Hasta La Ideas

In a tech-heavy marketplace, it can be challenging to entertain children without screens. That’s why it’s so exciting to find a kids’ device like the Yoto Mini, a compact, screen-free speaker designed by Pentagram with the look and feel of classic 20th century toys.

The ultra-portable Yoto Mini

This portable version of the bedside Yoto Player, a 2020 Core77 Design Awards Notable project, makes it easy for kids to listen to stories, music, and learning materials anywhere they go. The Yoto Mini includes a pixelated LED display that’s visually engaging, but not overstimulating. It’s fun to look at, but also encourages kids to pay attention to the audio and use their imaginations. Its card operation connects to a wide range of materials, including, but not limited to audiobooks, family-friendly radio, and podcasts. Kids can even design their own stories with DIY kits.

Yoto Mini form prototypes

While the Yoto Mini has all the old school charm of iconic Fisher-Price toys, its minimal design makes it appealing to all ages. Thanks to its tidy look and intuitive controls, the Yoto Mini can grow up alongside your kids. While it’s not overly reliant on tech, it boasts high-quality audio and works with Bluetooth, headphones, and USB. There are no cameras or microphones included, which adds a comforting element of privacy to the device.

The Yoto Mini next to its desktop companion device, the original Yoto Player

Learn more about the Yoto Mini on Pentagram’s website.

When it comes to the trans and non-binary community, there has been little to no focus within the larger wellness and fashion industries on designing much-needed products catering to this target market. Actor and entrepreneur Chloe Freeman is non-binary, and someone who took notice of this deficit. Deciding to take matters into their own hands, in 2021 they launched For Them, a company aiming to redefine wellness for the queer community through a range of useful products.

Freeman’s first mission at For Them was to scale an urgently-needed product for a wide variety of people: the chest binder. Freeman recalls initially finding inspiration to take on this challenge while shopping for their own binder, saying “the ones that were out there at the time were just super, super uncomfortable. You know, really itchy, really bad for the body too. Some were sort of reorganizing people’s muscular structures, breaking people’s ribs and bruising people, and a lot of my friends were struggling with that.” And while the design of many undergarments for women leave much to be desired, it’s difficult to imagine the larger undergarment industry getting away with designing bras that cause as much pain for its users as binders do.

Through clever research techniques and help from friends, For Them managed to develop what they are simply calling The Binder in a little over a year, and since launching in November there is already an 800+ waitlist of individuals excited to get one of their own. The pieces are made at a small factory in New York owned by women of color, the material is eco-friendly, products are incredibly size-inclusive, and even features rebranded sizing names in reaction to body image toxicity in the fashion industry. After gaining $2 million in pre-seed funding late last year, it’s also a fascinating example of a product that might initially confuse venture capitalists, only to exceed sales expectations. Products like The Binder can certainly illuminate how many investors tend to overlook valuable target markets.

How to create a truly inclusive binder

So how did Freeman and their team create such an in-demand product? For one, Freeman discusses how settling on quality was never an option. They say, “I’m really proud of how resilient we’ve been through this process because we could have easily sent something out to market that was 70% or 80% good given there’s not a lot of options. There’s opportunity here for just sliding in a little bit above and saying it’s marginally better, but we kept going until we found all of these nuanced things to address.”

In order to create a flawless design, Freeman knew they ought to get a design expert on board. They were inspired to reach out to designer Rada Shadick after hearing about her development of a bra for ballet dancer Misty Copeland, which incidentally had a design quite similar to a chest binder. Freeman recalls speaking to a manufacturer who worked with Shadick, who said, “Copeland asked for a bra that would hold her breasts in place and sort of compress them, which you still need to be able to move and dance and breathe. And I was like, ‘hey, this is very close to a binder. It’s not exactly, but it’s close.'” Shadick shortly after was on board. Rather than with a typical bra that is designed for lift, The Binder instead encourages downward compression that is still comfortable and safe. Freeman reminds us that when it comes to fit, “there’s only a certain amount, if you have breasts, that you can be compressed, right? They’re not going to disappear fully. And so I was like, what is that maximum point, and how do we hold it there?”

