Milwaukee Tool is looking for a dynamic, self-driven Senior Industrial Designer to join its in-house design team. From drill bits to radios to Sawzalls®, we design it all. Come work at the most innovative tool company in the world. Milwaukee is a diverse city that has more to offer than beer and snow. It's a big city with a small town feel and is only 90 minutes from Chicago.
View the full design job hereWe first encountered the work of SWINE at the RCA graduate show Paradise for a Better Future in 2012 where their first work, the Sea Chair, was on show in Milan. A peculiar looking stool crafted from salvaged marine plastics, the project looked towards a future where fishermen would trawl for plastics instead of fish and fishing ships would transform into floating factories to produce Sea Chairs. The project, interesting in both the final artifact and the research behind it, was completed with a beautifully crafted film with director Juriaan Booij the following year.
Since then, SWINE (Super Wide Interdisciplinary New Explorers), a collaboration between Japanese architect Azusa Murakami and British artist Alexander Groves, has continued their deep exploration of regional identity and the future of resources through unique storytelling and a practice of producing artifacts that has brought them to China, Brazil, and most recently outer space. We wrote extensively about their aluminum Meteorite shoes inspired by NASA last year and always have a keen eye for new work from the London-based studio.
With a theme of design-led co-creation and an emphasis on storytelling at this Thursday's Core77 Designing Here/Now Conference, we thought the work of SWINE would be a great source of inspiration. With Hollywood looming in the distance and the archives of the Eames Office just a few miles away, we will be screening three of SWINE's short films at the Core77 conference. The design films of SWINE highlight new ways that designers are exploring the storytelling potential of film to create new worlds, unbounded by time and space.
SWINE: We are really interested in the connection between a place and materials, sometimes we focus on a material and track down it's source. For example, when we traced back Human Hair to where it was grown and processed in Shandong Province China. Other times we focus on a place and find abundant, overlooked material such as aluminum cans in our Can City project based in Sao Paulo.
We love designing a whole world and then making a part of that world real, such as making a piece of furniture. Film is a great way to show that world, create a mood and tell the narrative behind a work. We usually don't have any voice over so it can go completely international. Online, it reaches an audience beyond the design world.
Film is a great way to show that world, create a mood and tell the narrative behind a work.
Obviously Ray and Charles Eames are both pioneers of design film and their incredible film work remains unsurpassed. There were some amazing experimental design films created for the MoMA show New Domestic Landscapes by the likes of Gaetano Pesce, Superstudio and Ettore Sottsass which are so scifi and eclectic. Combining '70s electronic and rock soundtracks with sci-fi futurism, the suite of films document a mesmerizing set of experiments and a time capsule of '70s design thinking.
We love the Apple watch ads that look at a material like gold, aluminum and steel. From contemporary designers we particularly like Marcus Kayser's 'Solar Sinter' and Marguerite Humeux 'Europa'.
Most recently we were working on a project in St. James's London, exploring the world's oldest tobacconist. We were looking at smoking pipes and the mouthpiece looked quite like plastic but had a wonderful tactility and quality. It turned out to be made from ebonite, a form of vulcanized natural rubber. This led us to our latest project called 'Fordlandia' which is a collection made entirely from materials sustainably harvested from the rainforest, including ebonite made from natural rubber.
Too early to tell if it'll work, but this is interesting: Snapchat is reinventing themselves as Snap Inc.--and now calling themselves a camera company. "We believe that reinventing the camera represents our greatest opportunity to improve the way people live and communicate," they write.
To reinvent the camera, they've made a bold choice of form factor: They've opted to put it on the front of your face. (With dual lenses, it appears.) The video's not super-informative, but shows you what they're going for in terms of lifestyle:
These "Spectacles," as they're called, will wirelessly link to your Snapchat account. The only design features they've mentioned is that you tap the glasses to make a ten-second snap; a light comes on to alert people that you're recording; and the glasses will recharge inside the included case. As of yet, there's no announced release date.
