I’ve been following SOHODH on Instagram for the last year and am in love with their rugs. They bring the urban world inside, curating a collection of street art rugs to bring a new lease of life to your home. I got the chance to interview Jacob, the founder of the company whilst he was deployed in Afghanistan which is where he has been working for the last 4 years.
What inspired you to start a bespoke rug company?
I have had a strong affinity for art and design for a very long time. As I was exploring luxury design I saw there was a lapse in progressive art driven products. In 2005 I was researching furniture design with a design firm in San Diego, and in 2006 I moved to New York to work with luxury rugs. In 2007 I designed a few rugs and saw they can be handwoven with great detail. As the years passed, I saw that art and design were converging even more with luxury brands tapping into the urban art-scape. In 2012 while deployed, I picked up what I had started in 2007 and moved SOHODH forward to what it is now…
How do you decide on each rug design?
The curating process is a very visceral process. I mostly go with my gut feeling, I gravitated to my favorite artists first and then expanded the sphere to include new talent, its a learning process. Exciting is the best way to describe it. I use my deep knowledge of rug design and our production capabilities to expand our ever evolving roster of artists…
Is the process as important as the finished design?
The process is very important to not only the finished product but to the designing artist, the end user and SOHODH as a company. I feel the process romanticises the product and gives it a deeper character and richer back story. We are not into mass production, we link artists and artisans from opposites sides of the world. Our rugs are a symbiotic culmination of an international collaboration. We respect the artists’ work by creating a rug that takes as much detailed focus to weave as the artist offered into designing the rug. Our product is obviously very niche and our clients have discerning tastes with higher standards for quality. To them we offer a very high end, heirloom, collector’s product. For us as a brand, the process is important because it represents and defines us. We stand behind our product in more ways than one and if we felt the process was lacking, we would not be in this industry. We are boutique and our products are bespoke, hand crafted.
What plans do you have for the future?
The future is very exciting. We have amazing collaborations in the works, a launch to prepare, and finally a showroom to plan for. We started on a military base in Afghanistan. The term of the deployment ends in March and in Spring of 2014, SOHODH will be functioning on US soil officially for the first time. We have lots of catching up to!
Where can we find you online?
Our best representative web presence is our Instagram. I feel that its the most dynamic, we upload behind the scenes, inspirational and up coming projects. We let the pictures speak for themselves.
Is there anything else you would like to tell us about SOHODH?
Apart from offering our existing rug collection, we also have a very special bespoke production service we offer anyone that is interested. With the same care and attention we offer all of our rugs, an unsigned designer/artist can have their own works hand woven as a rug. We can help with the technical aspects of the designing process, leaving the client to have complete creative freedom. This is really unique as now, anyone can create and produce a high end rug of virtually any size with no minimum orders. We can help launch artists careers. I say this boldly to novice artists curious about branching out, “if you dont invest in yourself, why would anyone else?” With SOHODH’s bespokes services, we help the blossoming artist take steps in the right direction of self/brand proliferation.
Visit SOHODH here
Follow on Instagram @SOHODH
A big thank you for Jacob for taking the time to answer our questions. We have chosen out favourite rugs currently on offer at SOHODH and can’t wait to visit the showroom in the Spring
Lady Coco being made
Dali in production
Mona Lisa
Deathmouse
Diffuse to be released later this year
well why don't you…? 
So proud of you Jacob! Beautiful work!