Shadick used some of her industry know-how not just to make a binder that was comfortable, but also a product that considered comfort at every size. For the binder, Shadick tackled sizing that accounts for different sizes and shapes. Freeman makes notes of the complexity of sizing by saying, “you may have a larger breasted person that has a smaller ribcage, or you might have a larger person that has a larger ribcage and smaller breasts—the nuance of that is quite difficult. For our binder, Rada has mapped the side panels so that the material falls across the chest and so it compresses in, but then it releases at the ribcage. As you go up sizes, the length of the binder changes and there are slight nuances as you go up and down. So we’ve paid really close attention to that.”

How to conduct community-led product research

For Them’s team also knew a crucial component to answer these questions was getting the larger community involved, and they did so in several ways. Research began on a personal level, “asking friends, friends of friends, friends of friends of friends, that all wore a binder, and I got other people to interview them so there was no bias,” Freeman recollects. This word of mouth feedback soon evolved in a digital community, where the For Them team created an anonymous platform on Discord. Freeman says, “I think that anonymity is super powerful because it means people feel like they can speak freely. And when we ask them for feedback, or we ask them if they like The Binder, I really take it seriously when they say yes. Because they could easily say no, right? It’s anonymous. People feel like they can speak openly and I really encourage that.”

Since launching their Discord, they have also created product request channels that will inspire the next products they will tackle in their wellness line. Freeman and their team avidly follow users’ feedback, and said they “collate all the product ideas and we throw them into a Notion, and we start to tally off day to day if more people are mentioning this or that. If something starts to get enough traction then I’ll pose the question back to the community and say, ‘Hey, I don’t know who’s struggling with hats,’ or whatever it might be, right? And getting people’s responses is always really interesting'”.

Whatever it is For Them is up to, they ultimately understand their power is in how well they know their community and user. Freeman says, “the binder was a wedge product to give us the opportunity to speak really intimately with all of our customers. We realized this is a huge white space in the market, and what would be really cool and value additive is if we spoke to customers, ask them what they needed and made the products and services for them with that in mind.” It’s a simple and yet revolutionary thought all wrapped up in one—respect the user who intimately understands their own experience, and you’ll end up with an amazing, high-in-demand product.

For Them is an excellent example of what design teams can accomplish when they tap into their core community, and a fresh reminder of how important the fight is to seat more trans and non-binary designers in prominent roles within the industry.

The Binder is now available for preorder

Anava Projects and Ashlee Harrison have curated an exhibition by emerging artists from the US and Caribbean at New York’s Carpenters Workshop Gallery, which includes sculptures woven from kelp and hand-carved furniture.

Called New Guard: Stories from the New World, the exhibition is part of the New Guard series by international gallery group Carpenters Workshop Gallery, which is based in London, Paris and New York.

At the gallery’s Manhattan location, Stories from the New World showcases pieces by seven emerging artist-designers hailing from the US and the Caribbean, which have been designed using materials ranging from wood and metal to concrete and kelp.

The works intend to unpack themes of heritage, place and identity and include pieces such as towering ceramic sculptures by Isabella Maroon that were created from smashed-up past projects.

The exhibition was curated by the gallery’s director of Americas, Ashlee Harrison, in collaboration with guest curators Anna Carnick and Wava Carpenter, founders of creative collective Anava Projects.

“We conceived the title ‘Stories from the New World’ in response to the narrative-driven nature of these designers’ work – all of whom engage, in their own way, themes of identity, heritage, and place,” Carnick and Carpenter told Dezeen.

“It’s also a reference to the historically Eurocentric lens of design discourse as well as the next generation of creative talents, who are bringing vital, multifaceted narratives into the global conversation.”

For example, artist Maryam Turkey presents Between Rise & Fall, an imagined cityscape crafted from paper pulp and supported by a plywood structure that represents both Baghdad and New York, the two places where she was respectively raised and then fled to with her family in 2009 as a refugee.

“The exhibition frames objects as artefacts of the human experience,” acknowledged Carnick and Carpenter.

Tania Doumbe Fines and Elodie Dérond of Martinique-based sculptural design studio Ibiyanε created Elombe, a series of hand-carved laminated furniture that takes cues from both Caribbean and Sub-Saharan woodwork and the late American sculptor Wendell Castle.

“Dérond and Fines draw inspiration from collective memories of family, using their hand-carved wooden pieces to honour their Caribbean and Cameroonian heritages,” said Carnick and Carpenter.

Other projects featured in the exhibition include Between Salt and Water by Indian-born, New York-based artist Anubha Sood.

