This Portland Company Honors 35-Hour Work Weeks and Says, Less is More

Grovemade's co-founders Ken Tomita and Joe Mansfield have found a niche in making wooden accessories for your desk, iPhone, and computer. True Portlandians, they give their staff a 35-hour work week and believe in doing less, not more. Back in 2009, Tomita, a furniture manufacturer, joined forces with Mansfield, a digital artist, to build a company that focuses on craftsmanship, design, and natural materials. They define themselves as a "family of creators -- close knit and a little crazy." Despite the success of Grovemade with natural materials, Tomita says that he's not into buzzwords like "sustainability" or running a company that's typecast as "eco-friendly." And he admits, manufacturing in the US is tough: "There are no shortcuts." Here's our chat. When you started the company, did you think about the materials that you wanted to use given that you were already working in furniture? Back when we started, we used exclusively bamboo. My previous business tomitadesigns.com focused on contemporary bamboo furniture with a Japanese twist. Since I was so familiar with the material it was natural to use bamboo. And was using recycled materials or natural materials a really important part or was it more because of the design element?