What do you all think, is there room in the market for another image-shooting device? Cameras are a crowded field, with our phones taking up the casual market, GoPros sewing up the action market, mirrorless pocket models taking up the slack, et cetera. But it's possible that their app's popularity, and the lure of easy, always-ready-to-shoot capability, may prove irresistible to Snapchatters.
Hopefully you've been following along with our Sketching section, building your drawing skills with the tips provided by Michael DiTullo and Spencer Nugent. If you follow their advice and put in the work, you will improve. That's how you grow your skills.
Our resident sketchmeisters of course draw freehand, because they're pros; but for the lazy and shiftless among you, an unknown artist has devised the following two-point-perspective cheating system:
For shame, I say. For shame.
Milder Office Inc.'s mobile Tool Cart includes sliding wire baskets for tool storage that are easily removed and swapped; keep ready made tool 'kits' in the wire baskets to suit different classes and processes. Load it up and easily move from station to station as you work. Lock it up and take a well deserved break.
View the full content hereA lot of the chemicals we use in woodworking, especially in finishing, are toxic. Now there is toxic and TOXIC. There is long term exposure toxicity and one-whiff-drop-dead toxicity. If you want to work safely, you need to know. Not only do woodworkers need to know, everyone needs to know. So We the People, in the guise of "the Federal government," passed a law that requires that for any substance you sell, you must also make available a Materials Safety Data Sheet or MSDS Sheets for short. (Yes, I know the extra word "Sheet" is redundant.) With the introduction of another intrusive government-sponsored initiative known as "The Internet," it's now possible for companies to make MSDS sheets readily available through downloads.
MSDS sheets have information on the chemical makeup of the substance; the long term and short term dangers the materials pose; what safety precautions should be used when handling or storing the substance; and what to do in case of accident. This is phenomenally usefully information for anyone handing any chemical, especially if you are working in your house with suboptimal ventilation or protection or if other members of your family can get exposed.
For example: With all the writing I have done on shellac and alcohol I also took a look at the safety aspect of the various alcohols on the market. If you look at the MSDS sheet for Klean-Strip S-L-X Denatured Alcohol (DNA) which is inexpensive and commonly available at local hardware stores (FWW used it in their article on shellac in Dec. 2010), you will discover that it contains 45-50% methanol. The MSDS sheet for the product says, "Vapor harmful. May cause dizziness, headache, watering of eyes, irritation of respiratory tract, irritation to the eyes, drowsiness, nausea, other central nervous system effects, spotted vision, dilation of pupils, and convulsions." There's also water in the alcohol, which makes the shellac harder to use - but water is the least of my issues. I just don't want the methanol fumes invading my house and shop. Incidentally the author of the FWW article isn't wearing any protection (gloves, mask, etc.), which I think is an error. More than one person has come to me after applying shellac and complained about various symtoms, not understanding that they got poisoned by the alcohol, which can be absorbed by the skin and eyes from vapor in the air.
The two most alcohol specifically used with shellac is Bekhol, a premium shellac sold by Behlen and available from lots of higher end woodworking suppliers (but not us for some reason). It is safer and better than the hardware store stuff. If you read the MSDS for Bekhol you find it only has traces of methanol in it. It also doesn't have significant amounts of water.
Another great solution which I regularly recommend is Everclear - which is a totally drinkable pure ethanol alcohol available in some liquor stores. It unfortunately isn't sold in every state. There are two versions of Everclear 151 proof and 190 proof. The later is 95% ethanol the rest being water. This works great for shellac. The 151 proof - about 75% alcohol and the 25% water content is just too much for shellac.
Ethanol is what's in liquor, so the exposure limit is pretty high, but one message that comes out loud and clear is that if you use it a lot you should wear lung and hand protection - and of course eye protection just in case. (The stuff is a lot stronger and dangerous to splash in your eye than than your typical mixed drink, although there is no danger from ice bruising.)