Informed by her investigation into the environmental consequences of the textile industry with a focus on India, Sood weaved a whimsical collection of sculptural objects from kelp, linen, cotton and rayon yarn, which are displayed on maroon-coloured plinths.

The pieces seek to raise awareness of the decline of kelp forests due to climate change, whilst also underlining the importance of making creative work as a personal practice.

“All of the work celebrates the storytelling power of design, emphasising design as autobiography,” explained Carnick and Carpenter.

Stories from the New World follows on from The Graduate(s), a 2017 exhibition by Carpenters Workshop Gallery’s London location that was curated by trend forecaster Lidewij Edelkoort and showcased emerging European creatives.

Carnick and Carpenter explained what drew them to work on Stories from the New World.

“When we were approached to guest-curate the latest iteration, we were honoured, recognising that the project would be seen as a departure from the gallery’s esteemed, historically European-based programme,” they said.

“We also understood that the show offered a rare, exciting opportunity for unique design voices on this side of the pond to tell design stories not often heard in broader, Eurocentric international conversations.”

New Guard is part of Carpenters Workshop Gallery’s Next Gen project, an ongoing initiative led by Harrison that supports rising art and design talent.

Other past exhibitions by the gallery include the Slump collection by designer Paul Cocksedge, which comprised furniture made from glass pressed over rocks.

The photography is by Matt Harrington.

New Guard: Stories from the New World is on show at Carpenters Workshop Gallery in New York City from 20 October 2021 to 22 January 2022. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.

The post Carpenters Workshop Gallery presents design exhibition on heritage, place and identity appeared first on Dezeen.

Psychoactive drug DMT (aka N, N-Dimethyltryptamine) is known for its life-altering, metaphysical trips, but scientists are now looking into its potential to treat depression. Small Pharma, a Canadian drug development company, is working on combining DMT with regular therapy to ease depression in treatment-resistant patients. In September, the company completed phase one of clinical trials—the first company to do so—by testing DMT on volunteers. Now, Small Pharma will enter phase two of clinical trials, dosing patients with major depressive disorder. Because the hallucinogenic contains entities, dubbed “elves,” that bolster a trip’s spiritual nature—in addition to facilitating the growth of new neurons in the brain—researchers are hopeful that DMT could provide a breakthrough treatment for depression. Learn more about it at Futurism.

Image courtesy of Getty Images/Futurism

Head bartender and beverage director Deke Dunne walks us through his wondrously imaginative world

Behind the bookshelves of the Radical Library at the Eaton DC—an innovative hotel in Washington, DC that’s been designed for thoughtful travelers with a concern for activism—one finds Allegory, an immersive cocktail bar of exceptional quality adorned with Alice in Wonderland-inspired murals. Deke Dunne, Allegory’s head bartender and beverage director, has been there since the venue’s opening in 2018. And during his tenure, he’s brought an exploratory urgency to the craft of cocktail-making. Wyoming-born Dunne has been bartending since he was 21. He also stepped away from a nine-year political career to place hospitality first. And seeing him hustle behind the bar while explaining why he loves what he’s doing is a perfect (and authentic) pairing for his elaborate concoctions.

“The art informs the cocktails,” Dunne says of the murals by Erik Thor Sandberg. These works breathe life into the moody bar. “The goal is to create an installation as opposed to a cocktail menu. It’s a full production. There’s a theatrical element. This space calls for it. I had thought about doing thematic menus before but had never been in a space where themes made sense.” Dunne intends to reimagine the cocktail menu every six months on conjunction with new artistic additions.

“I’m very excited about the next menu,” Dunne says. “We partnered with Erik Thor Sandberg, the artist of the mural, and he gave us eight pieces of original art that read similar to a children’s book—a dark, disturbing children’s book at that. It’s going to tell the story of Alice/Ruby slaying the Jabberwocky. It kind of fills in the gaps in the mural from a narrative perspective. We are going to be doing all new cocktails along with it, that explore the idea of a portmanteau, where we mash two ideas together. Whether the portmanteau is the mash-up of two cocktails, two cultures, I really left it up to the bartenders to run wild with the idea.”

The three cocktails from the current menu that we highlight below, we experienced at Allegory in late November. Though they’re complex to construct, their inclusion here showcases the sheer magic happening behind the bar. The recipes are measured in grams not ounces—and batch measurements can be found in parenthesis for two of the three, as the Allegory team batch-makes certain beverages in advance. From the curious components to the very specific brand choices, Dunne demonstrates that he is a sensory artist crafting with nuance, and through these drinks (or any of the others served at the bar) it’s beyond evident that what he’s doing is extraordinary.

