggenau’s first Malaysian Culinary Partner, we asked the gastronomic luminaire about parallels between Gaggenau’s ethos and his own practice, his multidimensional vision of Modern Malaysian – and how his early experiences of KFC’s accessible, bold flavours influenced his concept of fine dining.
Within the intimate confines of compact living, where space is at a premium, efficiency is critical and dining out often trumps home cooking, Gaggenau’s 400 Series Culinary Drawer proves that limited space can, in fact, unlock unlimited culinary possibilities.
XTRA celebrates the distinctive and unexpected work of Magis in their Singapore showroom.
In design, the concept of absence is particularly powerful – it’s the abundant potential of deliberate non-presence that amplifies the impact of what is. And it is this realm of sophisticated subtraction that Gaggenau’s Dishwasher 400 Series so generously – and quietly – occupies.
Australian curator, writer and educator Kate Goodwin has been in attendance at the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale and reports back on some of the highlights.
Mountain Soil reimagines retail as an immersive, context-driven experience.
The internet never sleeps! Here's the stuff you might have missed
The 2025 Osaka World Expo 2025 is well and truly open, with Buchan’s Pavilion representing Australia on the global stage.
J.AR Office has redesigned the traditional warehouse typology into a contemporary precinct.