The big difference between Bekhol and Everclear is that Bekhol is 30% non-ethanol, of which some is isopropal alcohol, which raises the flash point. That means that the stuff will take a little longer to evaporate, and when you are spraying shellac, this might be an advantage. (You don't want to have the spray to dry before it hits your wood).
Read the MSDS sheets of the products you use. Don't ignore the safety recommendations just because they come from "The Man." There is a certain air of over-caution in these documents, but they are important. Most of the toxicity of chemicals we use around the shop is cumulative, which means when you find out you have a problem it's too late to fix it.
A design conference seems like an unusual place to deeply examine politics, but no event held on a college campus would be complete without deep examination of American politics this year. Public policy was a hot topic at 2016's Better World by Design, during which several presenters examined designers' roles in politics and policy making.
In her presentation "Why Designers Need to Run for Congress," RISD graduate (ID '14) Leah Chung of US AID spoke to attendees about how to be design evangelists and her path to international relations in US government. While Chung was thankful for the skills and opportunities RISD's studio courses presented, she was drawn to international relations courses at Brown University and spent an entire semester at Georgetown University in order to gain deeper understanding of the complex global issues to which she wanted to apply her design skills.
"My hope and dream is to see designers in positions of power so that the laws and policies that govern society are people centered and actually make sense in real life. Imagine for example if a congressman or woman did some expansive user research to gather relevant user information from the end users before drafting their laws."
Eventually, Chung found her career with US AID. Through the organization, she was able to apply open critique culture to meetings and translate idealistic jargon into something concrete and grounded in reality. In asking, "How are we going to solve age-old issues with the same types of thinkers, trained in the same kinds of institutions present year after year?" Chung makes a compelling case for designers invading traditional, broken political structures: designers are trained to listen, respond critically, reframe problems and communicate complex ideas in simple ways.
"If it's the job of politicians and public servants to empathize with the stories of ordinary citizens, to understand their needs and respond to them with tangible solutions, I really can't think of a better group than designers for the job."
Getting directly involved in the dredges of federal government isn't for everyone. Co-director of Center for Civic Design Dana Chisnell uses design skills to address issues in the voting system on local levels. Chisnell reframes data to make information and interfaces more accessible. In her presentation "Anywhere Ballot, The Future of Universal Access in Voting," Chisnell presented a variety of ways to use products as a vehicle for voter engagement. The Center'sField Guides for Ensuring Voter Intent, funded through Kickstarter, take the form of eleven pocket-sized booklets. Inspired by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission's report "Effective Designs for the Administration of Federal Elections," which featured AIGA Design For Democracy's work, Center for Civic Design recognized that the mass of information needed to be simplified and communicated in a way that local election officials could easily understand and enact within particular political constraints.
From Designing Usable Ballots to Guiding Votersthrough the Polling Place, each booklet addresses a particular breakdown in the US voting system on a local level, that effects change on a national level—from micro to macro. In addition to the Center for Civic Design's field guides, the team designedAnywhere Ballot, a project that addresses the question: how might we make elections accessible to all voters? The prototype applies principles from the organization's field guides to a digital interface accessible from each users' own individual device.
While it may seem futuristic, the design eliminates the need for separate voting systems, especially for those who do or do not have disabilities, allowing voters to utilize the customized technology that already know and own. While this system will not be available for the current 2016 presidential race, the Center for Civic Design believes it is likely that election jurisdictions will embrace this incorporation of consumer, off-the-shelf technology into the voter-facing part of the election system within the next ten years.
In Australia there's a spider known as Thwaitesia argentiopunctata, a/k/a the Mirror Spider. Apparently they have cousins in Southeast Asia as well, as photographer Nicky Bay has been shooting them in his home city-state of Singapore. Writes Bay:
For several years, I have been observing the odd behavior of the Mirror Spider (Thwaitesia sp.) where the "silver-plates" on the abdomen seem to shrink when the spider is agitated (or perhaps threatened), revealing the actual abdomen.
At rest, the silver plates expand and the spaces between the plates close up to become an almost uniform reflective surface.
