LOKKI - safe brand labeling for children's worlds

Furnishings for children must be 100% safe. This also applies to 3D aluminum signs: They must be able to withstand intensive daily use and must not be able to be detached by curious children's hands.

3D aluminium signs defy children's curiosity - LOKKI designs and creates children's interiors with great attention to detail

The family business LOKKI has been designing and manufacturing original furniture and decorations for children's facilities for more than 25 years. Their solutions can be found in kindergartens as well as in pediatricians' offices and are thought through down to the last detail. However, the greatest challenge lies in the detail: how do you label a premium product in such a way that it not only looks high-quality, but above all is absolutely safe for curious children's hands? Read the interview with MgA. Petr Švec, engineer and designer at LOKKI.

Can you briefly introduce us to LOKKI and the central focus of your company?

We are a family business with a 25-year tradition. We design and manufacture furniture and decorations for children's interiors - with a focus on an independent design style, high-quality workmanship and safety in daily use. Illustrator Eva Sýkorová is responsible for the illustrative and stylistic design of our products.

As a product designer, I am responsible for design, technology and construction - especially for furniture and didactic elements. Each product is part of a well-thought-out system that can be used to thematically design an entire room - from meadow and forest to jungle.
We specialize primarily in furnishing nurseries and elementary school, children's groups, waiting areas in paediatricians' surgeries and children's wards in hospitals. Our range includes furniture, themed play corners, resting platforms, wooden wall decorations, pin boards, interactive wall elements and much more.

What services do you offer your customers? Do you also work with architects and planners?

We often implement holistic interior solutions - from the initial measurement and 3D design through to production and assembly. Our customers either receive a turnkey overall concept or select individual products from the catalog or directly from the online store.
There are also projects in which we work with architects on sub-tasks. However, we usually only get involved in the project once the planning phase has been completed and we have developed the interior design in such a way that it harmonizes with the architectural idea.

For example, if a kindergarten wants a custom interior but doesn't yet have a concrete idea - do you develop the concept completely from scratch?

Yes, thanks to our many years of experience, we can help design rooms in such a way that they are functional, practical and appealing at the same time - even if the customer doesn't have a clear idea at the outset. In kindergartens, the concept is often based on the name of the group or class; this gives rise to motifs and color schemes for furnishings and decoration.

Together with the customer, we clarify the processes on site and the specific requirements, agree on a basic colour scheme and the decoration theme and then create a 3D visualization of the respective room, which we refine together if necessary. We often also discuss wall colors, floor colors or material selections to ensure a harmonious overall look in the end.

You recently furnished a new kindergarten building in Zbůch. Can you tell us more about this project?

For the newly built, four-group kindergarten in Zbůch, we implemented the complete fit-out - from checkrooms, group rooms and play areas to washrooms and toilets. One major advantage was that we were involved in the project at an early stage, meaning we were still able to help design the color scheme for the floors, tiles and doors as well as individual architectural details.

While large, floor-to-ceiling windows may look very attractive in the original plans, they have a considerable impact on the furnishing options - especially when it comes to storage solutions. Together with the planners, we therefore looked for a solution that was both aesthetically pleasing and functional.
The result is four themed worlds, each with its own atmosphere: kittens in the countryside, frogs by the pond, squirrels in the forest and bees in the meadow. Each group has its own color scheme and thematic orientation, linked by a uniform design style and a well thought-out functional concept.

Your motto is: "We design inspiring spaces, shaped by the colorful world of nature." How is this reference to nature reflected in the shapes, colors and materials of your products? And does sustainability also play a role in the choice of materials?

As already mentioned, we usually design rooms thematically. Common themes are meadow, forest, country life, pond, sea or jungle - sometimes loosely connected, but always inspired by natural motifs that children are intuitively familiar with. With forest animals, trees, mushrooms or ferns, for example, we create a stylized forest world that can transform even a kindergarten room into its own adventure environment.

When it comes to materials, we choose suppliers that we can trust to act responsibly and have a reliable origin. We prefer to work with local manufacturers from the Czech Republic - not only to reduce transportation routes and the associated environmental impact, but also because this allows us to build long-term partnerships and actively shape the quality of the entire process. Our entire production - including painting - is carried out in accordance with the applicable ecological and safety-related EU standards.

The ecological aspect of a material is important and highly topical, but in our industry it cannot be the only criterion. Our aim is to create products that are of high quality in every respect and therefore have an above-average service life. In this way, we make a contribution to greater sustainability. Many children's interiors with furniture from LOKKI have been in use for a quarter of a century - without any significant signs of wear. We consciously see ourselves as the antithesis of short-lived and low-quality furnishing solutions.

How have your customers' requirements changed over the years and which trends do you think are particularly relevant today?

In the past, the interiors we designed were characterized by intense colors and striking elements. Today, we are moving towards a softer color scheme - often without any strong accents at all. We continue to create colorful worlds, but in a much more restrained form.
We experience this change together with our customers. When we have a free hand in terms of design, we also consciously opt for more restraint. And it is often precisely this restrained world of color that is now an express wish of many kindergartens.

As a designer and constructor, how do you rate the importance of product labeling in the furniture sector? What concrete benefits can high-quality design or industrial labeling bring to companies?

For us, it's the icing on the cake, so to speak. Some products - for example wall decorations made of lacquered MDF board - already have our logo discreetly milled into them ex works. However, we have so far lacked a corresponding label for furniture itself. High-quality labeling lends uniqueness and conveys a high quality standard to our products at first glance.

You chose RATHGEBER for the labeling of your products. What was your brief and what technical requirements did the labeling have to meet?

Safety is our top priority. That's why resistance to small, curious children's hands was particularly important. Under no circumstances should it be possible for a child to detach a sign and, in the worst case, swallow it. That's why we opted for a particularly strong adhesive solution and sturdy metal signs that are not easy to reach under and cannot simply be pulled off.

The label must not only adhere reliably, but also be permanently resistant - for example to UV radiation or the regular disinfection of furniture surfaces in nurseries and medical facilities. In our opinion, RATHGEBER signs meet all of these requirements in every respect.

Your products currently feature 3D aluminum signs with partial brushing and diamond grinding. Why did you choose this particular finish and what was it about this surface that convinced you?

3D aluminum signs are not placed on every piece of furniture, but rather in selected, highly visible places. It was important to us to use a high-quality material that is unique within our product range - one that makes the label a prominent yet discreet part of our products. The shine of the aluminum conveys value and underlines our claim to work out every detail with the utmost care.

A new label made from pressed wood, EcoWood, is also currently in the project phase. What appealed to you about this sustainable material and what potential do you see for your products?

EcoWood is currently being tested for use in our differentiation labels in nurseries. We have applied selected samples on a trial basis in a real kindergarten environment and are now observing how the material performs in practical use. We are looking forward to the results.