They Can’t Kill Us

Milk punch fans will delight over They Can’t Kill Us. Despite all of the diverse components—from amontillado to yuzu, whiskey and rum—the final product is one uniform silken experience. It offers a creamy mouthfeel without any milkiness. This is thanks partially to the inclusion of Ube Gomme, derived from the Filipino yam, which lends the drink its purple color, too.

They Can’t Kill Us
35gr (2100gr) Equiano Original Aged Afro-Caribbean Rum
13gr (780gr) Starward Twofold Whiskey
8gr (480gr) Giffards Banana
8gr (480gr) Amontillado
17gr (960gr) Yuzu juice
.18gr (10.8gr) Salt
58gr (2280gr) kefir
58gr (2280 gr) Milk

After Clarification
16gr (960gr) Ube Gomme

Build the ingredients in a cambro, but leave out the kefir and milk at first. Once everything is combined in the cambro, add the kefir and milk and let sit for at least 30 minutes. The longer you let it sit, the better. The protein in the milk and kefir reacts with the acid in the yuzu and sherry, causing it to curdle. When you are ready to strain, set up four cambros all with chinois strainers. Dump the batch into one, through a chinois strainer, until it is almost full. Once the liquid coming out turns clear, transfer the strainer to a clean cambro. Rinse the cambro you just used and repeat the process. Eventually, you will have four chinois strainers full of the batch all straining a clear liquid. If at any point one of the cambros becomes cloudy, dump the contents into one of the other strainers and restart the straining process. The straining process will take all day or night. Once the straining is done, combine all the cambros into one. Add the Ube Gomme syrup and stir. Taste for balance. Pour four ounces of batch over a rock and serve on a light-up coaster—if you have one.

The Queen’s Gambit

The Queen’s Gambit, named for the famous chess move, is an elegant, experimental play on an Old Fashioned that uses Japanese whisky—and so much more—to modify the experience. Unfurling notes from Calvados, Mr Black and Soba Cha noodle water, as well as a fiery (and boozy) finish, continue to emphasize the unexpected.

The Queen’s Gambit
21.2gr (1272gr) Mars Iwai Japanese Whisky
17.3gr (1038gr) Fortified wine blend (cream, Amontillado, Tawny Port)
14gr (840gr) Calvados
3.3gr (198gr) Giffards Banana
3.3gr (198gr) Laphroaig 10 Year Scotch
0.9gr (54gr) Mr Black coffee liqueur
6.5gr (390gr) Sake lees syrup
35.43gr (2125.8gr) Soba Cha noodle water

Combine ingredients into a cambro and stir. Measure out 4 oz of cocktail and pour into a double rocks glass with a clear ice cube. Flame a Wray & Nephew White Overproof Rum/Laphroaig 10 mixture over the top and serve on a chess board coaster.

Jabberwocky

Looking at the ingredient list of the Jabberwocky cocktail might call to mind the nonsensical poem by Lewis Carroll with which it shares a name. There’s mezacal, of course, but paired with rum, amaro, aged and fermented chili brine and more. As with the poem, however, everything works in together for an unprecedented experience. The fermented chili brine (which, yes, is aged) lends a savory sensibility that pairs nicely with the last-minute introduction of pineapple and lime juice. Altogether, it’s otherworldly and unlike anything else we’ve ever tried.

Jabberwocky
21gr El Silencio Mezcal Espadín
28gr Rum/Cachaca blend
7gr Don Ciccio and Figle Ambrosia
28gr Ras El Hanout syrup
5gr Aged fermented chili brine
.3gr Bogart Bitters
21.26gr Fresh-squeezed pineapple juice
21.26gr Fresh-squeezed lime juice

Mix ingredients—except pineapple and lime juices—in a cambro to create a Jabberwocky batch. Once you’re done, measure out three ounces of your Jabberwocky batch to a shaker tin. Add .75 ounce of fresh lime juice and .75 ounce of fresh-squeezed pineapple juice. Add a small scoop of crushed ice and whip shake the ingredients until the ice has melted. This will give you a frothy, delicious head on your cocktail. Dump into a glass, top with crushed ice and flame some Ras El Hanout spice over the top.

Images courtesy of Allegory