Our Story

A Letter from the Founder

Hi, I’m Matt.

I’ve always been drawn to objects that feel right: mechanisms that turn smoothly, textures that invite touch, small details that make something satisfying to hold or use. Long before I ever designed anything professionally, I found comfort in small tactile moments. They helped me focus, breathe, and settle when the world felt too loud.

It took me a long time to understand why those moments mattered so much. I’m not formally diagnosed, but I live with many of the day-to-day challenges that people with ADHD and autism describe: overwhelm, sensory fatigue, and the constant need to fidget just to stay grounded. Creating things with my hands became a way to navigate that, a way to make sense of myself, as much as to make objects.

I spent years teaching neurodiverse students, helping them find their strengths through design, games, and creativity. It was meaningful work, but also demanding, and eventually I realised something important:
I wanted to build a life where design wasn’t the thing I squeezed into the edges of my day. It was the centre.

That realisation became The Quiet Forge.

I started by designing the tools I wished existed. The Anchor was the first: calm, balanced, steady. Then came The Spark: energetic, textured, something you can’t help but interact with. Each one is engineered with intention, not as novelty toys, but as tactile objects that support focus, grounding, and flow.

But The Quiet Forge has grown into more than product design. It’s become a studio where I can explore characters, stories, and worlds, like Biscuit, the anxious dragon who finds comfort in his orb. These creations give shape to something I believe deeply: that softness, imagination, and gentle design can make everyday life feel a little more manageable.

Today, The Quiet Forge is my way of sharing that philosophy with others. Whether I’m developing a client’s idea, sculpting a new creature, or refining a focus orb, the goal is the same:
to design things that feel good to hold, easy to understand, and emotionally resonant.

If something I create brings someone calm, delight, or a moment of stillness, then the studio is doing exactly what it was meant to do.

From stillness, sparks.

— Matt