DWR People: Touring the Emeco Factory.

Over the next few weeks we'll introduce you to some of the folks at Design Within Reach. In the “hot” seat this week is Kari, who’s in charge of Classic products.

“I recently toured the Emeco factory in Pennsylvania, where I saw 1006 Navy Chairs being made from start to finish. Sixty-five years of history can be seen everywhere in this facility, like the railroad tracks on the factory floor, recalling a time when trains pulled into the center of the building to pick up chairs for government orders. But it is the people at the Emeco factory that really bring this place to life. There is a sense of heritage, craftsmanship, family, community and dedication at Emeco. They all seem to have a ‘let’s not do it unless we do it right’ attitude, and they inspect each chair as though their life depended on it.

“We just launched the 1006 Navy Chair with a wood seat and I think it is a testament to Emeco’s ability to stay relevant without sacrificing the traditions that have made them a success. They have proven that if you stick to a design that works, and materials that are honest and continue to hone your craft, then you’ve got a product (and a customer) that will last a lifetime.”

- Kari W. DWR Classics Dept.

Smart people thinking about longevity.

Via Mediabistro we heard about an interesting advance in green design: long-lasting concrete. Engineers at MIT have identified the cause of “concrete creep,” which is essentially the degradation of the most frequently used building material on earth. Getting down to the nano level (some serious science speak going on there), they’re figuring out how to create concrete that can last hundreds of years instead of tens. That’s smart design.

Good, sound design.

El Paso, Texas-based musician Jay Hardtke didn’t realize how versatile his Toto Cube Lamps would be when bought them. “They’re certainly a mixture of function and aesthetics,” he says. “The soft glow fills up space warmly, and I can use them to sit on or as end tables.” Hardtke uses the multifunctional piece as a perch for practicing his craft. He sees a parallel between fine craftsmanship in furniture as well as guitars: “As much as I like modern, clean design, I gravitate towards old guitars, old Gretsches in particular. I had Saul Koll repair a few of my guitars and liked his work so much that I decided to have him build two for me, which are really amazing instruments. You can tell they were made by someone – the imperfect quirks from being handmade give them a soul that big factory guitars just don’t have.” Check out some of Jay Hardtke’s music here.

Victorious again.

Provocateur, artist, educator, designer and author of soon to be released American Badass, James Victore gave an inspiring presentation last Tuesday, hosted by AIGA New York. Victore’s talk was titled “How to Stay Hard,” and in typical fashion, he admitted first thing that he called it a “how to” solely to attract an audience. From his start as a wide-eyed teen wanting to make great posters, Victore has achieved resounding success with clients including Time magazine, the New York Times, Aveda and Yohji Yamamoto. He counts among his greatest achievement being chosen for the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art. Victore’s present work includes “Dirty Dishes,” which are plates featuring his characteristic marker drawings. When he started the project he drew on purchased plates, but now he has moved on to actually getting his hands into raw clay: He says the physical “makety makety” of throwing the plates keeps the project interesting. A cleaner project was his illustration of the first two lines of an upcoming Steven King release, which Victore drew directly on the torso and legs of supermodel Bar Refaeli (at this point in the presentation MAC Cosmetics got a shout-out for providing the right tools for this unusual application). Victore shared some of his more personal work, including the “Coffee Notes” he and his wife Laura make for one another daily, and the illustrated DWR catalog that he created for his proclaimed mentor and DWR CEO, Ray Brunner. Part of Victore’s work is educating and mentoring aspiring designers, and AIGANY is running an eBay auction of several items created by Victore to support their presentation and mentoring programs. DWR donated a James Victore surfboard and a one-of-a-kind nesting doll set that Victore customized for our Tools for Living store. Place your bid.  

Adventures in design at ICFF.

For the design-minded, the International Contemporary Furniture Fair is pretty much a great time. Not only did DWR host five events over the course of the week, but there were some outstanding things to check out at the show itself. A few highlights follow. 

National Planter Project: Keep Austin modern.

Mark Word, who started his design/build company Mark Word Design in 2003, was pretty jazzed by the Gratia Square and Orb planters we sent him. “Their pure geometries and large scale give them such a powerful presence in a space,” he explained. Inspiration for the square planter came from a friend’s gardening book from the 1950s: “I saw a photo of ligularia and aloes. I liked the way the sculptural aloes contrasted with the soft round leaves.” By chance he saw this combination again while at a nursery. “My memory was jolted by the sight an aloe a few steps from a group of ligularia (Ligularia tussilaginea or ‘jitsuko star’),” he explains. Aloes and ligularia have different watering requirements, so Word filled the pot is with fast-draining soil and will water frequently to accommodate both. He finished the pot with an old fashioned pelargonium (“Coho”) and a tiny chartreuse sedum (Sedum makinoi). “I opted for a reserved tone that offered a hint of color as a complement to the dark chocolate black.”

