Leading Norwegian baby brand Stokke selected Permafrost for the task of designing its newest children’s seating system. The result is a highly versatile and user-friendly modular system that accommodates children’s seating needs from birth all the way through childhood. Permafrost has been selected to take part in the 100% Norway show during the upcoming London Design Festival. We are displaying a collection of wooden toys building on the theme of our “Offshore” wooden toys from last year’s New Nordic Identity exhibition at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art. Alongside the “Offshore” set, we will be launching two new sets of wooden toys called “Shipping” and “Archipelago”. All of the toys will be released commercially in our Stories by Permafrost collection. Behind their cute, harmless appearance, the toys are perhaps posing some silent questions about Norway’s national identity and industrial heritage.Furthermore, the project has been an exercise in simplifying and refining the shape and construction of the products.
Just how much can we remove and still let the toys retain their distinct personalities? 100% Norway is the official, Norwegian design exhibition hosted by The Norwegian Design Council, the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Royal Norwegian Embassy in London. This year’s event marks the 10th anniversary 100% Norway show. If in London, come see us at the Dray Walk Gallery, Dray Walk (off Brick Lane/Hanbury Street), London. The show is open from 19 – 22 September. Leading Norwegian baby brand Stokke has just released two new, innovative strollers designed in collaboration with Permafrost. The two strollers have been developed simultaneously, and they share an obvious family likeness in construction, in use of materials, and in some carefully crafted, iconic details.Click here to find out more.A comfortable, long-lasting highchair from the designer of the best-selling Tripp Trapp, but it's expensive and doesn't fold The Evomove Nomi highchair has been making waves internationally for a couple of years.
Aimed at the upper end of market – it comes with quite a hefty £180 price tag – the award-winning Nomi is everything it promises to be and more. When I learned it was designed by the same guy who came up with the iconic Stokke Tripp Trapp (Peter Opsvik), I couldn't wait to take delivery. Now Peter is effectively in competition with himself, Evomove are hell bent on taking on Stokke and winning the battle of the highchairs with the Nomi. It’s not the only competition it faces on the market, the Phil&Ted’s Highpod, Oxo Tot Sprout, Knuma 4-in-1 and Cosatto Waffle are all vying to be the best-selling highchair. It’s fair to say that Vinnie, my 14-month-old son, was well and truly fed up with his old-school Redkite high chair. I’m embarrassed to admit I bought long before Vinnie arrived to use when friends with babies came to visit. I just never got round to upgrading it. Fast forward a few years, the cheap and cheerful last-minute purchase has gone from occasional use to being absolutely battered by the Vinnie-bomb.
It’s clearly uncomfortable, the shelf constantly clips Vinnie’s plastic catcher bib, hurting his little neck and - worst of all - it stinks! Despite gallons of spray bleach and using my little finger to weed out rancid pieces of food from all the nooks, the cheap PVC seat and fabric restrainer belt act like a magnet for discarded food. I couldn’t wait to chuck it out. But now, our dining room has a stylish new addition – and it smells much better. I was hugely impressed by the Tripp Trapp when we sampled it on holiday so I was expecting great things from the Nomi.The fundamentals of both chairs are similar; they both adapt as your child grows, there's no need for a tray as your child can be placed at the correct height for your family dining table and they both look really good. But the Nomi is, in my opinion, the superior chair. It's more streamlined and less rigid than the Tripp Trapp, the plastic seat seems more comfortable than the Tripp Trapp’s wooden seat and the contoured backrest appears to provide better support.
