3rd Ward gives a free bike to each of their members.

How did 3rd Ward start? What’s the beginning of the story?

Wow. OK. In 2004, a bunch of other artists and I moved to New York from Boston. We moved in together in this big loft, and we thought, “We’re all going to become New York City art stars!”

Of course!

Right? And then we got hit with all these harsh New York realities. The cost of real estate down here was out of control, so we ended up way out in the middle of nowhere in a warehouse. Nobody could find work. Nobody was getting along. “Dude, you didn’t pay rent!” or “You broke my shit!” It was totally like a reality show.

For work, Jeremy and I started doing some construction jobs. We did a lot of work for this one guy who had a bunch of real estate. At the same time, we were still trying to do our own artwork and design work. We had a lot of problems finding the resources we needed. We needed access to a shop. We needed a place to do photo and video shoots. We needed access to good enough computers to do retouching. We thought, “Man, I wish there was a place that I could go do that.”

One day I just pitched our idea to the real estate guy. I said, “Look, I know it would work because I personally need this and there’s other people out here like me.” And he said OK. He had just bought the building that 3rd Ward’s in now. He asked me how it was going to work and I said, “How about you build everything out to our specs and pay for it all, and then we’ll pay you rent.”

So he did it?

He did it, and we opened in May 2006. And then we could never pay rent! We started throwing parties for rent. I was giving him his rent money in brown paper bags that had beer-soaked cash. So that’s how we got started. There’s a long way from the day we opened to now. We’re way stable now.

How did you get past the phase of figuring out how you were going to pay rent?

Basically by learning how to serve our members. We’re customer obsessed at 3rd Ward. It’s part of our culture. We are there to serve this community of people. And we are always figuring out how to do that. If we build something that doesn’t work, we rip it out. We had a whole dance program, it wasn’t working, so we just ripped that whole room out and added a lot more to the shop.

You have to keep listening to people and responding to them. We are our members. There is no 3rd Ward without them. We have to provide resources that members want to come and pay for. So we obsess over keeping them happy and making it more and more productive for them.

What was the hardest part of stabilizing?

There are a couple things that are really challenging. First of all, you’re always treading water trying to get money in the door. You have to learn how to be a business person really fast. I really wasn’t. So I got my indie-MBA on the streets of Williamsburg! Understanding cash flows and all that.

Then there’s learning to really look down the road long-term. What we’re going to do today, we’re not going to feel until 6 months from now. You have to think, “How are all these moving parts going to impact each other in 6 months?” You don’t want to fall into short-term thinking, where something might seem good right now but is going to hurt you down the road.

The front desk at 3rd Ward.

Can you walk us through all the different services 3rd Ward offers?

It’s a lot of interrelated resources that are under one roof – two roofs now. A big thing that we do is desk space for freelancers. All the furniture is there, all the internet is there, all the utilities are there, basic secretarial stuff is there, there’s always a lobby for clients to wait. We take your mail and packages, that kind of stuff.

We have four photo studios – there’s a lot of photographers who sign up for membership just based on that. We have a huge shop. There’s a digital media lab, which is free for all members to use whenever they want. And then we do a lot of classes.

The class program that we have at 3rd Ward is massive. The woodworking classes, the welding classes, and our core digital design classes, always fill up. We also try to do weird stuff, you know? We’re always trying new classes, and some work and some don’t. We know that and we’re comfortable with that. Somebody once said, “You have to learn to see failure as progress.” We believe that at 3rd Ward. We’ll always try new stuff. We did bag building, which was really popular. Screenprinting is really popular.

What are the plans for this second location?

There’s a drop-in co-working space, where you can just show up with your laptop and work. There’s a bunch of desk space and work studios. We’re going to have a couple new classroom spaces. Down the road there will probably be a real screenprinting setup. And we’re putting in a commercial kitchen and doing culinary classes. I’m really excited about the culinary program. It’s more universal, you know what I mean?

We’ve noticed a few people in Brooklyn starting up food companies, it’s pretty cool.

It’s true. There’s actually a kind of renaissance of culinary stuff happening in Brooklyn right now. I’m good friends with the guys at Roberta’s. They have a little farm in the backyard, and they have beehives on our roof.

Do you want to keep 3rd Ward in New York? Have you thought about expanding outside?

