Francois started UM (short for Users & Makers) with a mission – to celebrate the craftmanship behind great design. In Francois’ words: “In music, the musician plays the instrument. But in design, as soon as you start to touch a tool, you become instantly downgraded. You become a nobody. That’s always baffled me.”They are last, [...]
Piet’s conceptual sensibility leads to objects that are hard to forget, such as the Grenade Oil Lamp. Based in Long Island City (where all the studios we’ve seen have superior views, sigh!) he took some time out to discuss his inspiration and process with us.
Grenade Oil Lamp by Piet Houtenbos
Your grenade oil lamp really put [...]
Tags: Accessories, Business, Creative, Design, Interview, Long Island City, New York, Products, RISD
Over the course of this interview, Matthew Fairbank coined the terms “academically roofied” and “wood nerds,” making him my new linguistic hero. On top of having a brilliant way with words, he also has a brilliant way with bandsaws, and wood, and metal, and lacquer.
One of the reasons we started our blog was because it [...]
I was shocked when I discovered that Paul Loebach is based right here in Brooklyn – mainly because his work is so good. He’s exhibited near and far, from Brooklyn Designs to the Milan furniture fair. It’s incredibly inspiring to see American designers emerging that are worthy of international merit. And incredibly convenient when [...]
Uhuru (Pronounced: oo-hoo-roo) was founded in 2004, by Bill Hilgendorf and Jason Horvath. Uhuru is a design + build furniture company dedicated to sustainability and creating timeless designs. Each piece is built by hand in their Brooklyn studio, a huge building right on the water which used to be used for making ship parts. We [...]
Tags: Brooklyn, Business, Creative, Design, Furniture, Interview, Manufacturing, New York, Red Hook, RISD, Sustainability, Woodworking
We met Karl Zahn at the New York Gift Fair last month. He was showing his wooden tools (below) and we may have passed silly/amazing drawings back and forth between our booths to pass the time… But that’s another story.
This story is about how awesome Karl’s work is. He creates conceptual objects that we are [...]
Tags: Brooklyn, Business, Consulting, Creative, Design, Furniture, Greenpoint, Interview, Manufacturing, New York, Products, RISD, Woodworking
David Weeks has built a company designing high-end lighting, and creates whimsical products such as Hanno the Gorilla for Areaware on the side. While he once dreamed of having a clean, white, all-digital office, he’s since realized that’s boring. His true love is dealing with the nitty-gritty details of materials and manufacturing. www.davidweeksstudio.com
You have experience [...]
Alissia is a hotshot designer from Holland who currently resides in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Her products are clever, witty, and have quite a bit of character. We went over to her studio to find out how she’s built her career as an independent designer. www.byamt.com
So how did you get the word out about your first product?
I [...]
Tags: Accessories, Brooklyn, Business, Conceptual, Creative, Design, Dutch, Eindhoven, Greenpoint, Interview, Jewelry, New York, Products, RISD
I discovered the Fuck Off Sarah Palin T-shirt just as my terror at having Palin as a VP was peaking. I thought, if anything captures the zeitgeist right now, it’s this. I wanted to know who was behind it. Kim Berlin is a creative director who decided to get political after she became supremely pissed [...]
