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Irena Barker meets designers Avron and Jolene Levin, founders of NorvaNivel, to find out how their furniture designs tune into learners’ needs.
“A lot of kids get lost in the system because the environment is stifling them.” It is a brave business owner who describes himself as an “irrepressible lunatic” on his Twitter social media profile. But Avron Levin, the creative force behind the NorvaNivel educational furniture brand, clearly regards a degree of lunacy as an advantage in his trade. “What I’m looking for all the time with my team is massive bursts of inspiration…I want the disruption in my classroom, the insane explosion of ideas,” he says. Curiosity, disruption and fearlessness are key to the Levins’ design process – and these traits also reflect the kind of progressive education that the company wants its products to promote. It is a kind of education that prepares young people for the future by nurturing curiosity, giving them permission to make mistakes, learning to collaborate with others and develop a whole range of so-called “soft” skills.
