Nooka creates a nook in the accessories market

MANILA, Philippines - It is an oft-told anecdote: Matthew Waldman was staring at a wall clock one day and realized how difficult it would be to tell time for someone untrained to read conventional watches. From there, he designed a new clock interface that tells time through dots and dashes, presented with a sleek, futuristic-looking package — the beginning of Nooka, Inc.

But Waldman wants to make it clear that he wasn’t a big fan of watches in the first place. “Regarding the genesis of the Nooka watch, it wasn’t as if I said, ‘I want to make a watch,’” he explains. “It was more of a design exercise to come up with a truly universal visual language for reading time.” As the watch became a hit in 2005, Nooka, Inc. took on a life of its own and became a fashion project, expanding into an accessories line for belts, wallets, toys, and even perfume. “There came an internal and external pressure to come up with more products that express an intuitive design,” says Waldman. “People started asking ‘What else do you have?’”

“Nostalgic” and “retrospective” are key words that Waldman avoids whenever he creates new designs. “When people ask me what makes Nooka different from other brands, I tell them that Nooka products are — well, I don’t want to say ‘futuristic’ in a cheesy, science-fiction way, but rather very future-forward yet still glamorous — a Glam Future look.”

As a consumer himself, Waldman had long noticed that there weren’t a lot of accessories that matched all the other modern things that people frequently use, such as computers and music players. He says, “Most accessories look very old-fashioned. There are a lot of couture brands that have come up with great, futuristic designs that use new materials, but accessories have mostly remained looking the same through the years. Nooka addresses that gap, that disconnect, and the Nooka consumer is someone who also wants that gap to be filled.”

Waldman’s background in design is perhaps the biggest factor in the success of Nooka. Plotting one product design to the next, the designer and his team start with a conceptual framework that guides them in deciding what product to do next, what materials and colors to use. “A lot of the work in the design process is on paper,” he says. “Actually, it begins with words.” Waldman confesses that language, aside from design, is a passion for him, and he uses it a lot to make abstract design concepts and ideas more concrete. “We start with a board where we put ideas into words. Of course, we have great fun in coming up with new designs, but after the whole process, we go back to the board to see if the results fit in with the concept.”

Speaking of language, Nooka — an abbreviated form of “New Yorker” spoken with a Brooklyn accent — names its product models with words that seem to make up a futuristic language of some kind: Zot, Zirc, Zon, Zub. Waldman explains, “I find synthetic language very fascinating. Not to give away my secret, but I use language’s visual component.” Pointing out the N on a Nooka perfume bottle, he tilts the bottle to the side to form a Z. “Nooka, as a word, sounds great because it sounds new and positive, but if I come up with names that begin with N for other products, it might start sounding negative: no, nah. So instead, I began using the letter Z.”

Aside from its designs and branding, Nooka has been known for its use of non-traditional materials in its products: polyurethane resin, diamonds set in crocodile leather, etc. The experimental aspect is due in part to the design company’s size, which isn’t very big. “We don’t have a lot of access to newer materials, so any material companies reading this, please contact us!” Waldman admits with a laugh. He and his team constantly do research on new materials that push the envelope, “though we make sure that the ones we will use are good to the environment and are hypoallergenic. I don’t want anyone to say, ‘Oh, I wore a Nooka watch and got a rash.’” He cites the Material Connexion Library in New York, where he frequently goes to read up on new textiles and materials.

Despite being only four years old, Nooka has caught the attention of other graphic-design companies and has created collaboration lines with brands such as Kidrobot, Hellz Bellz, and even Spongebob Squarepants. Nooka has been lauded on graphic design blogs as comparable to Apple in terms of understanding branding, which Waldman finds validating. “To be compared to a global brand means I must be doing something right.” In rethinking design, making it more intuitive and filling in the need for more modern-looking accessories that can keep up with the times, Nooka illustrates how fashion can be synthetic, connective to both language and concepts and descriptive of the people wearing it. With the way people have been receptive to the brand’s progressive stance, the future of design — especially accessories design — looks bright and yes, glam. “I’m optimistic about the future, and the things we create at Nooka bridges the gap between what is and what could be.”

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Nooka watches are available at Rafael Jewellery in EDSA Shangri-La Mall, My Diamond stores in Gateway and Glorietta 4, and My Tempo in SM North EDSA and Robinson’s Place Manila.