We were lucky to catch up with Robby Simon recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Robby thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. So, naming is such a challenge. How did you come up with the name of your brand?

Honestly, it came from just daydreaming having fun and building this world in my mind. Thinking of the colors and what the branding is supposed to make you feel or memories the name, logo design and presentation is supposed to invoke.

So thinking of the whole of me-influences, interests, and cultures and subcultures I love and am apart of-and bringing that into the ethos of this thing and allowing that to navigate and hone in on what I envision was a gift I learned from Virgil Abloh. The idea of the creator of something actually bringing in other elements that even may not coincide with each other actually may lead you down your own path in making yourself and what you do more individualized.

So I wanted it to feel like play, and when I think of play I think of my adolescence and being my room as a teenager. Listening to punk, and hardcore and metal music, falling in love with skateboarding and that culture, then linking that to Black Culture through finding a home in N.E.R.D and Pharrell Williams and the Neptunes, loving the sounds and visuals of the loading screen to my Sega Dreamcast and coveting having a Playstation 2 that I would play at Rooms 2 Go as a kid.

Then of course doing that with design and furniture that I love and artists I admire. Treating the designs like action figures and legos in my mind that I am just playing with and building in my mind.

That feeling, that place, where my influences live and I am in my room daydreaming, and building whatever I want, in that essence everyone can have and should have a “play.room” somewhere they are doing exactly the thing they want to do and dreaming as big as they can where they are at. That’s essentially where the name came from.

Robby, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I got into furniture building during the pandemic. I work from MailChimp, an Atlanta based Marketing Platform, and my position on our Aesthetics and Facilities team made me familiar with design and building somewhat, because we would design and buildout rooms, acquire new spaces and outfit them, hang TV’s and repair machines, do minor plumbing etc.

but I joined the team completely new to all of that. I had no background in that stuff, in fact before I joined the team I was printing MailChimp’s shirts. I constantly found myself with this amazing opportunity where I felt like they really gave me a shot and I didn’t want to blow it. So I really wanted more skills and education some where it did not compromise the integrity of my day work. So the pandemic presented itself with an amazing opportunity to finally work with my woodworking mentor Robell Awake at MASS Collective a local makerspace on the westside that offers classes in welding woodworking and many other fields.

So I presented this to my team, we were at home and really couldn’t work how we wanted or were used to because our job IS the office not AT the office. I was so scared they’d say no and they said YES! So I got to work and built my first dining table. then after that I started seeing other forms in my mind and wondering if I could make those as well and I built lamps, credenzas, cutting boards, and then i wanted to dip my feet in other areas that I loved so I designed embroidered work jackets, and candles, I taught myself 3D modeling as well. I truly became obsessed.

How did you build your audience on social media?

Well, I don’t really have an “audience” in my eyes, I have friends, family, and peers, or maybe even co-conspirators. My ultimate if I could have one with reaching out to people is never and probably will never be to build a brand of “things other people cannot envision, or make themselves.” but to have my own voice, and tell my story. in hopes other people can tell theirs.

To me Play.Room is not a brand, but a style, a practice that maybe anyone can use and tap into to make things. so they can say they also make things in the play.room style of making. Thinking and making as big as you can where you at, and connect and meet others on that same path, and I hope that resonates with people and maybe they can feel they can do something they only dreamed of.

My advice is to just make friends, there shouldnt be a checklist of “brand-like things you should do to build a successful brand” this is a post-modern world where we know no one does it alone. There’s no such thing as the solitary genius but a network of people behind them. (usually being exploited for the “genius’s gain”)

Build networks, through the network of the maker community in Atlanta, and even through instagram I have gained knowledge and access from people who actually want to give that knowledge away. People who I can nerd out with about our mutual interests, passions, and lifestyles with.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

Yes. I have watched almost every Virgil Abloh lecture haha!

Also, George Nakashima and his design ethos have truly shaped the attitude I approach making things with wood with. Between the both of them they speak to doing those same things in their own way and fields.

Virgil was able to bring streetwear to the main stage and legitimize black culture and popular youth subcultures as an actual viable cultural source with the impact those places have had on American society.

Nakashima built his legacy out of nothing front he ground up, and brought in his own influences to the world modern American Furniture design. Using wood no one wanted, or would be deemed as trash and integrating that with shaker-style furniture and including elements of Japanese architecture to inform the language of his designs. To me, even in different fields it shows from these two examples, that bringing all of ones-self into their process is the best way to have a voice.

Contact Info:

• Website: playroomisfun.com
• Instagram: bored.robby and playroomisfun

Image Credits
I took these photos myself.