Repeat. No Repeat.

Quick spotlight: 18KARAT

18KARAT is a cool company that makes contemporary planters along with furniture, kitchen and garden accessories, and decorative art objects. Usually it is pretty challenging to find such interesting yet modern looking accessories manufacturered in such a large size, so we took special note of these stunning floor standing vases. Perfect for hospitality, corporate, and residential projects.

Studio Visit: Dennis Beach of whitevan

In Newport, Delaware (a suburb of Wilmington) lies the woodshop and sculpture studio of artist Dennis Beach. Dennis is a full time sculptor and painter, best known for his large scale work in plywood, but his latest venture is a company called whitevan, devoted to making household objects, such as clocks and coat racks. His interest in the exploration of plywood led to creating smaller scale objects that are more immediate than his more grand works of sculpture. Starting whitevan with two products - the lap board and a wall mounted nightstand, the project has grown to incorporate a large collection of clocks. Both wall mounted and freestanding, the clocks have a whimsy about them but stay true to their modern and minimal roots. 

Dennis started whitevan in 2008 with business partners Greg Wolos, who is an engineer and works for IDEO, and Robert Bickey. They all share a passion for designing and creating what they call "simple products". While Greg lives and works in Boston, Dennis handles the manufacturing of the whitevan products in his Delaware shop/studio. One imperative at whitevan is the clean and green production of their products. The shop itself has a state-of-the-art dust collection system, and they only use FSC certified Appleply brand plywood for everything they make, applying only waterbase finish as a sealer. Dennis also was careful to point out that they get as much yield from a sheet of Appleply as possible. For example, the diamond-shaped TOP clock is the result of the space between the round POP clocks when they are cut from a single sheet (see pics below).

Dennis and Royce at the whitevan woodshop and studio

POP clock in Cherry plywood, 10" diameter with straight hands

Yellow POP clock in stained Maple plywood, 18" diameter

Red POP clock in Maple plywood, 18" diameter

Green TOP clock in Maple plywood, 18"

Freestanding BOP clock, 6" diameter

Templates for POP clocks

Wall of clocks 

Plywood objects in waiting

The whitevan shop

Dennis likes vintage bikes

Studio tools

Plywood pieces

Dennis showing us the production for a BOP clock

Models for a pair of largescale sculptures that are now in the Comcast corporate art collection

Large scale wallmounted sculpture at the studio

You can learn more about Dennis Beach and his sculpture here, and check out all the whitevan goods for sale on Etsy.

On The Job!

Testing Kenneth Cobonpue's Dragnet Chair

Learning about Kvadrat's Clouds carried by Haworth

Investigating custom carpet by Clayton Miller Hospitality

The Street is in the House

The Street Is In the House at ICFF, May 2010

Do you ever wonder where newspaper boxes go to die? Carlo Sampietro does.  An Italian artist and graphic designer, Sampietro discovered that there are a plethora of these boxes all around New York City begging to be given new life. With the phasing out of newspapers and the sustainability movement in full gear, it seems like a given to re-purpose these newspaper boxes into something more coveted for the consumer. Starting as an act of guerrilla art, hauling the boxes in the dark of night back to his studio, Sampietro turned his hobby into a full blown art project.  Recently exhibited in New York as a collection called The Street is in the House, those who went to ICFF were treated to a glimpse of the recycled boxes as an example of Sampietro's work.  The boxes shown at ICFF were not used in a previous life (unlike those in the exhibition) and were turned into a wine cooler, a dishwasher, a greenhouse, and even an aquarium. This begs the question: can one man's trash be another one's treasure? We all know the answer to this, and Sampietro plays with the notion of what belongs in the street vs. what belongs in your house.  The bigger question we have is this: will these overhauled newspaper boxes be available to the masses? It seems for now they are available via Sampietro's website and start at $1000.

 

Greenhouse by Carlo Sampietro

Dry Your Hands with Dyson Airblade

There was a time when we watched the "Jetsons" cartoon series and thought it would be great to have instant gratification for travelling, eating, cleaning, etc.  Well that futuristic time is here, as is evidenced in the Dyson Airblade.  Drying wet hands in public restrooms in 12 seconds flat!  Oh, think of the time we could save.  It's not saving time, however, that makes the Airblade so compelling.  It has a great technology story that translates into less energy used than conventional hand dryers, and it can dry 23 pairs of hands for the cost of one $0.01 paper towel.  These facts save building owners money and reduce landfill waste from all those yucky crumpled paper towels.  The technology relies on the drying mechanism which acts like a windshield wiper, scraping away water from the surface of your hands.  Don't worry, though, the scraping isn't literal, it's just what the Dyson folks call the powerful suction of the air to blow the moisture off of the hands and into the dryer cavity.

So it works like this: wash you hands (hopefully for twenty seconds with soap and warm water, as recommended by the CDC to prevent flu!) and then stick your hands into the top center cavity of the dryer.  It seems narrow as if you may touch the sides, but having tested this a few times now, it's easy to see that there is plenty of room for your hands. Twelve seconds later, you have dry hands.  No shaking, dripping, or wringing of hands necessary - very simple.  Word is catching on about these dryers and they have been spotted everywhere from MOMA in New York City to movie theaters in Grand Rapids, Michigan.  Dyson even has reps calling on the Architecture and Design community so that the units can be specified upfront on projects of new construction or retrofits.  The Airblade is NSF certified, meaning that it passes the rigorous third-party testing required for consumer products related to water, food, and hygiene.  It also can contribute to LEED certification, and is GreenSpec listed as an environmentally preferred product.  

Dyson is known for their impressive patented technologies led by James Dyson, and they value design along with function. Their initial popular consumer item, the Ball vacuum line, has become an icon with design lovers everywhere.  It's just a matter of time before the Airblade surpasses this, as it is making appearances in public places everywhere, and picking up new fans along the way.

Modkat for the Modern Cat

Even if cats can't appreciate good design, their finicky owners can elevate the status of the litter box from ugly plastic to high art.  Introducing Modkat, a thoughtful, functional litter box for design-oriented cat owners.  It's so cool maybe your cat will love it too.