About Nonexistent Instruments

Nonexistent Instruments is born from love: the love of inventing and making, the love of exploration and play, the love of design and creation. Most technology companies chase the cutting edge, but we're going in the opposite direction, exploring hidden caves instead. Forgotten analog realms.

Our first product, Coils, is a good example of our approach. It is based on one of the simplest electronic components of all, the electromagnetic coil. It's really just some wire wrapped around a piece of metal. A kind of fancy rock.

And yet, through the act of exploration and play, we've discovered an unexplored application that turns these simple components into a modular system of physical audio processors.

The coil is ubiquitous in today's world, from the turbines that power the grid to the motors in your car to the speaker in your phone, coils show up everywhere. Every audio engineer knows what they do.

We're going against the grain in terms of product design. You're supposed to identify a market with a need, then satisfy that need for money, but we're coming at this the other way around. Instead, we're starting with our own desire to make things in the world, to rethink what technology might be, and to change the world a tiny bit in the process.

Ron Luther is an industrial designer and musician with a deep love for material exploration, advanced manufacturing and human centred design.

Frederick Brummer is a graphic designer, musician & artist with a love for making and invention.