Yeah, I have thought about it, but we have a lot of work to do here. We get courted by a lot of people. Somebody from the Detroit government called me and was like, “Please come to Detroit. I’ll do all these great things for you guys.” But I can’t just go to Detroit. I am of this community. I know these people. I don’t know what’s going on in Detroit. So the short answer is, we’re focusing on New York right now. The long answer is, wherever we’re needed. 3rd Ward Moscow!

Jason Goodman and Jeremy Lovitt at 3rd Ward. [photo via NY Mag]

What’s been your happiest moment so far with 3rd Ward?

There’s this whole economy that happens, where the jewelry designer hires a photographer to shoot her work. And then the woodworker goes to the metal guy and says, “Hey, I’ve got this table I need to make. I’m doing the wood work on the top, but the client wants a steel base. ” It happens every single day, all the time. Seeing that happen is pretty magical. And giving the free bikes out was pretty exciting. I don’t know if you guys know about that.

I saw the sign outside and I was wondering about it.

Last year I was thinking, “What is another thing I can do to enrich my members?” and the lightbulb went off. “What if I could give everybody a good, urban bike for New York City? That would be amazing.” We threw a huge party and we were like, “Free bikes from now on!” The bikes are single-speed, so they can’t really break. They have a nostalgic old Schwinn frame look, set up for a street bike – skinny tires and straight bars. It’s something that meant a lot to our members, and it also did something good for the world. Every bike on the street is better. Every day with that is progress.

Absolutely. You guys are doing amazing things.

I have a super awesome team of brains. We have a really creative culture in the office. There aren’t a lot of rules, and we don’t need a lot of rules, because we’re all really engaged with what we’re doing. I would never be where we are today without them.

And we have a great front desk crew. We’re staffed from 8am to midnight every day. They’re constantly taking care of our members. Whether people need food delivered, or to packages coming in, or a circuit blew. We make it so you don’t have to worry about if the roof’s going to leak, or if the circuit’s going to pop, or if your delivery guy’s not going to be able to get in. You can focus on what’s in front of you right now and making this photograph happen, or whatever it is that you do.

Handmade Music at 3rd Ward.

We may have been late to the party, but we’re making up for it by bringing you an interview with the founders, Serap Demirag and Deger Cengiz, about how they started and their vision for the space.

You’ve got a great group of designers in here. How did you go about finding the people you wanted to work with?

We researched and came up with 35 different designers. Then we called them one by and one, and visited their studios. I’ll be honest with you, when I first came up with the idea, I though the designers would have huge egos and rock star personalities – but every time we left a studio, we’d be overwhelmed by how nice they were.

What made you decide to open a furniture store?

I saw this beautiful table by Palo Samko at the Architectural Digest show. I was so drawn to it. Then I realized he was a Brooklyn designer – I didn’t even know Brooklyn had a design scene! That started everything.

I started looking into it, going to BKLYN Designs, and realized how much much talent is here. And I realized how much beautiful furniture there is that’s not being showcased. I wanted to open a store in Williamsburg to show it. I’d already been in the home furnishings field for 15 years. I loved furniture, I knew about it. I realized opening a store was too much work for one person, so I asked my friend Deger if he wanted to be partners. He jumped right in, and we started doing it together.

[image via Apartment Therapy]

I found the space last March. It was still under construction, so there was some time for us to prepare. Initially I was going to open in October, but it was postponed, which was good because that was the worst time in the economy.

Why weren’t these great pieces already represented in showrooms?

Since the work is made locally, out of beautiful materials, it makes the pieces very expensive. It’s expensive for the designer to even sell to customers directly. And normal showrooms need to mark up the prices two or two-and-a-half times to be able to make money and take the risk of buying a piece of furniture. With that kind of markup, these pieces become so expensive they are unsellable.

[image via Apartment Therapy]

So how have you gotten around that problem at VOOS?

We came up with the idea of making this more like an art gallery. We take a small commission, and sell the pieces at their list prices. Then we approached designers with the idea, and they loved it. We asked each designer to show us what they already had in stock, and picked from those pieces for our initial opening inventory.

Moving forwards, we are going to switch out the pieces in the space every two months or so, to showcase more of their work. The idea is to sell a designer’s pieces off the floor, to give them the means to make something new.

Also, since all the designers are local, they can customize their pieces. If a customer comes in here and wants a coffee table longer or shorter, or in a different material, it’s possible. We’re the place for those kinds of things. Anyone can come here, talk to us about what they’d like, and we can help them work with the designers to get exactly what they want.

[image via Apartment Therapy]

I love the concept. You’re not just a store – you’re also a community resource.

