Page 30 - Jewish News_March-2020

30A March 2020 ISRAEL & THE JEWISH WORLD

Quirky design house lets customers also be designers

Quirky Israeli brand Peleg Design offers customers a chance to send ideas online.
But that’s only one source of Shahar Peleg’s inspiration.
By Lauren Izso, ISRAEL21c
rom optical illusion flower vas- Nothing, he says, is really what it His newest item, the Egguins, is

es to playful elephant-shaped seems. a great example of that. The penguin-
Fcutlery drainers, Shahar Peleg The product that kicked off the shaped eggholder makes it easy to

wants his products to bring his custom- company’s success was a vase Peleg remove hot hard-boiled eggs from boil-
ers joy, but first and foremost to fulfill designed for his own wedding in 2005.

a need. These “floating” vases are anchored by

How does he figure out what those

needs are? “In many ways,” the de-
signer and founder of the brand tells
ISRAEL21c.
One of those ways is from his cus-
tomers. Peleg Design’s gravity-defying wine-bottle holder
“Some of the ideas came to us Egguins, one of Peleg Design’s come both my passion and my profes-
while daydreaming, some in the show- cute and functional creations sion.”
er, some we woke up with and some ing water and store them in the fridge Peleg Design has expanded to
just came to us by email,” reads Peleg – and also makes the eggs much cuter. more than 30 countries including the
Design website’s “Suggest an Idea” One comment on Peleg Design’s United States, Japan, Peru, France and
section. Peleg Design’s Magnetic Vase is a best seller Instagram page calls the item “the best South Korea. Some designs can even
People from all over the world magnetic bases hidden underneath the thing since sliced bread.” be found at the gift shop of the Louvre
reach out, he says. tablecloth. Many of Peleg’s products are made Museum in Paris and the Museum of
“Once in a while we get a great To this day, the Magnetic Vase set from plastic but they are meant to last. Modern Art’s gift shop in New York
idea, and we pay royalties to the de- is one of Peleg Design’s best sellers. “It Sensitive to environmental issues, he City. The Magnetic Vase is one of its
signers or inventors. It’s really amaz- was a huge hit,” he says. “That’s what explains that he wants his customers to bestselling items.
ing because a lot of people have a lot really began to generate business.” develop an emotional connection to the Peleg explains that his products
of ideas,” Peleg says. Another universal problem Peleg items and use them for as long as pos- are available in most major economies,
For example, the Bag Bunny, a wanted to solve was grime building up sible before throwing them away. excluding those that have no political
magnetic bunny-shaped tool for eas- Passion and profession relations with Israel. He hopes one day
ily opening plastic packaging, was in- Growing up, Peleg dreamed of being that will change, and he says so to the
spired by a customer suggestion. an astronaut, but he would eventually businessmen he meets from countries
find his passion in a different form of like Iran and Kuwait.

exploration: design. Every now and then, Peleg receives
“It started off as a one man show,” an email from an Israeli customer, with

he says. a photo of his Magnetic Vase on a shelf
Peleg studied interior design at in the MOMA gift shop. They are so
the Holon Institute of Design. A class happy to see an Israeli designer’s prod-
Jumbo, a cutlery holder that drains into the sink project made him realize he had an eye uct among some of the world’s best.
Bag Bunny was inspired by a customer’s at the bottom of a cutlery drainer. His for creating quirky but useful knick- “That makes me proud,” he says.
suggestion (photos courtesy of Peleg Design) answer was Jumbo, an elephant-shaped knacks. He had made a wine-bottle For more information, visit https://
Founded in 2005 and based in Tel cutlery holder that drains water out of holder that seemed to defy gravity. peleg-design.com/.
Aviv, Peleg Design’s online store of- its trunk, directly into the sink. He was able to sell a few even before Get to know Israel
fers around 100 unique products that Peleg says function is key, and de- graduating.
stem from everyday needs, each with sign is secondary to usefulness. But “It started from selling one prod- and her people!
quirks, twists or optical illusions that still, he hopes his customers will fall in uct in two or three stores in Tel Aviv,” Visit jfedsrq.org/israel.
Peleg describes as “magical.” love with his “cute” designs. Peleg tells ISRAEL21c. “It’s now be-

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