What's more, the height adjustable footrest is big enough to catch any food droppings before they hit the dining room carpet. Although I haven’t seen a Tripp Trapp, or any high chair, being assembled, they look complicated. And at first glance, the Nomi looks no different. However, my DIY-phobic husband had it up and ready for action within 10 minutes of opening the box. The Allen keys, which are only required to screw the legs and back rest to the stem, are handily stored in a secret little compartment under the foot shelf. After that, it was a case of adjusting the seat and footrest to the appropriate height, clipping on the plastic restrainer and, in our case, the tray. It’s important to point out at this stage that a bouncer seat can be bought as an add-on for the Nomi, making it suitable from birth.The Nomi looks like it's been designed to be an additional piece of furniture, not just a child's chair that can be put away after every meal. Which is great for aesthetics and to make your little one feel happy about being in a 'big' chair, but it's not great on space.
So if you've got limited amount of room it's worth measuring to see if it's something you could have up all the time. The first thing that struck me when I popped Vinnie in the Nomi was how grown up he looked. His big, awkward, bulky Redkite chair dwarfed him. It sounds strange to say, but he really suits the Nomi. He quickly cottoned on to how lightweight the chair is and grabbed the edge of the tray before rocking himself back and forth as if to try and tip it. I waited – with bated breath – to see if he would succeed but despite some movement and a few missed heartbeats the chair remained upright and Vinnie gave up. I do wonder though, will he be successful in tipping the chair when he’s a bigger, stronger toddler? Likewise, I’m not sure how easily he could tip it should he try to climb up from the outside. The standard Nomi highchair only comes with a plastic restrainer that baby just slips into. If you want a harness that you’d find on most traditional highchairs you’ll have to buy it as an extra at £34.95.
While the plastic restrainer is much more hygienic and allows Vinnie freedom of movement, but I do worry if it allows too much freedom. Although Vinnie hasn’t tried to climb out the chair yet, I’m not convinced the little contortionist couldn’t manage it if I took my eyes off him for a minute or two. I also think the harness should come as standard with the chair, as every parents kows you’ll need it at one time or another. At 14-months, obviously Vinnie can’t verbally communicate yet. But a week into using the chair, the sweetest thing has happened: he’s started to go over to his seat and stand by it when he would like something to eat. He happily sits in the Nomi while I prepare him a snack or meal, something he never did pre-Nomi. Before, I’d have to put his food on the tray of his highchair before I put him in. Otherwise he would protest – loudly – at being in the chair. As soon as he was finished eating, he’d demand to be freed from his plight.
But now, he’ll happily sit and gabber away while I clear up the kitchen around him. The Nomi is obviously far more comfortable than his previous chair. It has made mealtimes less stressful. Yes, it is and I suspect the contoured back support and adjustable footrest has a lot to do with his apparent comfort. His little feet used to dangle in his old chair, but the height adjustable footrest on the Nomi allows Vinnie to place his feet flat on it, thus supporting his back. As he grows, the height of the footrest (and the seat itself) can be adjusted in seconds without the need for any tools.The clean-up operation is ceratainly less of an ordeal. As there’s no PVC or fabric and no corners or pockets for food to squirrel away in, it takes moments to spray and wipe down the whole chair, leaving no trace of food behind. It looks as clean and fresh as it did the day we took delivery of it. If I had to suggest any change to design of the Nomi, it would be to increase the depth of the lip on the tray.
Vinnie is still trying to master the art of using cutlery and spends a lot of time chasing pieces of penne around with a spoon. Unfortunately, when he gets to the edge of the tray, there’s little in the way of a buffer and so his tea inevitably goes overboard. Perhaps he’ll learn quicker this way though!In terms of the price of the Nomi and value for money, at first glance it can seem very expensive. If you start using it from newborn, you’ll need the basic chair at £179.95, the newborn attachment at £99.95, then later the restraint at £34.95 and perhaps the tray at £34.95. There are further accessories like cushions and a harness but if you go with the essentials mentioned above, you’ll be £349.50 lighter. On the surface, that seems quite extortionate. But when you consider that the Nomi is designed to grow with your child and last until they are around 12-years – and I’ve no doubt it will last - that works out at £29 a year, or £2.40 a month. Quite reasonable when you look at it like that, really.