Founded in 1997 by a group of accomplished sailors with a knack for sewing, RAGGEDedge uses sailcloth, kevlar and carbon fiber to create small batches of bags and wallets in their Virginia-based workshop. With a distinct,…
Continue Reading…
For many, there comes a time when the to-do list never shortens and when free time doesn’t really feel free. This is where CH found Portland’s Jordan Hufnagel and his longtime friend James Crowe just over a year ago. And this is what…
Continue Reading…
The designer’s latest footwear collection with the Workshop Residence uses reclaimed materials from the Bay Area
A long career in industrial design informs Martha Davis‘ footwear collection, which was first launched back in 2009. The multifaceted designer spent the last few months at San Francisco’s Workshop Residence, creating shoes by hand from custom steel shanks, vegetable-tanned leather and reclaimed wood from the Bay Area. Debuting today, the three new styles represent Davis’ embrace of natural materials and minimal fashion.
Davis found her work straying away from objects for a time, as she moved into designing user interfaces for digital products. “That’s when I decided to go to Italy,” she says, feeling a need to make things once again. While she appreciates the traditional craftsmanship she learned abroad, the need to experiment eventually won out. “The Workshop Residence was an opportunity for me to really play around with stuff, and I’ve always been interested in natural materials and how to use things without disguising them.”
Davis is the third participant of the Workshop Residence, an organization that provides makers from all walks with the space, funds and access necessary to realize their creations. “I think of the Workshop as being an incubator for makers and designers with Bay Area local manufacturers,” says Davis. Much of Davis’s work relies on the Workshop’s relationship with local manufacturers. For the steel shanks of her shoes, no local manufacturers could be found, so a local metalworker was called upon to custom build the pieces.
All materials used in the collection were sourced locally. The uppers are made from thick, vegetable-tanned leather, and the wooden heels upcycled from a variety of sources. Davis used the remnants of forests burned by local wildfires, their charred character pairing nicely with the designer’s unfinished aesthetic. She also reached out to a San Francisco trolley repair shop for discarded wooden brakes, which are made from Douglas fir and disposed of after only a few days of use.
The shoes strike a balance between chic and utilitarian. “My approach is always fairly architectural,” explains Davis. “I don’t do a lot of decorating.” One of Davis’s more progressive creations has an elliptical heel that can be turned on its side to bring the height down by an inch.
Martha Davis’s collection launches with an event tonight, 24 February, 2012 from 6-9pm at the Workshop Residence and is now available through their shop.
The Workshop Residence
833 22nd Street
San Francisco, CA 94107
A Japanese designer crafting mid-century style furniture from recycled and salvaged wood
Montreal-based woodworker Mitz Takahashi upcycles wooden offcuts into unique, modern designs. Working by hand with mostly reclaimed lumber like mahogany, walnut, oak and other found materials, Osaka-born Takahashi spends his days tooling around creating works based on his favorite elements of mid-century design.
Working mainly on a commission basis, Takahashi crafts everything from bookshelves to guitar amps, and attempts to minimize even more waste by packing flat his designs when possible. His keen eye for harmoniously blending various types of wood keeps his furniture feeling cohesively pieced together, and the smooth finishes breathe new life into each design.
Takahashi’s sustainable style isn’t always serious. He recently created a small product line of humorous gifts like his “medieval assholes” coaster set, which showcases his ability to poke fun as well as his fine crafting skills.
For more information on Takahashi and his inspired designs, check out his site or contact him directly for commissions or sales inquiries.
Austin’s furniture collaborative crafts elegantly upcycled designs
What happens when two sustainable design outfits specializing in distinct materials team up? In the case of Rad Furniture and Hatch Workshop (both also fabricators), the partnership is geared toward “thoughtful and well-crafted” furniture with material integrity. The two Austin companies’ latest and largest retail project for a local startup, sustainable building supply and resource center TreeHouse, is no exception.
