“It was written in the stars,” that’s what Eyal Shoam tells me when I ask him about how he became involved with Artemano. We are sitting in his office, talking and enjoying the warm tea that he so graciously made a few minutes earlier. It’s the perfect antidote for this cold February morning. I’m grateful that Eyal offered to make it and appreciate the kindness of his simple gesture.
A couple of weeks before, when I first met Eyal, I thought him shy. Now after spending the morning with him, my view has shifted. Initially he comes off as quiet and perhaps reserved, but as I go ahead and unleash my list of questions upon him, his answers don’t come out short or to the point. Rather, they’re lengthy and elaborate. I see a different Eyal; one who becomes animated and talkative as he shares his story with me. My curiosity is peaked and I become engrossed in all he has to divulge.
Before Artemano, Eyal’s life had been fulfilling. He had plenty of business and managerial experience. This is a man who following his military service and a eight month trip to India and Indonesia funded his education (he holds a degree in Landscape Architectural Design) by managing 21 premium ice cream parlours owned by a top Israeli company; a man whose entrepreneurial spirit led him to open up and operate his own coffee shops; a man who oversaw more than one hundred employees for one of Israel’s top department stores and who also managed a tourist resort on the Dead Sea. But as Eyal tells me, “everything I did so far prepared me for this stage of my life.”
I can’t argue with his claim that the stars aligned themselves for him and Shimon to meet. Eyal had recently moved to Canada with his wife and three year old daughter. He was about to embark on a new business venture - the opening of a décor store, a franchise with headquarters in Israel. But then he met Shimon at a dinner party held in the home of a mutual acquaintance and the rest as Eyal says “is history”.
Having always appreciated beauty and aesthetics, Artemano has provided Eyal with the opportunity to hone his ability of conceptualization and try his hand - quite successfully if I may add- at design. When I ask him about how much of a role he plays in designing Artemano’s collections, he humbly responds, that “there are many more famous, intelligent and talented designers around us.” Eyal may be modest, yet he’s responsible for bringing products to life. And he isn’t afraid to get his hands dirty. He makes it a point to visit factories in Thailand and Indonesia, where he will sit on the floor with carpenters and test the thickness of shelves, ensure that hinges work and that a door will open properly.
What results is pure pride and immense gratification because as he explains to me, “there’s no bigger satisfaction that the feeling when you know that you’ve touched someone’s life without even them knowing it. Yet they’re taking home a piece that I’ve known from the moment it was conceived in my mind, to the moment they walk out of the store with it.” Indeed, for Eyal this is just part of what drives and pushes him forward. This and so much more.
Stay tuned for Eyal’s story – Part Two