There is probably one in a closet in your house.
This folding stool has one goal: to be discreet, easy to store and out of the way.
The Compact shows how simplicity is sometimes the key to success.
This product, marketed by the Alicante company Casa Vigar and designed by the Barcelona agency Lúcid, has record sales records online and is present in 20 countries and on five continents.
It has been an Amazon Best Seller for four years —since its launch in 2018, with a price starting at 15.50 euros— and has collected multiple awards, including the Red Dot Design Award, considered the Oscar of the world of design.
"In the end, what you have to do is put yourself on top, but the idea is to make it more beautiful and durable," explains Marc Fabra, co-founder and design director of Lúcid.
At Casa Vigar they already had a product in their catalog that, according to Fabra, was in no way different from Chinese stools.
The work consisted, then, in creating something with which it would mark a difference with the competitors.
Pol Fantoba, managing director of Lúcid and co-founder of the company together with Fabra, points out that in China the concept of folding stools for the home was already popular, but that the designs were all "very basic and without any contribution".
For that reason, they decided that the Compact should be a kind of stool 2.0.
Fabra and Fantoba founded Lúcid in 2013 because they share a creative and business philosophy.
They have known each other since they were children, both grew up in the same neighborhood of Sant Cugat del Vallès and met again years later.
The friends had ventured into the same world —Fabra was a designer, and Fantoba, a design engineer— and they decided to start a project together.
The most important thing was to differentiate itself from the author's work that prioritized the beautiful over the technical, says Fabra.
Ten years later, his agency has a team of 20 people, including designers, engineers and researchers.
He specializes in selling his services to companies that want to improve their designs.
Casa Vigar, at the beginning, was just one more client.
During the process of working with the Compact, the team came up with the idea of adding hinges that could be folded and hidden.
This desire for minimalism and cleanliness is in line with the recent trend in the world of interiors to create austere and little-cluttered spaces.
This is how Fabra acknowledges it: "We wanted to follow this aesthetic that now prevails in the market and with which we feel very comfortable."
Fantoba shares the sentiment of his colleague: "I knew that the design we did was groundbreaking, but the level of sales was unexpected."
Beyond being a commercial success, it was also unexpected for Fabra to receive awards thanks to the Compact.
In addition to the Red Dot Design Award, it earned them the European Product Design Award, the German Design Award and the Iconic Design Award.
"All this is curious... Something that
a priori does not seem like the
sexiest
idea
," he admits.
The excellent results of the Compact led Casa Vigar to order a whole collection of products with this same design language.
On their website you can find, in addition to the stool, boxes and other folding objects with a similar style.
“Everyday products are ultimately one of the reasons why we design.
We are very clear that what we want is to democratize design by adding value to everyday products”, says Fantoba.
In addition to having been a growth lever for Lúcid —a company that was recently acquired by Jungle21—, the Compact continues to be a source of pride for its creators.
Fantoba sums it all up with an anecdote: “One thing that fills me up is that where I live, in the window of a small hardware store, they always have it.
It is what is cool, that it is a design that breathes honesty and simplicity.
Minimalist and rational as we like it”.
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