Born from Brooklyn’s bike scene in 2008, Osloh Jeans have sought to make the best pants and shorts for the global cycling community. After years of product testing and evolution, designer and founder Shawn Drayton has…
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Last year, we wrote about an ambitious design student with a dream to create flexible wooden watches to replace the clunky link versions we see in too many designs. Since then, Lorenzo Buffa—the man behind the great idea—has found a manufacturer and has launched a Kickstarter campaign for The Carpenter Collection from Analog Watch Co.
At press time, the campaign goal of $10,000 had been surpassed. We took some time to catch up with the young designer and learn about what’s been going on with the project the past year and what he plans to do with the funds:
Lorenzo Buffa, founder of Analog Watch Co. and designer
Core77: What’s happened with the concept since we last spoke to you a year ago?
Lorenzo Buffa: A year ago, the project was a design thesis project. I wanted to combine my interests in materials and woodworking to prototype a product and a brand. Within the year, I’ve been working with manufacturers to understand how the industry works—things like supply chains, lead times, tooling, SKU numbers, etc. I took part in an entrepreneurship bootcamp, was awarded a fellowship and a $6,000 grant from The Corzo Center for the Creative Economy and most recently have been a part of GoodCompany Ventures 2013 accelerator.
How did you manage to find a manufacturer?
We were really fortunate to have manufacturers contact us, but they only know of the collection because of the publicity from the first Core77 article. The press from that posting brought multiple manufacturers to the table—after a few months of relationship building, we dropped some and went ahead with others.
I was browsing through my feeds yesterday morning and found this Kickstarter project that kinda turned me onto the idea of assistive tableware. Imagine plates that tell you to stop eating because you’re fat, or a rice bowl that flashes red whenever you inadvertently stick your chopsticks upright – total faux pas. The Smart Mug displays the current liquid temperature via a series of LED lights.
At first glance, I thought the idea was brilliant. Why? I drink a lot of teas and the most common categories of teas (black, red, white, green, floral) all brew and steep at different temperatures. Take for example white teas. Their delicate leaves scald and go bitter if you pour boiling water over them. Most tea houses use very hot water to brew white teas. Smart Mug helps you know when the optimal temperature has been reached.
I immediately tweeted about it but already received quite a few tweetbacks about how unattractive the design was. Some felt the LED lights looked cheap and the mug itself was aesthetically boring. Others felt there were better solutions. To that end, I’d agree. What do you guys think?
Designer: Evita Krumina, Kickstarter
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(Smart Mug Displays Temperature, Yay or Nay? was originally posted on Yanko Design)
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by Katharine Erwin If you love Britain’s Top Gear and you like racing, The GGTR (Gentlemen’s Guide to Racing) may be your new favorite TV show. Helping to bring back chivalry in racing—or at least inject…
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I’ve been curious about sousveillance ever since I Wiki-walked into the neologistic concept, which is broadly defined as “the recording of an activity by a participant in the activity.” A simple example might be the Russian dashboard cameras that have yielded a fair share of viral footage, but the term is broad enough to include the now-ubiquitous cameraphone, an ever-ready recording device in situations of crisis, civil unrest and a laundry list of otherwise unusual situations (see also: Google Glass).
Of course, the former example is the inspiration for a new project on Kickstarter by Los Angeles-based mechanical engineer Cedric Bosch. Like a helmet, the Rideye is a safety device that a savvy cyclist might use in hope of never needing to do so. But in the event of a crash, the handlebar-mounted HD camera is expressly designed to capture footage of the incident in order to present an objective account of what happened.
Guest appearance by Iggy Pop aside, the ABC Los Angeles news segment covers several valid points regarding the black box camera concept (Slowtwitch has a more in-depth look at the product itself). If the Rideye catches on, it’s a perfect example of how monitoring could make the streets safer for everyone: As with red light cameras, the possibility that one might be caught in the act serves as negative reinforcement in order to discourage reckless driving. The mere suggestion of sous/surveillance exploits the Hawthorne effect to prevent—or at least document and punish—illicit behavior.1
After funding their first selvedge denim jeans with a successful Kickstarter campaign in early 2013, NYC-based Parke is at it again with a more innovative idea in mind: A pair of raw denim jeans woven with…
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As far as sustainable resources go, bamboo is often a best bet. For this reason, product design and build brand Otis & Eleanor called on the material for their new portable bluetooth 4.0 speaker, dubbed the…
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We first came across Tangeez—colorful, interactive, light-up building blocks—at this year’s Maker Faire. A long-anticipated reinvention of the classic toy, these mesmerizing, palm-sized objects change color as they’re stacked….
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Originally from Sydney, Australia, Andrew Green only arrived in the States recently—in 2011—but has accomplished quite a lot in the last two years. Thanks to his background as a touring DJ and music journalist, Green honed…
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Most people living in metropolitan areas can identify with cramped apartments. People move to the city to live on their own in their own space—only to find that they usually don’t have much of it.
NYFU sees this problem and has created the perfect solution: transformable, functional furniture! NYFU, or New York FUnctional FUrniture, is a team of talented designers who have come together to make city-living seamless with their trendy, innovative products. Made with high-quality European materials and offered at affordable prices, their functional furniture is the perfect addition to any metropolitan home.
To get their furniture into your home, NYFU started a Kickstarter campaign demonstrating the benefits of its products. Such products include but are not limited to:
TriBeCa Nesting Tables – Because everyone always need more room.
NY+U Storage Desk – Where you can hide all of the money it’s saving you.
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This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