People like to know about the designers. We can tell you how Takeshi works right down the block. Every piece has it’s story, and we know it because we are friends with the designers. People like that. It makes it all much more personal.

Now I feel this pressure – we really need to make it for the designers we represent. Some of them are expecting babies. Some just became dads, others are having another child. They’re real people.

How do you want VOOS to grow?

We need to become a destination for interior designers and architects. What I didn’t realize was going to be so difficult, is bringing the Manhattanites into Brooklyn. Our real clientele, who is going to buy the $9,000 table, usually uses an interior designer. That’s why we need to get them to know about us.

People are starting to hear our name though, and once it really sticks in their mind it will be easier. You can see these are very beautiful, solid pieces. They are not just a fun design. We passionately love the work that is made here.

[image via The Architect's Newspaper]

Rite of Spring cantilevered storage by Takeshi Miyakawa

The Rite of Spring piece you showed at BKLYN Designs is incredible. How did that come about?

BKLYN Designs and ICFF both don’t have pieces like this. People just have a booth to sell their products. I decided to do an installation like this on a bigger scale, something more interactive that can inspire people .

If you go to Milan, which I haven’t, but I’ve heard stories about how they have many amazing installations. I wanted to do something like that. Not quite the same because I don’t have that kind of budget. If you spend $100,000, you can do something impressive, no matter what. I wanted to see what we could do with, say, $1,000. The idea was to do something really unique using a minimum budget and minimum material. Our ceilings aren’t high enough in the studio, so we asked the landlord to let us us build it in the loading dock! I think it came out quite successfully.

It’s not like anything I’ve ever seen before. It is inspiring. I think that’s one good thing about this recession – it’s an opportunity to prove that you can still do great things without throwing a lot of money around.

You just have to have a good idea – a good concept.

Used To Be Affordable Housing cabinet by Takeshi Miyakawa

How do you come up with your concepts?

I think it depends on the project. Some of the ideas come from purely geometric studies. Some of them are based more on the shapes of nature. Or some of them, like this one, the Used To Be Affordable Housing cabinet, come from my observation of the world around me. Fragments of my daily life.

Gang of Four, that bookshelf you see [below], that’s four pieces together, and they’re leaning against each other. So individually, they do not work as a free-standing piece. Same with these chairs – they do not have any back legs, but they’re leaning against each other. That’s why I named them Family Chairs.

Suck Your Friend’s Money is very conceptual, more of a statement about design and the recession, like your Dow Jones Hanky.

Suck Your Friend’s Money – a sculptural piece in which quarters run through the elaborately constructed path. The track is built so that all smaller coins are rejected and returned. The owner gets to collect their friends’ money.

Did you study design?

I studied architecture a long time ago in Tokyo. After architecture school, I went to work for a construction company for years, and then I came to New York. About a year later I found a job in this cabinet shop, here in Williamsburg, and that’s when I thought, “This is what I want to do for the rest of my life.”

So what brought you to New York?

I was just fascinated by the city. Everything – the music, the people. I came here when I was in college, and I was just captured by it. I knew I was going to go back to Tokyo, but I decided to come back here some day.

Fractal 23 by Takeshi Miyakawa

When did you start making your furniture?

That was about 8 years ago. I first set up my shop in Tribeca. Slowly. I didn’t have any finance. Luckily I know many architects and interior designers, so they asked me to do some things for their clients. I don’t have any mass-produced pieces, yet. So everything I do is custom, made-to-order.

Do you want to head towards mass production?

Yeah, I feel that’s the only way I can survive. I am lucky to have a job I can work half my time at Rafael Viñoly Architects, making architectural models. That allows me to do more experimental things here. But many designers I know just end up being custom fabricators. It’s not easy to continue designing & selling your own stuff.

Rabbit Chair by Takeshi Miyakawa – Folding children’s chair

Have you had any manufacturers approach you?

Well last year, since the show went so well, I was about to contact somebody. And then the economy crashed, so it wasn’t good timing to talk to anybody. Now, I think the economy is going up a bit, so hopefully I will find someone to work with. I think the studio is in transition right now, from custom fabrication to mass-production. I think I will continue doing both sculptural pieces and more commercial work.

Gang of Four leaning bookshelves by Takeshi Miyakawa

Parlor Secrets by Eskayel

Going into this series of interviews, I knew nothing about wallpaper. It really wouldn’t have occurred to me as a decorating option. Hearing about it from all of you guys is so much fun!