You can see more shots of this supremely creepy bug—which, if you ask me, should really be called the Disco Ball Spider—here.
Via Colossal
It's finally here—our Core77 Designing Here/Now Conference starts tomorrow! Stay up to date with the happenings by following our Facebook Live feed this Thursday September 29th, featuring interviews with some of our conference speakers.
Check out the full Facebook live schedule of interviews below.
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When it comes to creative licensing, brand management and representing leaders in Art, Fashion and Design Brands, we're kind of a big deal, but we need some sharp, confident go-getters to help us grow and become even better. We are an international brand licensing and consulting
View the full design job hereFirst, there was the likes of Studio Neat, Craighton Berman, and Don Lehman; then came Scott Wilson, Pebble, and Yves Béhar. Fast forward a few years, and products are among the most successful crowdfunded projects of all time — albeit not without the proverbial “risks and challenges” that a new company might encounter along the way.
Just as hardware startups have taken to crowdfunding as a means of getting directly into the hands of consumers, so too have designers and firms found clients among the entrepreneurs and engineers. Map Project Office, or Map for short, are Core77 favs — so much so that we invited Director of Design Jon Marshall to serve as jury captain for the Consumer Products category of our awards program this year. (Map was founded in 2012 — the very year that Pebble and Ouya set still-standing records for the most successful Kickstarter campaigns of all time — by Marshall and his longtime colleagues Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby.)
With six successfully crowdfunded products to its name, the agency offered a behind-the-scenes look at its work for its Kickstarted clients during London Design Festival 2016. Set in a gallery space in Shoreditch, the Map Shop offered a glimpse of the journey from proposal to product. Of the six projects on view, four have made it into the hands of backers; the other two were "sneak peeks" of soon-to-launch campaigns.
We've previously featured the Beeline bicycle compass and Hackaball, but the Kano computer kit and BleepBleeps Suzy Snooze baby monitor are equally noteworthy. Each of the four case studies highlighted one aspect of Map's process — storytelling, collaboration, iterative modelmaking, and manufacturing — but all six projects were presented with 1:1 models, form studies, and multimedia. Slightly different backdrops indicated the two forthcoming projects: Brizi, an air-quality monitor for infants and toddlers, and the Ding smart doorbell.
From prototypes and mock-ups, knolled as needed, to laptops playing videos on loop, the vignettes nicely illustrated how Map — and industrial designers in general — give shape to ideas. While the sneak previews offered a taste of what's on the horizon, it was the clear presentation that made the Map Shop a highlight of LDF2016. Check out images of the exhibition below (the captions link directly to each company's website).
We usually think of sawdust as a long-term hazard to our lungs. But accumulated in large amounts, as in a woodshop or a furniture factory, sawdust carries the short-term risk of explosion. Watch this video of firefighters attempting to quell a smoking dust hopper when the unexpected happens:
That was at a furniture factory in Abbotsford, British Columbia. Wondering how that happened? According to The Abbotsford News, "Flames took hold in a hopper storing dust at a furniture manufacturer…. According to witnesses, crews were dousing the hopper when it was opened. Dust spilled forth and instantly ignited."
When copious amounts of fine sawdust come into contact with oxygen, and there's a heat source or spark nearby, the results can be disastrous. A single mini-explosion can have a domino effect, with the shockwave dispersing yet more dust that causes a second explosion, then a third, and so on. To help you understand how these explosions occur and what you can do to prevent them, we tracked down the following video, which explains:
Even the most digitally-focused clients I've worked with want something other than just a laptop close at hand when working at their desks, and they struggle a bit when using a desk with no storage space. So I'm always interested in seeing the many ways designers have incorporated storage into the desks they create.
The PAD desk from Compar doesn't seem to have much storage at first glance: just a drawer and a riser.
But that's before you realize the top surface is actually a lid that opens up. This gives the end user a lot of storage space, but it won't work well for those who keep a lot of items on their desktop (since those items would have to be removed every time the lid was lifted).