A visit to their Austin studios might find John Lee Hooker, The Talking Heads or Mother Falcon (a local Austin band, of which members help out in the shop) playing to inspire their designs. All of the projected fixtures and furnishings for TreeHouse epitomize Rad/Hatch’s sustainable philosophy, to “minimize waste during production and maximize the lifespan” of their products.
Working primarily with reclaimed objects, repurposed wood (Hatch’s material of choice) and steel (Rad’s specialty), the designs for TreeHouse maximize the value of material through clever application. Examples include a dynamic table built from salvaged sprinkler pipes and elegant screen walls constructed from recycled slats of wood.
Although designs for TreeHouse are mostly in the development stage, the work promises to “walk a line between deliberate and over-designed.” The effect of this combines beautifully raw materials with intelligent design.
Keep an eye out for Rad/Hatch Collaborative’s final designs for TreeHouse. In the meantime, browse both sites for a look at their beautifully finished work in their respective media of choice, like Rad Furniture’s sleek Barbara Stool with backrest and Hatch Workshop’s ingenious Comal Counter for kitchens. See more images of their independent projects after the jump.
The first product to come out of a video series on upcycling
Oregon’s own wooden eyewear makers Shwood today premiered a latest sunglass collaboration with San Francisco streetwear label Huf. Made of broken skateboard decks, you can see the production process of the resulting “Six-Ply Fade” in the first experimental video on Shwood’s buzzy new site “Experiment with Nature.”
We recently caught up with Shwood founder Eric Singer to chat about “Experiment with Nature” and the consequential Huf collaboration.
“Experiment With Nature” has been Shwood’s tagline from the beginning. Everything from product concepts and manufacturing to packaging and branding strategies begin as an experiment in our wood shop. The EWN project was designed to share this experimental process and DIY mentality with the world. The videos aren’t simply about making sunglasses, but rather the concept of transforming everyday objects or natural resources into anything interesting really. Upcoming videos will feature everything from tools to transportation, all sharing the concept of transforming everyday objects or natural resources into interesting final products. We want to inspire others to try new things and see what works.
If there is one thing we have a lot of at Shwood, it’s creativity. Sometimes it can be a struggle to stay concentrated on producing sunglasses when there are so many other projects we are dying to experiment with. So we decided to share these creative experiments with others—built a website, called up our videographer and got started on the first series, “Skateboard Shades.”
We met Keith Hufnagel and crew at a tradeshow last year and immediately took a liking to one another’s brand. We decided to partner on a collaborative project and ended up with skateboard shades. Making sunglasses from old skate decks had been something we had wanted to experiment with for a long time. So it seemed like a good excuse to make the trek down to skate with our friends at Huf.
Multipurpose accessories for the day-tripper
Born out of Genova, Italy’s school for industrial design, designer Arianna Vivenzio founded Ochobags
in 2006. Centered on a modular and customizable bag, Vivenzo describes her mission as “obviously to combine function and aesthetics.”
Staring with the idea of a “useful yet fashionable object,
made of functional and mobile compartments that can contain and separate
each one of the objects a woman carries,” she gradually refined the concept to come up with a simple system. Consisting of six modular pockets in a range of fabrics, the pieces combine into personalized purses for the ultimate in adaptability.
The resulting all-purpose bags can even “be
worn by girls and women of all ages, because of its simplicity and
variety of materials. Besides, the customer base now include boys and
men who use it for running or biking,” Vivenzo explains.
Her inventiveness also includes taking inspiration from Antonio Marras Kenzo by mixing in alternative fabrics and materials such as foam mats, old
kimonos, fringed inner tubes, classic Prince of Wales wool, plastic
lace and cotton. Channeling a modern Japanese attitude, colors and materials create unexpected blends of contrasting assonance. With a new line of shoes drawing on the same principles, Ocho hints at a a new way of urban dressing.
Bags start at €50 from Ochobags.
