Imagination is a fun game to play, and can result in interesting products brought about by unusual inspirations or strange combinations. Architecture has evolved so much over time and over space, but here’s a look at NeoMam Studios’ vision if American architecture fully embraced the Gothic movement. The guys at NeoMam took a look at famous structures, taking their original styles and replacing its flavor with that of Gothic architecture. The Golden Gate Bridge’s (above) art deco style was replaced with gothic sensibilities, making it almost look British in certain ways. The Guggenheim museum’s spiral architecture courtesy Frank Lloyd Wright gets a gothic makeover too, with intricate artwork and even the inclusion of grotesques and gargoyles for extra charm! The Chrysler building too sees a redesign, with its tall windows almost complementing the building’s long, elegant form. Scroll further down and you’ve got the Lincoln Memorial’s neoclassical style given its gothic twist (with gargoyles at the corners of the building’s terrace too!) Perhaps the most unusual is Seattle’s Space Needle, with its strange combination of modern and age-old styling, while the most natural transition perhaps belongs to Cleveland’s Terminal Tower that looks like a grand old cathedral. We end with the United States Air Force Academy Cadet Chapel in Colorado, a building that’s iconic and beautiful in its own right with 17 glass and aluminum spires that are each composed of 100 tetrahedrons. Its gothic revival looks at the use of stone and stained glass, completely changing the modernist building to something medieval, yet perhaps just as beautiful!
IAMRUNBOX first caught our attention when they announced their first backpack. We were intrigued by a backpack designed for commuters who run to work instead of commuting via subway, car or bus, as running poses a completely new challenge for backpack designers. Needless to say, we were curious to see how the brand would play out. Now, IAMRUNBOX has taken to Kickstarter to introduce the Spin bag, a stylish, more design-focused approach to the commuting or traveling backpack:
The Spin bag features a roll top that can be customized in a variety of ways and a clever laptop pocket situated in between the wearer’s back and the main backpack compartment. Our favorite feature is a zip-off ventilated compartment at the bottom of the bag that can store things like your lunch, dirty clothes and shoes, helping you avoid that gross smell you get when you open your suitcase after a long trip. The compartment can also be removed and washed, so if anything spills or loose dirt sticks to it, you aren’t facing the struggle of cleaning a sticky mess later on.
In addition to clever compartments, the Spin bag is available in three colors, comes with a removable bungee cord (great for wet items) and is made from a durable TPU coated polyester. There are two sizes of the Spin bag available, 18L and 30L. The larger 30L bag was a little too big for me since I’m only 5 ft 4 in, so if you’re on the smaller side I would recommend sizing down to the 18L option. The only noticeable difference besides size is that there is no ventilated pocket on the 18L one. All around, both sizes are solid backpack options, but I would say the 18L one works best for commutes and the 30L one works best for travel purposes.
We sat down with IAMRUNBOX’s designer, Lina Westin to learn more about her design background and what makes the Spin bag different from other travel backpacks on the market:
What were you doing before you joined the IAMRUNBOX team?
After graduating from design school, I began working with different brands in Sweden, like Gant. I worked at Gant for a short while, and my job was more focused on pattern construction, clothing design and shoes. At the time I was aiming for Paris, high fashion, this and that. That was what I thought I wanted to do, but as time goes by you get other values and meet new people. You travel and get new insights.
Gant was founded in New Haven, Connecticut. It was a great job, and everything was good. I was just tired of it, and I was also tired of commuting in the city because by the time I finished commuting, I never had time for anything. It was just a big hassle, it took a lot of time and it was very stressful for me. I also found myself gravitatin g towards gyms because I wanted to try maintain a healthy lifestyle. After awhile, I just decided to start running to work since we had showers at our office. I saved so much time because it was faster to run between my job and my home then to take the bus or sit in the car during traffic jams. I was able to sell my car, quit my metro card and quit my gym card. It was basically the a start of a new life. It was like an aha moment for me. Can it be this easy to commute?
Why did you decide to join IAMRUNBOX?
I had a lot of time to think and reflect during my runs, and as a result of all this thinking I decided to quit my job. I ended up bumping into Kirill who’s the founder of IAMRUNBOX, and he had no idea that I had had this running to work experience. He had already started to develop this lifestyle as the core product offering of this company—the running backpack that can store your laptop, clothes and everyday essentials that you need when you commute. So I joined IAMRUNBOX since I found the idea so interesting, healthy, and futuristic. I decided to try to take the company’s design language in a new direction. I still wanted to maintain that active lifestyle, but the Spin bag is just a little bridge between the first products from IAMRUNBOX and what’s about to come. We will keep doing a mix between sport and fashion.
What are some of the main updates you made with the Spin bag, compared to the first IAMRUNBOX backpack?
The spin bag, first and above all is not running focused in the same way as the original IAMRUNBOX backpack. You can still run with it, but it’s more focused on walking and cycling. We just wanted a super simple backpack. The roll top we came up with is not rocket science—we’d seen it before, but it’s overall a popular style and people like it. We all together decided that that was the style we wanted to go for. Then, we had to consider what we didn’t like about other similar models on the market. We wanted to find a way to avoid creating too many pockets because so many backpacks nowadays have gotten a bit crazy with pockets. We just wanted essential pockets to make things easier, so we added a simple laptop compartment. It can hold a 15 inch, whereas the old one only holds a 13 inch for now.