The Sol desk from Team 7, designed by Sebastian Desch, is another one with hidden features. The open space where the end user might slide notebooks and such is only one of the storage features. Note: That attachment in the back is optional and provides dimmable LED lighting.
There are also some nice milled pen holders. However, reaching to the back of the desk to get at the pen holders isn't always convenient, depending on what else is on the desk—and how long a stretch is comfortable for the end user. That's a potential concern with any desk with storage along the back.
But the writing surface can also be pulled forward, exposing additional storage space. Besides simple storage, this space can also be used for the optional power socket (which includes a USB connection). Team 7 says Qi wireless charging, a cable outlet and a cable conduit are also available.
Frederik Alexander Werner has created MeetMyDesk—yet another one with hidden storage, this time in the form of a slidable top that reveals a storage compartment.
The desk also has a drawer at the end—an inconvenient place for anything the end user might want to grab while seated at the desk. Accessing this desk's storage spaces will be just a bit too cumbersome to suit some end users.
The Woolsey Agent Desk from Sean Woolsey mostly relies on drawers for storage. The center storage area (with a tilt-down door) is lockable, which is a nice feature.
But this desk, too, has some hidden storage—in this case, a compartment under the mouse pad. The compartment opens with a strong magnetic wood geode, which is included. The only drawback to this feature: The end user needs to keep the geode readily available, so that's one more thing that needs a space. However, it's nice that the geode is a large-enough thing that it won't easily get misplaced, and it allows somewhat secure storage without the bother of a key. (Just don't let kids see you using it, or you've just turned them onto a new fun toy.)
The desk also comes with a magnetic power block (two power outlets, four USB) that can be attached anywhere on the steel frame. That's a nice cord-control feature (except for those of us who always prefer to use surge protectors).
On the opposite end of the spectrum from these desks which include hidden storage are those that make the storage entirely visible—which will appeal to end users who work best when they can see everything they need. The Arco desk from Design House Stockholm, designed by Chuck Mack, is one such desk.
The drawer opens from both sides—not a feature that's usually all the helpful in a single-person desk, but it can't hurt.
My Writing Desk from EMKO has a totally different way of keeping things visible, by providing storage that surrounds the desktop. This wouldn't work for things like pens and paper clips, but it could be quite useful for an end user dealing with lots of papers and/or projects. The two drawers could hold all those smaller items.
The File Desk, designed by Julie Tolvanen of Studio Tolvanen, makes papers visible by building file storage into the desktop. One drawback: This significantly reduces the desktop space available for working.
More traditional storage options include drawers, and the Homework desk from Bensen has that covered. The end user can choose a single drawer, a double drawer or a file drawer (that accommodates either letter and legal size files) on each side—or no drawer at all on one side. This is a nice recognition that end users have varying storage needs.
Writing desks with storage compartments along the back are another common desk design, but the choice of those compartments can vary greatly. The Canterbury writing desk from Pompanoosuc Mills would suit an end user who prefers open storage.
The writing desk from Woodsport would be the type to appeal to an end user who prefers to have everything tucked away, out of sight. Neither of these designs is very good at storing items of differing heights, though.
And we're live from sunny Los Angeles today! Follow along as we live tweet the conference from @Core77 and be part of the conversation using the hashtag #Core77Con.
Weren't able to join us for the best design party of the year? We'll also be doing some interviews via Facebook Live and introducing attendees, speakers and happenings through Instagram Stories.
Primitive Kitchen Tool is a kitchen tool that allows the user to experiment with spices and optimize their meal's flavor.
I finished a bed recently for my guest room. I'm really happy with the build but now more than ever I really hate the flanking Lingerie chests that my wife and I bought decades ago. Truthfully I didn't much care for them when we bought them but this was before I became a woodworker and didn't really know anything about furniture anyway. I don't even remember where we got them but its a safe bet it was some place like Wal-Mart. They are boring and cheap with plastic laminate MDF and knockdown hardware. We replaced the faux wooden knobs years ago with metal ones to try and dress it up. What's that expression about dressing up a turd?
