As the world of commercial interiors evolves and clients and designers continue seeking a sophisticated level of personalization, architects and product designers Stacy Binns and George Bennett of Fringe Studio are bringing a fresh take to the commercial and (by extension) residential hybrid furniture landscape. Their foray into product manufacturing for the architectural and design community, MIXI Modular, does exactly what it’s name says in an intriguing way.


MIXI Modular allows designers to configure their own designs from a variety of carefully considered shapes, shelving and storage options, including negative space. Each piece made is finely crafted and finished. Fringe Studio incorporates a wide range of materials and, for now at least, doesn’t hesitate to explore other material options in the design process.
Ms. Binns and Mr. Bennett, a husband and wife dynamic duo with architectural backgrounds, decided to take the leap into furniture production after several years of working on projects with high-end residential clients. Many of their clients craved custom solutions for their homes and offices. Designing custom pieces that met specific or non-traditional needs became their norm.
“When a client needs a table for 20 people, you don’t just purchase it. You have to have it made,” Mr. Bennett explained. Eventually, they realized they might be on to something.

Divide Cabinets were their first foray into creating unique cabinetry that answered both clients’ storage needs and whims. Designed with a sleek rectilinear modern style, each piece looks like a stand-alone sculpture.
Mass manufacturing beckoned when the owner of Zinc Details, a San Francisco modern furniture store on Filmore Street, Vass Kiniris, offered to have a show featuring Fringe Studio’s furniture pieces. Mr. Kiniris and his wife, Wendy Nishimura Kiniris, are often credited with leading the revival movement for West Coast modernism in San Francisco. They are well known for showcasing local talent in the Bay Area.
Ms. Binns and Mr. Bennett suddenly found themselves designing a collection of pieces for the show in a very short amount of time. Some of these they later modified – to become their MIXI Modular collection. Among the other pieces they design and which are offered on their website are: the Container Ten-71, a rolled steel planter influenced by the design of a certain Manhattan museum; a collection of upholstered pieces; Divide Cabinets; and wood slab tables.

Officeinsight met with Ms. Binns and Mr. Bennett last week at One Workplace, where Mr. Bennett had just assembled a small credenza using MIXI Modular pieces in a glass fronted conference room.
As our conversation took place, it was interesting to notice how often designers came by, drawn to the beauty and craftsmanship of the assembled cabinet, opening and closing drawers and doors, touching and admiring the custom designed hardware. There is a warm, sculptural feel to each of the pieces Fringe Studio makes.
Officeinsight (OI): Your website says, “Imagine it. Configure it. Build it. Enjoy it.” That seems so ambitious! What exactly is MIXI Modular?
George Bennett (GB): It’s anything you want it to be. All of our pieces are designed to multitask. It starts out with a steel base, which comes in sizes up to 56” long and in a variety of heights. You can make a piece to fit along an entire wall. We’ve done it. Building up from the base, you design from a system of shapes, adding drawers, doors and whatever suits your need.
Stacy Binns (SB): Everything we make is designed to play well together. We will make it in any color or wood finish. Obviously wood finishes would be pricier. Upholstered pieces can incorporate seating.

OI: The range of products you can create within the MIXI Modular system is staggering: media cabinets, desks, bars, bed side tables, credenzas, lateral files and book shelves which feature closed and open spaces. What is the price point?
GB: It’s custom product. The price point is medium to high- it depends upon what finishes are being specified and what the quantities will be. Our model is scalable.
SB: We wanted to take a complicated system and make it super simple. Just like modern design.

Indeed it will only get simpler. Currently if you visit the Fringe Studio website for MIXI Modular, you fill in what you want to design and are contacted by Stacy or George with a price. Within the next few months, however, Fringe Studio will introduce an online app for pricing and designing custom MIXI pieces. Using a “drag and drop” technique, users will be able to design and order furniture for the office or home with a few simple clicks.
OI: Who is your target client for designing and ordering MIXI Modular pieces?
SB: Interior designers and furniture dealers. People in the industry who know furniture and want to create something beautiful, timely and unique for their clients. We’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback from the design community.
OI: What are some of the special product details you offer?
SB: Hardware. We’ve designed certain pieces ourselves. We have accessories like wine racks that hang on the back of the boxes, which can be removed or added later. An open slot in the back of our boxes make each easy to carry and allows for air circulation. Doors that open up or down. We’ve designed blue tooth speakers for our cabinets. We also showed a printed paper design on one of our credenzas for the Dwell on Design show in Los Angeles, where we won the furniture award.
OI: Where else have you shown your collection?
SB: At the ICFF show in New York, as well as the West Edge show in San Francisco.

OI: Tell us about the “Juice Box.”
SB: We came up with the name “Juice Box” because it’s a cabinet which features a wine rack as well as speakers.
OI: Where is MIXI Modular manufactured, once something has been designed?
GB: We looked at many different manufacturing facilities. It was really important to us that whoever we chose to work with had the capabilities to scale, since that’s what really differentiates our products. We found the right manufacturing fit for us in Wisconsin.
OI: What are your lead times?
SB: Eight weeks plus shipping.
For more information visit: info@fringe-studio.com. Or call: 415. 906.6125