I don’t think wallpaper occurs to a lot of people. I think that’s why BKLYN DESIGNS will be good, to get the idea in people’s minds. So you’re interviewing other wallpaper people?

Yeah, we’re covering four wallpaper designers.

Katie from Grow House Grow is really sweet. She helped me a lot. And the other girl, Jill Malek, helped Katie. Jill got her set up with her printer, and helped her with getting a business license. So Katie said to me, “Jill helped me so much, now I want to help somebody!” She sent me emails with all the information I needed to get started.

Will BKLYN DESIGNS be your first trade show?

Yes. I’m kind of “officially” launching. I’ve been doing this on the side for about a year. A shop in London recently decided to carry it, and that encouraged me to really push this. I think doing a trade show is the way to push it forward, because I don’t exactly know how to market it to interior designers. My background is fine art and graphic design.

How do you develop your patterns?

I scan pieces of my paintings in and flip them around. Sometimes it’s obvious how they come from the paintings, and sometimes I just take tiny pieces and rearrange them. I flip it around, mirror it, and turn it into a pattern. Let me show you a painting… This one’s really obvious. This is the painting that made the pattern that’s up on my wall.

It would be impossible to screen print these – there are so many different colors, and they blend into each other – so it’s digitally printed.

What made you think, “I should turn my paintings into wallpaper.”

Sometimes I would have to scan my paintings, and since I have a small scanner, I’d have to scan them in pieces. I had these pieces, and they looked like really cool designs all by themselves. I do a lot of graphic design, so I wanted to play with patterns. I just made a lot of patterns on my computer. And every time I looked at them I thought, “These would make cool wallpaper.”

I used to live her with my ex-boyfriend, and when he moved out I felt like, “I want to redecorate the whole place!” So one of the first things I did was to try to make my wallpaper. I worked with this printer, and she said, “Yeah, you could totally do that.” She knew the paper to use, etc. I put it up on my wall, and I liked it, and that was that.

When did you start selling it to other people?

Everyone who saw it said, “You should do something with this.” So I started making wallpaper to hang behind my paintings in exhibitions. They’re not like these – they’re a lot more psychedelic and crazy. They’re not designed for a home, they’re for a really funky gallery space. And from that, somebody asked me to do something for their shop.

Then I decided, maybe I should try to do patterns that would be more for the home. I developed patterns on the computer, and got good feedback from people, so I printed some. My new collection is the Frontier Collection, and it’s inspired by Native American patterns, African patterns and tribal stuff. The earlier collection is called the Opulence Collection. It was inspired by the Victorian era.

Ivory Outpost by Eskayel

What are you looking to get out of BKLYN DESIGNS?

I want to get in front of interior designers. I think what I’m doing is pretty unique – there’s nothing else like it. It’s special, and I like customizing it for different spaces. I can change the colors to match a specific project. And I like the idea of working with scale. Because a lot of the repeats on my wallpaper are really big, just buying a roll doesn’t really work, because it needs to match up.

What I’ve done for most of my clients up until now is, they tell me the dimension of the wall they want it on, and I make it so that it fits that wall exactly. I have it cut to the right amount, so there’s no excess, and so that the pattern is symmetrical.

I’ve always wanted to do my own thing. And I have done it – I’ve done t-shirt companies, and other projects, but nothing seemed like it was going to work the way this does.

Tiger’s Eye by Eskayel

[picture via eater.com]

egg restaurant
135a north 5th st.
brooklyn, ny 11211
(718) 302 5151
www.pigandegg.com

Tell us about the concept behind Egg.

The idea that we started with was breakfast. It made sense for me as a Southerner. I wanted to do really straightforward, refined meals that focused on fresh ingredients, and stripped away a lot of the kitsch that is associated with Southern food. You go into some “Southern” places, and everything has some 10-mile name about your Grandmother’s kitchen. I wanted food that could stand on its own. I’ve always believed Southern cooking is a legitimate, free-standing traditional cuisine, and I wanted to honor it in its pure form.

When we started serving lunch and dinner, we kept to that same idea, but it became a little bit more complicated. Breakfast is really stable, it’s always the same kind of food. With dinner and lunch, I drew from the way my grandmother lived, and how my mother wanted to – growing the stuff in your garden, being seasonal, using fresh ingredients. I think Southern food gets misunderstood as being heavy, crap buffet food from chain restaurants – but I knew, from the way my family operated, that it wasn’t that.

What brought you to New York?