The thing is from a functional perspective they do a great job. My wife loves the multiple drawers and keeps a lot of stuff in there. Its to the point where whenever I talk about getting rid of them she immediately gets protective because of how useful the storage space is. The drawers don't pull out cleanly anymore because the case has racked over the years but that doesn't seem to matter to her.
So with the new bed in place, I cautiously broached the subject about replacing them.
"Fine, but I want them to look exactly the same and have the same storage capacity."
I can't even begin to describe what a triumph this admission is after more than 15 years of suggesting we get rid of these atrocities to quality craftsmanship. Moreover now I'm faced with an exciting challenge of designing a chest that doesn't change in function at all and remains the same from an overall appearance.
Today it hit me. I was walking across the lumber yard and watching a forklift unload a pack from a shipping container. As the lift lowered the lumber to the 3x3 bolsters we use to raise lumber off the ground, I saw it. This particular bolster for some unknown reason had a notch cut out of the end. Imagine a big rabbet on the end of it. When the lumber pack was set on top of it, it appeared to be floating over the bolster.
This floating cabinet idea is far from a new one and you will see if everywhere once you start looking. But it was that tiny detail that got me thinking not about changing the Lingerie chest itself but instead changing the base.
Out comes my tablet and stylus and I'm sketching away. A french foot with scalloped cross pieces creates an elegant foot and floats the case above it. Just using quality materials and construction will dress up the case above it and ensure that I maintain the overall look and function that is so dear to my wife.
Now to the details, where I screw up the design and flabbergast my wife because like all woodworkers I have to over complicate things and add details that add nothing to the design. I admit that the blocky case bothers me. I also admit that my overwhelming prejudice against the existing chest has given me a serious bias. So I feel like I need to mess with the design there. However I keep hearing my wife's voice telling me not to mess with it. So I start sketching ideas where I do a complementary species drawer front or a figured drawer front. Then I start looking at stringing on the drawer fronts instead. Both of these significantly change the look and feel of the piece and I realize that messing with the case itself actually does more harm than good to the simplicity of the design.
Anything I add to it makes it feel showy and pretentious. So I do what everyone does when they hit a creative wall…go to lunch. As I sit eating a sandwich and staring at a wooden fence it hits me. A typical wooden fence is boring, vertical planks stacked next to each other. What makes it interesting is the shape of the tops of each plank. Some just come to a point, while others add cut outs and play on negative space. But everything below that is just straight lines.
My case is the same situation. I need to keep the straight, blocky lines of the case and avoid changing any of that. Make it well and it will be sufficient. But if I add a simple contracting inlay along the edge of the top, it changes everything. I blame Garret Hack for this as I'm definitely channeling his designs here with a Ebony and Holly straight line inlay.
Then because I can't leave well enough alone, I sketch in the same inlay at the bottom of the case right above the floating base to punctuate the transition as well as highlight the floating effect. Finally I sketch in some blocky, Ebony drawer pulls. That part will evolve later, but I think the Ebony (or something dark) will tie together the inlays.
And I'm done. I'll build the whole thing in Cherry to match the Cherry of the bed in the room already and with just an alteration of the base and a tiny bit of inlay at the top and bottom of the form, I'm pretty happy with the idea. Whats amazing is just how little I had to change the design from the form that I hate so much to be truly excited about the new piece.
Now I just need to get the wife's approval on the design.
This article is part of the Design for Impact series, a collorabation between Core77 and Autodesk focused on designers using their craft to promote environmental and social change.
Growing Goods for Good
Designers and consumers have an urgent challenge to confront in the current discussion around sustainability. How can we distinguish between goods which seem eco-friendly, but actually contribute to a culture of waste, and those that are truly green? Designer Danielle Trofe had to challenge herself to look at every aspect: from prototyping methods, to production materials, to manufacturing processes, to the ultimate disposal of the object and its component parts.
