Actual by Josh Jakus (FUZ)
The design team at Actual (previously FUZ) is lead by Josh Jakus, the California-based industrial designer best known for his shape-shifting UM handbags. Josh set out to create simple, elegant, and fun objects. The result is a unique line of household accessories that is both accessible and provocative.
Actual uses recycled or excess materials whenever possible. The products are designed for efficient manufacturing, achieving the highest yield from standard units of raw material and reducing energy-consuming machine time. Many require just a single punch from an industrial-sized cookie cutter to turn raw material into a finished product.
Actual, or FUZ as it was previously known, is a design company that is not limited to one market – instead it focuses on a way of thinking about products and a method of production. Whether it’s a handbag, placemat, or lamp, if an idea fits how they do things then they will produce it, regardless of what market it might be sold in.
As the first step in the production process, all of their materials are machine cut for accuracy and efficiency. All soft goods are then sewn by a real person using a sewing machine. All hard goods are end-finished and labeled by hand.
Many of their products use industrial felt, which is made from excess fibre from wool fabric production. That usually means men’s suits. So if you look at our felt up close, you can see all the usual suit colors mixed together. Because different seasons call for different colors, the felt will vary in shade from batch to batch.
In their cork products Actual uses compressed granulated cork, similar to what you see in most bulletin boards or duck decoys. This type of cork is excess material from wine cork production. Sections of raw bark from cork trees in Portugal are cut into wine corks, and the leftover is ground up, compressed, and glued into the sheets and blocks that are used.