I’ve always felt that if you grew up in the South, there aren’t a lot of cities to move to besides New York. In some ways it feels Southern, and it has all the kind of creative energy you want.

I was in grad school in Virginia, getting a PHD in literature, when realized I hated teaching. My wife had also just finished a graduate degree, and it was like, well we can stay in Charlottesville, or we can move to New York while we still can. So we moved up here. I assumed I would write or work for a magazine, but I couldn’t get a job. I ended up working for an internet company, and then for a friend of mine, who finally, mercifully, laid me off.

[picture via nytimes.com]

Then I had this idea that I would write a novel, and if in a year, I didn’t at least have interest from an agent, I would start a restaurant. I mean it didn’t make any sense- it was like if you can’t get the one really hard thing to work, try the next really hard thing with a high failure rate!

When the year ended, my neighbors had a restaurant. It opened at noon, and they knew I wanted to start something, so they asked if I wanted to start something in the mornings in their place. I don’t really think they expected me to say yes, but I thought why not? I started out and I thought I would do it for a year or two, as an alternative to going to cooking school. Learn about the business, and then get an entry level job at someone else’s restaurant. But it kind of got bigger then I thought.

How did you get the word out about Egg?

It helped to open in another restaurant, but not as much as I thought it would help. My main strategy was just to be patient. Especially in Williamsburg, you see restaurants that open and close every three to four weeks. I just hung tight and hoped that word of mouth would get it out. I think we had one day where we distributed postcards that explained what we were doing, and it snowballed. It would build up a bit, then scale back, then build up a little more.

You must get a lot of foot traffic considering the location.

Well, again, not as much as we thought we would. I thought we would get a lot of breakfast people on the way to the train, but 25 yards off Bedford Avenue is too far to go. It ended up being alright though, because we’re really more suited to sit-down meals.

The nice thing about New York is that you can be really focused here, and find a niche audience. If I was doing this Charleston, where my family is, there would be 60 people in the town that were interested in what I’m doing. There’s more people in Williamsburg than in the city that I grew up. That’s the real bonus to being in a saturated place.

How did you go about designing the place?

It’s a little embarrassing actually… I used to think of myself as a big design nut, but as soon as I started doing the restaurant I couldn’t tackle it all. I basically took the space as it was, and stripped stuff out. For me it’s more about the food – thats what people come for.

What has been the biggest challenge for you?

For a long time, especially when we shared the space with another restaurant, I was in there all the time. I made everything that came out of the kitchen, I didn’t have to worry about quality control or the way I related to the people who worked there. Now that it’s grown, I can’t be there all the time. A big challenge is learning how to deal with delegating responsibility. Not doing it all myself is really hard, and has taken me a while to see ways it can be fulfilling.

If I made someone’s food, and they sent it back, I would find out why and challenge myself to make it better. I was into it. Now, when its why are my employees unhappy, or why are people fighting, the satisfaction I get from solving that problem is not nearly as immediate. Now that I’ve had it for three and a half years, I’ve just realized it’s a business, and I have to run it like one.

What are your goals for where all this could head?

Well, we bought a farm in December, a year ago. I thought, we’re making food, we’re buying it from farms, but I want to grow it.

I don’t really know what form it’s going to end up taking, but I have this idea that we could have a totally self-contained system. It would never actually be like that, because there’s lots of stuff we’ll still have to buy from other people, but if I could find a way to make the whole pipeline sustainable, that would be ideal.

I did think about opening another restaurant, but trying to replicate Egg just seems like more of my time would be spent doing the business end. I still want to learn more and focus on other things. I know learning business is learning too, but I’d much rather learn just enough of that to make the rest of it work.

What do you consider to be your greatest success so far?

I kind of just feel amazed that it’s open, and people still seem to like it. The one thing I live in constant fear of is the, “You know it used to be great, and its not any good anymore.” The extent that I’ve kept that from happening; that’s the thing I’m happiest about. I also feel proud that we’ve had some part in drawing attention to people making cool things – like the woman that makes our hams. It feels really cool to have some part in making people more visible.

What’s your advice for someone who wants to work for themselves and do their own projects?

A lot of it’s kind of trite. Obviously you have to really love what your doing, otherwise you’re going to be miserable. Unless you have that prospect of making gazillions of dollars… I don’t know what else
could draw you through all the time in the beginning when you’re waiting for someone to come in or log on.