She ultimately came to a very unique solution: using bio-utilization to grow indoor lighting. Designing with living materials, Trofe is building consumer furnishings that truly embody the best of cradle-to-grave sustainability.
Working with Nature, Learning from Nature
Meet the MushLume Lighting Collection, grown using mushroom mycelium or what the biomaterials company Ecovative – Trofe's frequent industry partner – calls "Nature's glue." Mycelium is the root structure of mushrooms. Along with being the largest living organism on Earth, it's able to decompose organic compounds, filter toxins from soil, conduct energy, act as a natural insulator and provide nutrients to a vast number of living organisms. Using Ecovative's material, which combines crop waste like corn stalk with mycelium, Trofe grows custom lampshades. Once they've completed the growth cycle (4-10 days depending on the size of the lampshade) the material is heated to halt any further growth. The material is lightweight, soft and entirely stable. In other words, it won't 'shroom in your room.
The material matters. From production to decomposition, mycelium feeds the earth rather than stripping it of needed resources. At the stage of disposal, it safely returns to the earth where it once again serves its natural functions. For the purposes of the designer and the consumer, mycelium also happens to be beautiful,, and durable in the long term.
From Materials to Mimicry
Want to know the dirty little secret of design? Nature does it even better than us. As Trofe continues to innovate, she challenges herself to ask, "What would nature do?" This idea has evolved over years of design exploration but it seemed to catalyze for her after reading Janine Benyus' seminal work, Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature.
"Biomimicry is looking at nature's form, function, and ecosystems and emulating this into human design. Nature has had 3.8 billion years to refine and adapt to the operating conditions on earth. It has found and fine-tuned strategies to deal with the same kind of challenges that humans are dealing with now. We're now looking at these patterns, processes, forms and functions, and emulating them in design innovation. That includes at a very simple form level, like looking at the knee of a grasshopper and considering how it can propel the grasshopper 100 times higher than its own body. How can we use that knowledge in our own applied design? Or we can look at the way an old-growth forest works and how its many symbiotic relationships cultivate competition and cooperation all the while there are no wasted resources. Everything is recycled. Everything is in this closed-loop system," Benyus explains.
"As a designer, you have to respect our shared natural resources," Trofe says. "Would nature create something that would eventually not be able to be broken down into smaller components so that it could be reused or upcycled? It's kind of this common sense thing. It's important to ask the question, 'Does this process or material really make sense in our environment?'"
The MushLume Lighting Collection embodies the value of Trofe's mantra: What would nature do? Nature would use its resources with form and function as the driver while allowing all of the materials to safely return to the earth at the end of their lives.
Building to Learn
Working with Autodesk and Ecovative empowers Trofe to continually explore and learn. With Fusion 360, she crafts and plays and explores and tests ideas, using 3D models as virtual sketching tools. What emerges are design concepts built from the inside out.
"The first time I'd worked with a 3D modeling program, it was kind of this Aha! moment of, 'here is a communication tool that works for me.' Because at the end of the day it's how you communicate the ideas that are in your head that matters. Having the right tool set to appropriately do that makes all the difference," she says.
According to Trofe, Autodesk tools also encourage discovery and exploration.
"With Autodesk's Fusion 360, I find that I get into this workflow, and because I'm experiencing an object three-dimensionally, my mind is engrossed in different angles. It's a deeper thought process than a pen and paper," she says.
She also finds a perfect marriage between technology and handcraft in how she makes, and in how consumers experience, her products. "I use 3D modeling tools to create particular tooling parts that are conducive to an environment the lampshades can be grown in, and then we're adding the human touch to it. The tooling is handpicked, satisfying that human touch we deeply crave. So every product we make is just slightly different."
Watch Danielle Trofe walk us through her amazing design process in this behind-the-scenes video!
Partnerships for Growth
"Trofe's a great example of the kind of entrepreneur we love to support. She's pushing the envelope in terms of her materials choice, her use of design technology and the results speak for themselves. Her work is aesthetically so pleasing and also inspires her customers to think about the sustainability of their daily lives. Her work is creative, innovative and hopefully an inspiration for both her customers as well as other designers," says Pam Hochman, Marketing Lead for the Autodesk Entrepreneur Impact Program.