Hardwood frames tap architecturally-inspired design for a better fit
Anyone who struggles to read the third row of an eye chart knows that glasses are more than just a fetching style choice. Those plagued with poor eyesight tend to live in their specs and want a pair that adds something special without sacrificing the wearability of the otherwise utilitarian accessory. Drift Eyewear does both with their collection of handmade frames, constructed from sustainable wood and the brand’s patent-pending laminated steel core.
Founder Chris Mantz (tinkering in his apartment laundry room) modeled the steel structure after architecture’s curtain wall technique, which transfers the weight of the walls back to the building’s core. In Drift designs this translates into better load distribution on the three contact points of the face that allow for use of distressed fragile woods without worry about them snapping. This also helps keep the frames from sliding down noses (and cuts down on the proper nerd move of constantly pushing them back up).
The latest example of this clever design, the Timber collection is a trio of frames in a limited edition of 100 pairs each. The styles—Truss, Nail Hole and Whitewash—are all crafted from salvaged hardwood sourced from different locales. The dark brown wood for Truss comes from designer Daniel Grady Faires, who painstakingly removed the timber from a renovated building in NYC’s Meatpacking District. Nail Hole’s raw aesthetic is inspired by a collaboration with designer Jessica Park of Seattle’s shop-slash-gallery space Coming Soon, while Whitewash’s frames are devised from a vintage picket fence rescued by Chicago-based artist Raun Myn.
In addition to using responsibly-sourced wood for the frames, Mantz tells us “they are about as eco-friendly as you get,” with fronts made from a plastic derived from the wood pulping process and other components using FSC-certified hardwoods along with reclaimed timber.
Drift Eyewear can be found at retailers around the U.S.; specs in the Timber collection sell for $600 a pair.
Upcycled bags, flip-book necklaces and more in our picks from three satellite design fairs
by Alexandra Polier
As ICFF kicks into high gear this week in NYC, so do a number of satellite design fairs showcasing the work of hundreds of talented international designers. Alternatives to the ICFF provide a venue for the many independents who find the big tradeshow prohibitively expensive, but not all the offshoots are necessarily created equal. Some, like Model Citizens, have a few years of experience that positions themselves as a serious outlet for independent design. Other less-established exhibitions as well as more critically-minded formats make for showcases with more edge then standard fare.
Since starting three years ago, Model Citizens has grown to include 100 designers from Holland to
DUMBO. Founder Mika Braakman hopes to track the trajectory of
these strong individuals, who will no doubt be trend-leaders a decade
from now.
Brooklyn-based John D’Aponte playfully weaves history into his designs, upcycling vintage textiles into bags and luggage.
Boston-based artist Debra Folz designs and manufactures contemporary furniture and tabletop accessories. Her Whole Story Photo Albums are a hybrid of traditional
bookbinding and contemporary engineering that allow them to stand
independently but also to expand.
Industrial designer Emily Rothschild, whose work has been displayed at Cooper Hewitt
National Design Museum, brings whimsy to jewelry with “pinky wings” and flip-book necklaces that create a low-tech animation when spun.
Brooklyn-based designer Niels Cosman’s handcrafted CMYK Cabinet features highly-decorative doors composed of hundreds glass hexagons. The RISD Glass Department adjunct and alum took inspiration from Shaker furniture and traditional farm-style furniture that used chicken wire in place of glass.
Most inspiring at Model Citizen were Mike Seto and
David Kim of Click Boom Pow, whose
holistic design approach focuses on user experience and cultural
impact. Their NRM Project (New Role Models) are benches that have been
painted by a select group of artists including Milton Glaser and
installed throughout Brooklyn and Manhattan. The idea is to give New
Yorkers a place to sit and reflect this summer, while inspiring others to
donate good design.
Snug-it, a modular furniture system, uses three joiners to configure wood or glass planks into a variety of pieces—from beds to shelves—that can then evolve with your needs.