You’ve got to be patient with yourself, and realize it’s going to take you a lot of time to get it right. Sometimes you’re going to fail, but you’re in it for the long haul. If you believe in your idea then there’s no amount of work you’re not going to do, to make it happen. I know thats what everybody in every self-help book says, but it’s the truth!

[George also has the cutest little girl ever!]

Sonic Design
181 North 11 Street
Brooklyn, NY 11211
(718) 387-7927
www.sonicny.com

How did you get into design?

Growing up, my dad had a shop at home. He built anything and everything in that house, which meant that we always had all these tools around. Eventually I started to build things too – a bicycle, a trailer, a tandem, tree houses, another tandem. One day I saw a report on TV for a guy that designed a chainsaw, I thought – I could do that too, so I went to school for it.

What prompted you to make the switch from employee to self-employed?

In Germany I worked for Interform- it was a small studio with eight people. Actually, they we’re pretty big until Frog came around. Interform hired me because the boss wanted someone fresh and unspoiled, who wasn’t already a part of the machine. It was good money and a lot of responsibility. I was writing proposals, doing business development, presentations – not a lot of design. After five years with them I couldn’t handle the stress, I needed to get out, so I took six months and came here. I joined another commercial office, did five more years, and then started Sonic. I wanted to run a firm that was young, fresh, dynamic, and creative, with no one telling me what to wear.

And your first clients were…

My first client was one I took over form the company I left. That’s how most people start. Though it was harder having come from Germany – I didn’t have any connections to start with. The client was this noise cancellation company – they’d liked my work, but things had gotten messy with them and my previous employer, and they’d bailed. When I called them up and said I’d started my own company, they started giving me work. After that I freelanced. I had my own company but no clients, so I did subcontracting for the big brand agencies- a lot of structural packaging. Frog, Ideo, Smart – worked for all of them.

Who would you consider your biggest – breakthrough client?

I would say its probably Target. The prescription drug bottle I did made it into MoMA’s permanent collection while I’m still alive. I had already quite a few awards on my belt including IDEA Silver for Heavy Equipment and Medial Design, but the bottle was all over the press. If you want to know the story…

We want to know.

“Well this is the original design,” Klaus says pointing to a D-shaped bottle. Deborah Adler, a student at the time, had a grandma who’d miss medicated. She took the wrong pill because she couldn’t see the label clearly. Deborah then had the idea to come up with a flat and color-coded label system, making the bottle easier to read.

She pitched her idea to Target – but people didn’t like the look, nor was the bottle closure child-resistant, so I got brought in and proposed to design a new bottle from scratch.

I worked with three people for six weeks developing a new medication and labeling system for Target. The biggest innovation was the label that went over the top. It streamlines the pharmacy operation so they’re just dealing with one sticker – not six. I met Deborah only after we presented our revolutionary up-side-down bottle to the project team. Target called me up one day and told me she was coming over to see the design, and that she was going to be involved in the graphics. Things moved forward, we dealt with manufacturing – and the bottle went into production.

After it came out, I saw a Target advertisement in Vanity Fair with photos of my bottle and Deborah, describing the entire design and shape as her invention. Target pushed the story of the sick grandma and student inventor hard and the bottle was all over the press. She was on national TV and public radio and if I was mentioned at all, I was credited for turning her bottle up side down. I start calling people, the magazine, Target, telling them that I was the designer of the bottle – it was really just a mess. I can’t even tell you how many letters I’ve written to various publications trying to get credit for my work – some of them listen.

Eventually, after I made enough noise, Target called and told me, in fewer words, that I’d get fired if I kept talking to the press. They wanted me to be the ghostwriter for the product, and for the girl with the story to be the hero.

Of course now that I’m looking back at my career, this is just one of many projects, awards and patents. And I am quite pleased that the MOMA gave me full credit for designing the bottle.

What has been your favorite object you designed?

I did a home security system. It was for this start up company – four guys. They really respected me, and what I did. Once they even bought a key chain remote control from Taiwan, to be sold with the system I was working on. When I saw it, I told them it was ugly, so we redid it. When your working with start-ups your design has much more influence over the company, over their future branding, then with larger companies. It can be really exciting.

Do you have any advice for design grads looking to find work at a consultancy?

If you’re an in house designer – you’re going to have a more standard workday. That’s just how it is. Consultancy can be brutal, but it also means exposure to different projects. How boring would it be to become the guy that just sits around and designs toasters. Here we have a never-ending variety, and when I’m interviewing, I usually know in the first five minutes it someone can do that. You can tell if someone is born to be a designer or not.