Word took a different approach with the Gratia Orb. “While searching for just the right specimen to flatter the orb, I came across a beautiful bonsai bald cypress (Taxodium distichum) just coming into leaf,” he says. “Its angularity, fragility and height complement the bold rounded form of the planter. I could imagine it in a black and white Julius Shulman photo of a Case Study house.” The planting was finished with mood moss. 

National Planter Project: Desert delights.

With over 30 years of experience in landscape architecture, William Kopelk, the founder of InsideOutside in Palm Springs, has an intimate understanding of the modern desert garden – he was hired to revamp the garden at Richard Neutra’s Kaufmann House. “For that project, I employed my classic four-step approach to customize the gardens for my client; Analyze, Evaluate, Create a Design Solution and Implement. The result was a total utilization of ground and air.” He took the same approach with our New Pot 50 Planter. We asked him to fill it with plants that thrive in the Palm Springs desert. His first stop was Moorten Botanical Garden. “They’ve been here in the desert since 1938,” explains Kopelk. There he chose Echeveria Lucita (a hybrid of Echeveria runyonii) and Aloe nobilis (Gold Tooth Aloe). “Both do well in protected areas and require little water. The Aloe’s flower attracts hummingbirds in the summer.” As a trick to ensure good drainage – crucial for keeping these plants happy – Kopelk used plastic packing peanuts inside a mesh bag beneath the soil. This desert-happy planter now sits on the patio of Palm Spring’s Towers Condominiums.

From the CEO: The “new” economy.

All this talk about a new economy and a changing consumer ethos gets one thinking, especially when your livelihood depends upon selling stuff to consumers. So first I had to find out the real meaning of ethos. 

ethos –noun 1. The fundamental character or spirit of a culture; the underlying sentiment that informs the beliefs, customs or practices of a group or society; dominant assumptions of a people or period. 

It appears our “new ethos” is all about value, and perhaps changing our disposable goods habit. Being old enough to remember a time before chain stores and disposable everything, the new ethos seems a bit like the way my parents lived and the manner in which I was raised. As the saying goes, everything old is new again. 

You see, depression-era parents who made it to the middle class and placed value on quality and longevity of products raised me. In fact, we just moved my 86-year-old mother out of her house and in with us (a story for another time), and she still has the same furniture she bought in 1956, and it still looks great. 

Now, as someone who makes a living selling furniture, this can be concerning at first. 

National Planter Project: Geoffrey Nimmer on Long Island.

“As a garden designer, I have always stood in awe of and had great respect for the process of nature,” says Geoffrey Nimmer, president of East End Garden Design in Water Mill, New York, “But this time of year, it is so satisfying to jump start spring just a little.” We sent Nimmer a tall Gratia Planter Box to fill with seasonally appropriate flora that thrives in the Northeast, and he decided to bring in spring with some flowers. While visiting the nursery, Nimmer got inspired by Helleborus orientalis (Lenten Roses), which is an evergreen perennial that blooms in early spring. “When they’re done flowering,” explains Nimmer, “I will plant them in the shady garden and they will bloom year after year.” He filled in around the Helleborus with Ranunculus asiaticus (Turban Ranunculus), which are an annual and won’t make it into the warmer months. “Those will end up in the compost pile.” And finally, to fill in the bare spots around the others, he used Viola odorata (Sweet Violet): “I could put them in my garden when they are finished blooming, but they tend to re-seed like crazy and will end up everywhere. Even though these are the violets of song and story, I believe their fate is the same as the Ranunculus.” Nimmer’s website, which is here, is coming soon. Or, you can get in touch with him at eastendgardens at aol dot com.

A stool by any other name.

Designer Jennifer Levy had a client with a very small bathroom and some really good taste. “The concept for this tiny room was ‘inside out,’” says Levy, “inspired by potting shed and barn images.” Based in Brooklyn, they looked high and low for a small pedestal sink that would suit the concept. Inspiration came in an unlikely place: the Marais 30" Stool, which she picked up at DWR’s Brooklyn Heights Studio. “I love the utilitarian, industrial, yet elegant quality of the stool,” Levy explains, “and it turned out to be a perfect fit for the small space and the vibe of the room.” Learn more about it here.

Stay tuned to the DWR blog over the next couple of months to learn how you can submit ideas on using DWR product to solve design and furnishing dilemmas.