For Trofe, it's the various collaborations that make the work flourish. "Collaborations are extremely important, and a lot of times we ward them off due to competition, trying to protect assets. But collaborating, connecting, and sharing these resources and the knowledge base is the thing that really advances our ideas."
A Call to Action
"A lot of times we're just so divided in our own little ecosystems that we kind of get disconnected from nature. The thing that's most important to me, and I think of it both as a consumer and as a designer, is I want to establish a deeper connection with people and their things, especially the things that we see every day." This connection is formed by creating a greater awareness of how our objects are made, what they're made from, and ultimately where they will end up.
Trofe strives to inspire other designers to view their work through the lens of a question she hopes will become a centerpiece for design in the near future:
As one of the oldest craft techniques, ceramics nevertheless endures as [an area] for design experimentation. During this year's London Design Festival, a pair of independent design studios joined forces to stage Particle Particular at Studio 1.1 in Shoreditch. While Prin London and Studio Furthermore share a mutual interest in pushing clay to its limits, they achieve wildly disparate yet equally beautiful results.
Ariane Prin celebrated the one-year anniversary of her eponymous brand with several new additions to the "Rust" collection. Launched during LDF last September, the collection is characterized by their highly variable, one-of-a-kind appearance, which Prin creates by mixing gypsum and metal dust — i.e. waste materials from other craft processes — into plaster. Born and raised in France but based in London since she completed her masters at the Royal College of Art in 2011, the product designer introduced her latest experiments with copper dust at "Particle Particular", presenting the verdigris-inflected vessels alongside earlier works.
Studio Furthermore, on the other hand, exhibited their ongoing investigation into ceramic foams. Marina Dragomirova and Iain Howlett set out to develop the porous, lightweight material — used in aerospace applications such as space telescopes and insulation — at craft scale. They arrived at a process of impregnating foams and sponges of varying densities with parian, a highly viscous bisque porcelain, and firing the pieces to burn off the substrate.
In contrast to the visible mineral composition of Prin's “Rust” pieces, Studio Furthermore's “Tektites” readily evoke meteorites. Alluding to the "particle scale" of the material research, the exhibition presented various pieces by each studio in dialogue. But if the two bodies of work seem to speak a different language, the exhibition was compelling precisely because the vessels and tabletop objects are both composed of earth itself.
Arguably the most minimal booth in the entirety of designjunction was tucked away in an unassuming corner of the Cubitt House exhibition hall. A shelf, mounted on a wall at eye-level to emphasize its drawing-like simplicity; another beside it, and a darker variation on the floor below. Upon closer inspection: Diamond profiles of squared the crossbeams that form a simple, ladder-like frame; each of the twin-plank shelves punctuated by a subtle brass tile at the joints. Flush like an inlay, the hardware holds the pieces together like a keystone, fastened by hidden bolts below.
Designed by COMP, the “Parquet” system debuted during London Design Festival with the three prototypes: a wall-mounted shelf, a freestanding shelf, and a sideboard. The elegant interlocking structure may not explicitly resemble its namesake flooring pattern, but it certainly mark a strong showing from the London-based studio. Founders Cemal Okten and Martin Price have been collaborating on various projects for nearly a decade now, since they first met at Central Saint Martins, and we wish them luck with “Parquet.”
A lot of you were interested in the Wazer, the affordable desktop waterjet cutter we showed you a couple weeks ago. Well, the developers brought one down to Jimmy DiResta's shop in Manhattan to let him try it out:
Pretty cool. I did want to see a bit more, but this isn't a production-ready machine; it's a prototype that the Wazer guys brought over, so I guess the point was to show that the machine works outside of their laboratory and can be easily set up.
The funding has more than doubled since we first wrote it up: The Wazer is currently at $1.2 million, with 41 days left to pledge.
