#MadeForMakers: Noah Marion

Originally published on The Makery

By Samantha Reichstein

One man’s trash is another man’s treasure, or at least that’s how it started for this creative Austinite.

Noah Marion recalls his mother taking out the bags of “junk” from his room in the middle of the night when he was just a young child. What started out as a love for collection transformed into a passion for art, which he quickly realized wasn’t going away any time soon. After graduating from Tulane with a focus in conceptual art structure, Marion decided to take things a step further by starting his own interior design firm, evolving into Austin’s well-known brand Noah Marion Quality Goods.

We sat down with this eclectic artist to learn his love for leather, creative taste for coffee and what being a maker means to him.

"A year of obsessively designing 30 products to launch a line and learning how to be a leather worker along the way, that also was part of it," says Marion on starting his own business.
“A year of obsessively designing 30 products to launch a line and learning how to be a leather worker along the way, that also was part of it,” says Marion on starting his own business.

1. What inspired you to create your own brand?

After college I realized if I wasn’t going to be a professor or find some sugar-momma to pay for my art, I’d have to do something. I began an interior design firm and started making mine and my client’s surroundings more artful and functional and then…I needed a new wallet. I scoured the world wide web for the right one and was less-than-enthused. So I set upon designing my own! That’s how it all began.

2. Was a business in Austin always the plan?

I am from Austin and couldn’t imagine starting my life or a business elsewhere. I’m inspired by function, form and the things made well in the years before I got on this earth. 

3. If you had to describe yourself in three words, which would you choose?

Passionate. Creative. Droll.

Marion makes sure each of his pieces is unlike anything else on the market.
Marion makes sure each of his pieces is unlike anything else on the market.

4. What lead to a focus in leather goods?

I just really felt like taking out the research and development part of product design and embracing the immediate comfort and nostalgia apparent in leather. That’s why I chose leather. That and it’s also so amazing to smell and touch! 

5. How do you drink your coffee?

It depends on my mood! Sometimes iced black cold brew, sometimes a Cortado; a good chemex drip is always a treat and then at night I’m really loving iced vietnamese. 

A strong cup of Chameleon keeps Marion focused and energized.
A strong cup of Chameleon Cold-Brew keeps Marion focused and energized.

6. What does being a “maker” mean to you?

I guess I’d say that I’m just happy to be in a world that now recognizes and supports the concept of using human hands to make things better and more genuinely than in the past two decades. I’m just fortunate to get to make things, that’s all really. 

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