Happy Earth Day

April 22, 2008

We take the responsibility of being “makers” very seriously. Our focus on quality craftsmanship means that a lot of the waste inherent in higher-volume production can be eliminated. That said, our manufacturing partners focus on constant improvement in their craft and in the way it effects their employees, the community and the wider world.

Our linens are a perfect example. We work with Linas Nordic in Panevezys, Lithuania, a member of the Masters of Linen Guild and a recipient of certifications from both OEKO-Tex and ISO for ecologically-responsible production and socially-responsible management.

Their commitment to excellence is part of their philosophy and a real part of the work they do. Linen is an amazing material. Highly absorbent, linen will withstand and actually improve with use and cleaning while holding its shape. It also takes far less active cultivation than cotton, thus minimizing the amount of fertilizer required to return an adequate yield, and produces a number of useful by-products in the refining process - linseed oil and pulp (actually used in the making of US dollars) to name a few.

Poetically, as if to call attention to its practical and metaphorical beauty, the flax plant blooms only one day a year. In case you missed it, we hope our Spring/Summer linens do a good job of capturing the essence.

The Dynamo

February 28, 2008

Like the city he lives in, Roman Vrtiska is as young and raw as he is mature and experienced. It’s no wonder this quirky designer finds his home town of Prague - a place where you’ll see a funky fresh juice bar next to a Gothic cathedral - as a constant playground for inspiration.

Understanding the dynamic between old and new allows Roman to play with that tension. For Teroforma, Roman redesigned a vintage carafe produced by Kvetna Glassworks called the Cartouche. He took the original 1873 design and focused on finding new solutions for the traditional shape, taking into consideration the role of an object when it’s not in use.

It’s hard to pin down exactly where Roman finds his inspiration given the breadth of his interests – from street art to music to architecture. “If you are looking at the street with an open mind, you can find inspiration in everything,” he says over the phone, after explaining his definition of functional simplicity. You begin to see what he means when he tells you his favorite place is 45°56′14.825″N, 10°48′56.692″E.

For Roman Vrtiska, the world is not places, it’s a deep and open mind.

Clean Efficient Fun

February 28, 2008

Anna Dabrowski is as funky and full of life as the objects she designs. A complex person who loves humor and color, Anna is always looking for the most creative and inspiring solutions in both life and design.

Born in Poland to parents who are both artists, Anna has a natural talent for photography and design, but her travels are what keep her mind sharp and sophisticated. In fact, Anna is so smitten with relocating every once in a while that she claims Europe in its entirety as her home.

So how does a person who danced on tabletops in college and jumped out of an airplane at 13,000 feet stay so down to earth and organized? She is an efficient, motivated and passionate designer who reflects much of the renewed vibrancy of the city she now lives in. She takes photographs of the things she finds inspiring, has a portfolio & website so well put together it could run circles around a Mac ‘genius’ and she shows off her love of felt with a detailed binder that includes her designs and fabric samples.

In some ways typical of what we imagine when we hear the word “artist,” Anna has a wonderful way of balancing the practical with the absurd and always doing it in a way that is uniquely hers.

Understanding Shape

February 26, 2008

When designer and head of product development, Thea Mehl, visited Thomas Allen in Stoke-on-Trent last year, she felt designer envy. Having spent some of her student time in ceramics studios, she was “instantly jealous” seeing Thomas’s workbench and potter’s wheel.

Thomas is a shape prodigy – he talks about curves and transitional shapes as if he was born understanding how they relate to each other and the space they occupy. His enthusiasm for his work could make anyone jealous, designer or not, because to be that passionate about something is truly enviable.

The fact that his talent matches his passion is evident as you wander around his studio past a vast array of beautiful ceramic plates, cups, and coffee pots. But it was a simple flowerpot, sitting on a windowsill, that became the starting point for the Oyyo range he would later create.

The flower pot’s flowing shapes, a round base lifted into an oval top, became the inspiration for the range’s foundation piece: the Pot. From this starting point, Thomas developed plates, bowls, jugs and mugs – all encompassing the lightness and fluidity of his original design.

Life balanced on the edge of an…egg

February 24, 2008

Jose Joaquim is the eldest of 5 siblings of the Ribeiro family that has owned and operated Cutipol Foundry in Caldas Das Taipas, Portugal since its opening in 1952. Having taken over daily management of the business from his father – Jose Joaquim Sr. – Jr. is responsible for finding a balance between the traditions of the past – upheld by an unshakable faith in the importance of the role of the artisan – and the realities of a modern marketplace where demand for Cutipol designs stretches from Kobe to Copenhagen.

For the past 30 years, Jose Joaquim has worked to align his aesthetic preference for minimalism with the functional requirements of the objects he designs. As the Designer and Production Manager for Cutipol, he is constantly at the center of family- and company-wide collaborations. “I try to make things with a purity and simplicity. When you strip down the added decoration to the design, you need a very specific focus. I have a simple life – I enjoy the small things – simplicity is analogue to how I try to live.”

Having spent his childhood living literally next door to the foundry and accompanying his father on business trips, the balance of work and life for Jose Joaquim is somehow something more profound than it might at first seem. “It is like Columbus’ Egg,” (referring to a metaphor widely referenced in Portuguese and Spanish cultures about the apparent ease with which one can make an egg stand on its end). “The trick is to make it all look ‘effortless’ and it is the hardest thing to achieve.” With such lofty goals, we asked Jose Joaquim how he manages to measure his progress: “My father of course – he is still the owner and he visits us at the foundry every week.”

Why Thea’s Smiling

December 07, 2007

Designer Thea Mehl is happy. Having just moved back home to Oslo, Norway from London, she will be able to continue those relationships most important to her. Thea finds inspiration in all kinds of relationships, maybe because of her strong family values or maybe because as a designer she’s conscious of an object’s place in the world.

Growing up in Larvik, Thea formed a strong bond with her grandfather as she watched him build model planes, trains, and kites in his loft studio. With an architect for a father and an interior designer for a mother, design clearly runs in her blood, but it’s her determination to make the everyday simple and enjoyable that provides her with the challenges that keep her work fresh and relevant.

You can see her love for laughter in her design work, where she adds cheeky details and uses brilliant colors. Have a look at the clever lens tumblers she designed for us to see her individual take on a classic form.