For the future we’re also going to develop pockets that you can add onto and combine with different products. We added the ventilated bottom compartment to the spin bag because a lot of people bring their lunch to work in an extra plastic box. It always leaks and becomes a big hassle. Our ventilated compartment is easy to clean so you can store, for instance, a lunch box there. If it leaks it won’t matter because you can wash it. You can also put whatever you want in there. I was swimming the other day and threw my swimwear in there. I didn’t bring an extra plastic bag or anything. We wanted it to be waterproof and with waterproof-ness you don’t get much ventilation, really. So that’s at least one little compartment that has that feature.
Has it been fun for you to get out of the fashion realm to focus on active bags instead?
Yeah, especially since I am an active person myself. For me it’s also been fun to visit a lot of factories in China and in Europe. It’s very important to me to have a good relationship with our factories and to make sure the workers and the working conditions are good. The better the environment, the better the product, I feel. So, that is something that I love doing and that I care a lot for. It’s a very interesting part of all the design work that I do. I get to learn about new techniques and am forced to think in new ways when I design. It’s more complicated to create carrying solutions than to construct clothes as well, and I like designing functional objects. It’s not what I started out wanting to do, but sometimes you have to think differently than what you’re used to.
One lucky Core77 Ultimate Gift Guide winner will receive an IAMRUNBOX Spin bag. Create a gift guide HERE, and you’ll be automatically in the running for a Spin Bag and some fun prizes along the way.
Our selection of 15 food and drink Christmas gifts – including a Japanese dish rack, a sandy-hued ceramic French press and an architect-designed kettle – will help you find the perfect gift for foodies.
Alba by Joe Doucet
New York-based designer Joe Doucet is behind this three-piece drinking set: an ideal gift for the design-conscious whiskey connoisseur.
Created for contemporary glassware company Nude, Albar includes a whiskey bottle and two tumblers all with bases etched with markings that are based on Scottish tartan.
Concentric circles are carved out of this natural beach wood chopping board, which can be used for both cutting and displaying food.
The block forms part of British designer Gareth Neal’s kitchenware range for Case Furniture, with each using digital manufacturing techniques to get precise designs. A ridged long tray for serving eggs and a circular design with a square indent for crudités also feature in the collection.
This set of simple trays by British designer Jasper Morrison would add a pop of colour to any dining table.
Morrison has used his famed minimal style for the set, sold at the WallpaperStore, which comprises three circular designs of different sizes and colour gradients. The red colourway darkens as the plate size increases, while a green range gets paler.
Melting ice provided the cues for the rippling and cracked surfaces of this jug and glass set, which Finnish designer Tapio Wirkkala created in the 1960s.
Glassware brand Iittala reissued the glass ware, which is available from Skandium, in a moody “rain” hue to celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2018.
Zaha Hadid Design has drawn on the sinuous forms synonymous with the work of its late founder for these sculptural salt and pepper grinders.
The pair have three sides that curve up to a triangular top, evoking the twisting motion of hands when using the tools. The duo are identical shape but come in different greyscale hues to tell them apart.
Berlin-based industrial designer Mark Braun created this pale marble pestle and mortar to be the centrepiece of the dining table, not just for grinding and storing spices.
Produced by furniture brand Hem, the vessel features a small indent carved out of its base. A bulb-shape on the underside of the lid matches this so that the two slot together, either closing to form a container or creating a tight fit for pulverising.
Design duo HolmbäckNordentoft took cues from the “golden age of Danish design” for this electrice kettle created for Scandinavian brand Stelton.
It features a sleek black body, which is complemented by a curvy beech handle, giving an almost retro feel. It is also fitted with a removable limescale filter and a dry boil safety switch, which turns it off automatically when it runs out of water.
Give multiple gifts in one with this colourful nesting set by household product brand Joseph Joseph.
The entire kit contains bowls, a sieve, a colander and measuring spoons, which are designed to slot inside each other to save space in the cupboards when not in use. Each item is a boldly different colour to make them easy recognise.
Cook up warming stews, soups and casseroles in style with this all-black cast iron dish by Crane.
The matte enamel runs inside and out of the product, a typical feature of the UK company’s cookware, and makes it suited to design-savvy cooks who know that black never goes out of style.
Danish studio Norm Architects designed this glass teapot, giving it a tall body, rounded handle and short spout. The tea egg that plugs in the top is accessed via a black silicon string.
Menu produces the product and also sells an accompanying “kettle teapot heater” to be used for boiling water – in case you’re feeling particularly generous.
Named after designer George Sowden, Hay’s vacuum flask is intended to be playful and uconventional.
The stainless steel body, which keeps keep drinks hot, tapers inwards to the top, while the plastic, no-drip screw cap branches out slightly on top. Both also come in a range of different colours.
The Kitchen Shelf by Rosie Reynolds and Eve O’Sullivan
Published by Phaidon, The Kitchen Shelf teaches budding cooks the art of maximising their cupboard stock, and how to swap in and out ingredients to make 100 easy recipes.
The book, which is written by Rosie Reynolds and Eve O’Sullivan, has a simple design, contrasting colourful images and a white backdrop.
Ash wood handles offset a steel cut frame to make up this minimal dish rack by Japanese homeware company Yamazaki Design.
Plates, cutting boards, pots, pans and bowls are all intended to fit into slots within the structure, with the pale plastic tray beneath catching any water run off.
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