‘We have pretty much opened our own personal design school over the last couple of years,’ remarks Josh, one half of the design duo whose videos can reach 30 million eyes. Partners in life and creativity, Josh Jessup and Matt Moss are in constant renovation flux, their love for 'curated maximalism, postmodern design, retro-futurism, and eclectic decor' broadcast from Melbourne’s leafy suburbia to the world. Describing their home as the ‘art playground' where ideas and objects flow with fun and constant banter, the focus is on learning and up-cycling with ‘no rules' the ruling mantra. More Space catches up with Josh and Matt to find out how their creative process takes shape, their influences and favourite designs, and what they love about the colourful Moooi Carpets Scribble rug by Swedish designers Front.
MS: Hello Josh and Matt, thanks so much for chatting with More Space.
Behind the scenes of your TikTok and Instagram platform @joshandmattdesign, how does your creative process take shape? It definitely feels like a joyful flow of art curation, stream of consciousness and fun.
Josh: It is a careful balance. There’s obviously planning that goes into it, but you never know what’s around the corner. It all depends on what we thrift or what we find. We don’t really have a long roadmap or content plan, we wake up each day and decide what we want to work on. Then we set our goal and centre a whole vlog around that project. We find this is more in the moment and feels like real life to us, even though we are basically putting everything out there on the internet (laughter).
Do you see your home as a laboratory?
Josh: We call our house the ‘art playground’ because that’s really what it is. It’s constant experimentation. We are quite lucky that we have a relationship dynamic where we egg each other on and there is no idea that is too crazy. It makes it a lot more fun (laughter).
I see you have Moooi’s fabulously quirky Scribble rug by Swedish design group Front. What was it about that rug that appealed?
Josh: I love it. We had been searching for a living room rug for ages, something that captured our personality and youthfulness and how we wanted the direction of our interior to go and we came across this one by Moooi.
Matt: We knew we didn’t want a rectangular rug, we wanted something organic but not too crazy. We love its organic shape. It’s perfect.
Josh: And the colours just go with all the different pieces we have in here, the Togos, the Plume chair, it’s so good.
Matt and Josh's constantly evolving living space filled with collected pieces including the Moooi Scribble Carpet, here and below, designed by Front. Photos c/o Josh and Matt Design.
How is 2024 shaping up for you both?
Josh: It’s only been in the last few months that this blew up, so we are very excited to keep decorating this year and making fun videos.
Matt: To put things into perspective, we had about 700,000 followers on TikTok and now we’re at 2.2 million and that only happened when we started doing our live talking vlogs. Before that we were doing voice overs so there was a bit of a disconnect for our audience.
Josh I feel that people can get to know us more now because we have let our guard down, and that’s what I love. Initially, I was scared showing our personality because I think I am a bit too crazy for most people and I thought they are not going to like it. But they loved it which makes me happy. We don’t have to put on a character, this is who we are.
Can you each describe your design approach, are there similarities as well as differences that you play off one another?
Matt: There are definitely some differences and our process is to bounce ideas around with each other. Our ideas eventually come to a conclusion that works out better that if we had gone with out first impression.
Josh: I think we are also of the mindset that it is always going to change. At night we set aside time to do a little rearranging here and there, it’s just part of our process which is all about experimentation and being at peace with the fact that there’s no point chasing perfection. It’s experimentation and a reflection of who we are.
Josh, I understand you studied architecture and design, Matt what about you?
Matt: I have more of a background in software development and design so it’s definitely a very different aspect, but the processes around creative thinking I have brought into our home. Josh has also taught me a lot of things about interior design. So we have been on a journey of learning as we go.
Josh: I started studying architecture and in my final semester before graduating, I changed to interior design for one semester. When I moved to Melbourne to study interior design I only did if for a month before I quit to focus on our social media career. It was a scary gamble because the traditional road felt safer but I’m very happy.
Moooi Scribble Carpet in the black, green and blue colourway designed by Front. Photo c/o Moooi.
'We call our house the art playground because that’s really what it is. It’s constant experimentation. We are quite lucky that we are in a relationship dynamic where we egg each other on and there is no idea that is too crazy. It makes it a lot more fun.'
Josh Jessup, Josh and Matt Design
I don’t know if you know Nest magazine from the mid-90s. It described modernism as ‘holding people in chains’ and explored interiors as a form of art.
Josh: I love that. It’s exactly how we feel about the interior. It’s a push back against capitalism overall. That’s why we are thrifting, teaching ourselves DIYs and up-cycling, showing that you can do it yourself one step at a time.
Matt: And that’s why we really love the radical design movement of the 70s and 80s. It was pushing back against the norms of design and making it fun.
Can we talk about some of the designers who inspire you the most… Le Corbusier or Frank Lloyd Wright?
Josh: I love Frank Lloyd Wright because of his way of connecting us with nature because that’s very important to us. I love his exploration of materiality too. There will definitely are going to be things we take Inspiration from when we build our own house.
Matt: I feel like his designs were just so ahead of their time, it was absolutely amazing what he was able to do such a long time ago.
Gaetano Pesce or Mario Bellini?
Josh: Oooooh. I do love Pesce’s work… I guess I choose Pesce, but I wish he did more exploration with sustainable materials. I know that’s very important for the next generation and he uses a lot of resin.
Moooi Carpets Scribble rug by Front, and following, all its colour variations. Photos c/o Moooi.
'We knew we didn’t want a rectangular rug, we wanted something organic but not too crazy. We love its organic shape. It’s perfect.'
Matt Moss, Josh and Matt Design
And the influence of American designer Kelly Wearstler?
Josh: It was Kelly Wearstler who gave us the confidence to really go for it back when I was working at Apple fixing i Phones and I lost that job. We were trying to figure out what an earth to do with our lives. We did her Masterclass and that was a light bulb moment. It was what I wanted to do with my life and Matt wanted to do it as well. So, we decided to move to Melbourne and start a little art brand and it just snowballed. It was a life-changing trajectory at a time when we had nothing else to hold onto other than our authenticity and passion.
Do you have time to work on other projects?
Josh: We have started to do other projects but more one-off partnerships.
Matt: We designed an activation space with a kitchen, laundry and lounge room for LG to showcase some of their products.
Josh: And we’ve been in talks with the Hilton Hotels to do something for their lobby. But at this stage, it is more our own house. I’m sure it is something that we want to explore a bit more down the road because I do think we have a unique design perspective to share, but at this stage I love being my own client.
Matt: Our next project will be buying a place and doing a full renovation which will be a very good learning experience for us.
Josh: Our five to 10-year plan is to then buy a piece of land and do a whole Grand Designs dream house.
Matt: We will then embody Bob the Builder for sure!
Thanks so much Josh and Matt, great to chat with you both.
Moooi Carpets are available exclusively from Space – Australia, and Space – Singapore and Malaysia.
