Big Brothers (continued)
Photo: Robert Hakalski
"Our approach is not about saying, 'It's so green, it's so great,'" says Jaime, "but rather, 'It's so sexy, you've got to have it—and P.S., it's green.'"
As creative director—Isaac runs the business side—Jaime draws "from materials and processes as well as behavior," he says. Consider Grid, MIO's wall-mounted organizer. It's made of recycled fibers, including wool and polyester, and its color-coded pockets "respond to how people organize—or disorganize—their lives," Jaime says. Laser-cut from a single sheet of recycled-content steel so as to minimize waste, the Bendant light ships flat to save both packaging and space. That you have to fold it into shape only adds to the appeal: "That visceral moment is what we're looking for—the do-it-yourself aspect," says Jaime. "It's critical to give people a sense of ownership in the design." Mio, after all, is Spanish for "mine."
Growing up with Isaac in Medellin, Colombia, Jaime had his inspired reduce-and-reuse ethic instilled in him early on. "In high school, he used to go to junkyards, buy pieces he found interesting and make sculptures out of them," recalls Isaac, who in 2002 left a financial-analyst job to help Jaime start MIO. That Isaac's former employer was the paper-goods giant Kimberly-Clark—and that their father owns a box-making factory in Colombia—is not what steered the brothers toward sustainability, they insist. ("Well, OK, maybe subconsciously," Isaac concedes.) Instead, Jaime credits his design education, and its emphasis on social responsibility, at Philadelphia's University of the Arts. For his senior thesis there, he designed bowls—made of recycled paper, of course.
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