Shown as part of Duran Vanderpoort’s “How it’s made, and why it’s so f*cking expensive,” this “Ready-Made” ($11,410) by Dutch designer Borre Akkersdijk is the result of his use of mattress-production machines to create prefab pattern pieces that he then sews into garments.
Just a few blocks down from ICFF is another new independent, Wanted Design. Sprawled out over most of the first floor of the Terminal Building, this hardly looks like an independent design fair and more like a well-styled showroom, complete with a coffee bar from Le Colombe.
Founders Claire Pijoulat and Odile Hainaut brought their French sensibility and 29 established designers together to create a stunning event. From lighting designers
like Les Heritiers, Francois Brument and Triode to furniture-makers Tabisso and Olivier Dolle (“Bibliothèque Branche” pictured above), the French genius was well represented.
Ligne Roset showed off their new Philippe Nigro-designed collection, which included a series of metal pendant lamps that can hang solo or be clustered together to hang as a chandelier.
The dramatic lighting of David Trubridge, whose colorful Seed System packs flat and then expands to all sizes—including floor to ceiling.
Voos, the Brooklyn shop devoted to work by local designers, introduced two items that bring a little nature indoors. Fort Standard’s Terra terrarium ($6,550) is a free-standing icosahedron for 360-degree viewing of the 20-year-old bonsai inside. The Dino Lamp by Deger Cengiz combines a flexible neck with a small container, all covered in felt for the fuzzy ultimate in practical desk accessories.
A transcontinental collaboration between Vienna-based designer Christiane Büssgen and Mexican designer Jesús Alonso led to Project Avolution, an experiment in food resulting in a beautifully simple set of wooden serving dishes and a ceramic bowl modeled after an avocado.
Finally the Whyte Label by Joe Doucet, a new
collection of bespoke furniture and objects that pushed the boundaries
of concept and craftsmanship, was a standout.
Doucet also had on view his Presence piece, which highlights the “rarefied craftsmanship of porcelain artisans,” as well as a beautiful marble puzzle that is as perfect for some grown-up fun as it is displayed on a coffee table.
The idea of concept was very much on everyone’s mind, as a few of the
participants at Wanted (including Doucet) have also worked to create the Brokenoff exhibition at Gallery R’Pure in tribute to their friend, the late designer
Tobias Wong. Blurring the boundary between conceptual art and design, Wong’s work questioned the value system of objects and pretensions of designers with wit, satire and humor.
Wong launched onto the scene in 2001 with “This is a Lamp”—a take on the famous Philippe Starck chair. Ten years later he was gone. Doucet and other
celebrated NYC-based designers such as Brad Ascalon, Stephen Burks, Josee
Lepage, Frederick McSwain, Marc Thorpe, Dror Benshetrit, Todd Bracher
and David Weeks spoke in a round table about their tribute exhibition,
sharing their favorite Tobi moments with the crowd, a rare insight
into the personality of the young designer.
The group had been
working together with Wong in 2010 to create an exhibition of their
own just weeks before Wong’s tragic death. “When we started meeting
and talking about this exhibition we weren’t sure what the outcome
would be,” said Thorpe. “Now we know, this is the point, this is the
outcome.” Doucet adds, “He wanted us to get uncomfortable.”
Truck tarps upcycled into chic reptillian-scaled bags
At Freitag‘s newly opened NYC shop you will find over 1,000 of the Zurich-based brand’s one-of-a-kind bags cut from used truck tarpaulins, but you will also find a surprising twist on their main material. Showing a softer side of Markus and Daniel Freitag, the brotherly duo’s Fake Snake limited edition handbags reveal a more malleable take on tarp.
Each bag is comprised of 648 pieces, all assembled by hand and laced together over a six-hour process. Producing just ten bags for each colorway, each limited run is housed at one of Freitag’s five flagship stores around the world. Part of their Spring/Summer 2011 Reference collection, the bags come in two sizes and sell for $802 and $469 each.
For a closer look at the making of the bags check out Adrian Ehrat’s photos after the jump.
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.
