Jonathan Handford

Managing Director @Handford&mason

Derby, GB

At Original Monkey, we are extremely passionate about encompassing Emotional Durability when designing products with our customers in mind. Emotional Durability is a term used to describe the connections that we make with clothing and products that are significant to us. This implies that when a product or garment is specially designed for us, we look after it more and develop an emotional attachment with it. This ensures longevity of design and encourages the end user to keep the item for longer, hence creating a sustainable product. Original Monkey was founded by Jonathon Handford and Daniel Mason, after witnessing the throw away society of buying pointless gifts. Both with a background in design, we began researching lifelong products. By developing processes to ensure we could encompass these key factors in our own business we were able to stay true to our backgrounds in conservation, restoration and preservation. The name, Original Monkey, was appropriated from our days back as apprentices. Here, we adopted the nickname ‘The Monkeys’ and when new apprentices started, it developed into ‘The Original Monkeys’. Not wanting to escape the core beliefs that we learnt in the beginning, we kept the name. We hope to combine these old beliefs with new technology by designing Emotionally Durable products that will hold sentimental value for years to come. These products include; wedding gifts, homeware, hampers, clothing and accessories.Original Monkey is a trade name of YBCM Designs Ltd.