Q: What do you do if you are a creative director and graphic designer with a passion for music, a huge vinyl collection, but nowhere to store your records?

A: Make your own handcrafted boxes – and then sell them to other vinyl nuts. 

Nigel Moore, 35, spent time last year searching for record storage units he liked for his 1000-strong vinyl collection. When he failed to find what he was looking for, he designed and created his own poplar plywood cubed storage units and wood dividers, launching “Divide & Conquer” on June 29.

Divide & Conquer is a passion project for Moore, whose day job is as the founding creative director of Modena Creative Boutique, a creative, brand and design studio based in Auckland.

“Statistics are showing a massive increase in vinyl music sales locally and internationally so I thought maybe there would be other collectors interested in such a product,” Moore says.

“Massive” is relative, when it comes to record purchases. In the 1970s sales rose to close to $525 million a year, before falling to virtually nothing in the 2000s. So the huge percentage increases are still nowhere near reaching the earlier levels – but Moore argues the vinyl nuts who remain might be prepared to pay big money for the perfect storage.

Moore’s boxes are priced at $155.95 each and hold 45 vinyl records. Want dividing pieces? That’s an additional $125.95 for a set of six.
Moore handcrafts his boxes here in Auckland, sourcing the poplar wood from New Zealand.
“They require a human touch to achieve the final results.”

Initially he tried to produce his dividers locally, but couldn’t find facilities able to offer scale at a reasonable price.Instead he sources his dividers and birch wood from suppliers in Hungary.

Meanwhile the wheels give the units “more presence,” as well as being practical.

Moore says he believes the aesthetic will fit well with cafes and homes, and chose the wood over metal because of wood “looking great and being light in colour so the lettering system is highly visible.”  

He hopes Divide & Conquer will eventually “cover as many angles as people will want,” such as a combinations of cubes and sizes. He also wants to expand the range of dividers, offering genres (rock, blues, alternative etc), as well as alphabetical classification.

The “pipe-dream” is to develop Divide & Conquer to provide record players and amps to collectors like himself.