Adventures with Evolvex, Part One

Ordering.

Remember that time I went to the Evolvex website launch? I fell in love with their furniture, but being a poor graduate fumbling through unpaid internships with no actual need for new shelf or table, I couldn’t actually justify buying anything at the time. But now, Evolvex have given me the fantastic opportunity to test out their site, in the form of a store credit, which I am psyched about.

So! This weekend I took another gander at their site, this time with my buying hat on (it’s a fancy hat, made of money) and tried out the Evolvex Builder. I was hoping that they’d made some improvements to it since the last time I visited, but alas, it looked pretty much the same, and just as clunky. I had fallen in love with a stool that doubles as a storage unit that was on display at the pop-up shop, and tried to recreate it in the builder. However, it got too finnicky trying to fit the pieces together and I just gave up in the end. I’ve been told the builder is still buggy, though the team is working on it.

pictorial evidence of my failure

Another one of my issues was that there didn’t seem to be a way to purchase items separately. I  wanted extra panels to play with, but there didn’t really seem to be an official way to purchase them. I contemplated just putting all the extra pieces I wanted into the builder and clicking straight through to the checkout, but it didn’t seem right.

After a quick email, I was told that individual parts would be added to the store in the coming weeks, so that’s a relief. Regarding the Builder, in addition to working out the kinks, I believe they’re working on providing video tutorials, so it’ll be easier to navigate in the future; they’ve got a YouTube channel set up, and are slowly adding more videos, like the one below, so check that out.

But what do we do before then? Luckily, the site does have some pre-designed pieces for sale, which means you can probably skip the Designer altogether and still buy Evolvex’s wares, at least until they figure out a more user-friendly system.

They had a piece for sale that was similar to the stool I wanted in (unsurprisingly) the pop-up shop section of the site. What I wanted was basically a stackable cube with a door and a pillow to turn it into a seat; alas, the stackable cube doesn’t come with a pillow, but green and orange ones were sold separately for $45, again in the pop-up section. Hooray! I added the cube and pillow to my shopping cart, and was on my way.

behold, my purchases!

I already have a desk and bookshelf that serve me well, what I need is a box to hold things, and an extra seat to offer to people who wander into my room. The great thing is, once I move into a bigger (or even smaller) space, I can re-appropriate the box-stool into something else. I can buy more pieces and make a bigger box! or a desk or something. The possibilities are endless.

Anyway, delivery takes about two to three weeks, so stick around for part two of Adventures with Evolvex, where I’ll probably post a video of me trying to assemble this fine piece of furniture. OH WHAT FUN WE HAVE ON THIS BLOG!