Designer Kusheda Mensah Is Making Sustainable Furniture Meant for Connection

At a time when human connection is a surreal and coveted experience, often facilitated through the internet, Kusheda Mensah’s furniture designs remind us of a need for change that existed even before the coronavirus pandemic. The problem Mensah observed among her generation was, and is, anxiety and stress caused by social media. Her response has been to use furniture to encourage more fulfilling social behaviors. Her line, Modular by Mensah,was founded with the intention to reimagine shared spaces and instigate conversation through her work’s form, function, and bold aesthetic.

Mensah studied surface design at London College of Communication, where she realized her interest in designing prints for interiors. Her final project applied her screen printing expertise to a modular furniture concept,“a baby beta version” of her first collection, Mutual. Mensah, who cites encouragement from her best friend as a leading catalyst for taking the risks required to start a furniture line, was working retail at the time. “I guess she made me “Peckham library was one of the first intros I had as a reference to design,” she says. The feel like I could do anything. So I researched the best places to exhibit furniture to be seen by industry people, and Salone del Mobile came up.” The trade show, known as a competitive benchmark event for global furniture and design, granted Mensah a place after she applied with just a few drawings, and a write up of the concept she had in mind.

The risks that followed were essential. The first was reducing her hours in retail, which Mensah says was a significant moment in her life. The second was taking out a bank loan. “My third risk-taking moment was telling my African mother that I was becoming a designer and ‘staying true to the artist inside’, and don’t know if it’ll be a steady paycheck every month! That went down really well!”

However apprehensive her mother might have been, proof of a true calling is clear in the buoyancy Mensah maintains as she explains recon foam. It is a recycled foam, which is what she uses for all of her structures. Careful selection and exact measurement of her fabrics also contribute to an eco-conscious production line. Sustainability being a core value of her business, she produces exclusively in the U.K.. The collection she created in collaboration with Adidas was inspired by the beauty and preservation of the ocean, using entirely recon foam and recycled PET fabrics.

Under the pandemic’s restrictions, Mensah has struggled to stay inspired. A few sales events have been cancelled, adding some financial stress to the development of her next collection. U.K. designers Samuel Ross and Daniel Arsham recently announced their distribution of ten grants for independent black businesses, of which Modular by Mensah, out of thousands of applicants, won. She only applied after another best friend encouraged her to do so. “It’s crazy, actually, because I applied on Thursday and got it on Friday. Samuel Ross messaged me saying ‘your work is incredible, and well deserved.’”

Despite growing recognition from figures within her industry and unmatchable support from her friends, who are her immediate creative community, Mensah admits she continues to experience a moment of stutter following the question, what do you do? “I often think, what do I do?” Growing up in Peckham, South London, where she still lives today, she might not have imagined calling herself a furniture designer growing up. But she has long dreamed of what she would like to create for her area, given the opportunity to do so.

“I used to sit and think about what I could create for my area. I’d often think about kids from South [London], and them looking at something homegrown. The feeling of pride and ownership I’d, we’d feel, knowing that they can do anything, is honestly what I dream of. It’s not a huge dream, but it’s mine.”

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Photo Credit:  Benedetto Fiori / Shutterstock.com