The Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce wouldn’t be able to attract an audience for a “Brooklyn Manufacturing Expo” outside of their own staff so every year they host the BKLYN DESIGNS exhibition. Walking around the exhibition though you are struck by how design, and by extension designers, drive manufacturing. With the collapse of manufacturing in the United States over the last few decades it’s hard to fathom just how many jobs we had in Brooklyn making things. All of the work was not only designed here in Brooklyn but as a matter pragmatism, most of it is made here.

Here are a few of my favorite things.

Tree table and stool by April Hanna

April Hannah gets the chutzpah award. She’s an artist who three months ago when she applied for a booth, saw a need, had an idea, and a couple of cardboard models. Twelve weeks later, her Tree Table Collection is debuting here. The collection, shown with a few of her artworks, as a sort of visual DNA, is smart, cohesive, well crafted (thanks in part to a brother who according to Hannah “can make anything”),and built with kids and the environment in mind.

Jeff Mayer’s bench and growing family

Jeff Mayer’s 718 Made in Brooklyn is “form follows environment”. His design and manufacturing is a direct outgrowth of his lifestyle and Brooklyn aesthetic. He’s a former professional bmx racer, a lifelong skateboarder, and denizen of the public transportation system. All of these things come through in the objects, clothing, and furniture he designs and manufactures.

Christina Fesmire’s Fugle Swing

Pratt Institute seeks to instill in all graduates aesthetic judgment, professional knowledge, collaborative skills, and technical expertise. Their booth there was evidence of a promise fulfilled. The quality of the designs and the execution did not suffer by comparison with their professional counterparts by any means. I was particularly taken by Tobin Spann’s spare, simple, beautifully executed Surface Series furniture. My other favorite work was Christina Fesmire’s Fugle Swing. Both of those students have bright futures ahead of them as long as we can get this economy moving again.

50″ long x 14″wide x 18″tall; $1200 by special order at kirbyjones.com

I was browsing This Old  House and the above piece caught my eye since I’ve been getting more requests for work made from reclaimed lumber. M. Fine in Brooklyn is my local source for old, nice pieces. Most of their wood is old growth southern pine, but I found a piece of  spalted oak in their yard and used it as a table top on steel legs. Kirby Jones, is the the designer and fabricator of the above piece. His work can be seen at  www.kirbyjones.com.  His series made from reclaimed wood is spectacular.

Just came across the spectacular work of Robert Austin Gonzalez, a Brooklyn-based designer. He’s got a smart looking site that features several collections. His Grace series consists of oak and walnut turnings that form stools and legs for tables. See below.

The George collection, pictured below, is an homage to Nakashima and uses one one of my favorite materials, corian, to construct coffee and side tables.

Additionally, the Thoughts section of Gonzalez’s site is interesting. It’s a flash file, so I can’t post it here, but it explains his design philosophy. To reach the Gonzalez, click Robert Austin Gonzalez or call 718-596-7960 for an appointment at his DUMBO studio/showroom.

]]> http://www.brooklynmodern.com/brooklyn-designer-find-robert-austin-gonzalez/feed/ 1 http://www.brooklynmodern.com/upstate-tag-sale-find-vintage-stanley-plane-fifteen-bucks/ http://www.brooklynmodern.com/upstate-tag-sale-find-vintage-stanley-plane-fifteen-bucks/#comments Wed, 09 Sep 2009 19:44:15 +0000 brooklynmodern http://www.brooklynmodern.com/?p=2472

This past Labor Day, I took a drive to the antique show in Somers, NY. On the way up, there are always garage sales, and I’ve been getting lucky finding high quality tools. The above picture is of a Stanley 78 plane that I bought for $18. Perfect condition and hardly any scratches. Good ones on EBay fetch about $100. Last year I bought a vintage English Robin Hood bike for my G.F. near High Falls for five dollars that is going for $300 in the neighborhood. If you’re into upstate antiquing, check out Cord Shows.  It has a good link section with dates, papers, and schedules. Also, if you’re into old tools this site is great: Super Tool.

Via NY Times’s The Moment Blog.
Photo by David Heald, © The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York Model of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Herbert Jacobs House #1, Madison, Wisc., 1936-37; developed by Situ Studio, Brooklyn.

In “Frank Lloyd Wright: From Within Outward,” an exhibition currently on view at the Guggenheim Museum, the models of Wright’s designs are attracting as much attention as the exhibition itself. Perhaps the most notable model is that of Wright’s Herbert Jacobs House #1 of 1936-37, the first of the architect’s pioneering open-plan, energy-efficient Usonian houses. The basswood model takes the house’s components — from its window frames to its innovative copper-piped radiant-heating system — and explodes them, so that they seem to hang in midair.

See the exhibit and watch an interview with Situ’s architects.

This and the exhibition’s five other models were designed and made by Situ Studio, a four-year-old Brooklyn multidisciplinary firm known for its cutting-edge approach to digital design and fabrication technologies. It’s current projects include fabricating a bamboo and birch lobby for One Jackson Square, a soon-to-be-completed building by Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates. The Guggenheim curators chose Situ because they were determined not to go the usual architectural-model route and they even put a clause in Situ’s contract forbidding the use of those fuzzy little hobby-shop trees. Given the museum’s ramped floors, the architects also decided to forgo the usual flat plinth on which most building models sit. Situ’s Wright models seem to grow out of the Guggenheim’s curving parapet, or cantilever off its walls just above eye level. The tabletop terrain model of Taliesin, Wright’s Wisconsin home and studio, functions as a contoured screen (complete with Monopoly-scaled versions of the property’s structures) for the projection of historic landscape reports and plot maps. The display — to which Situ is still adding data — demonstrates the depth of the young architects’ research. They admitted that before embarking on this five-month project, they had only a cursory knowledge of Wright. “He’s not taught in architecture schools like Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier,” said Bradley Samuels, one of Situ’s partners. Wes Rozen, another partner, added, “He’s more difficult to analyze.”

RANCHO CUCAMONGA, Calif.—Sam Maloof, 93, furniture craftsman and designer, died at his home in Southern California on May 21, reports the L.A. Times. Described by the Smithsonian Institution as “America’s most renowned contemporary furniture craftsman” and with a career spanning six decades, Maloof was known for shaping hardwood without nails or metal hardware into simple and modern pieces of furniture. His admirers included singer Ray Charles and former President Jimmy Carter, who used Maloof’s signature rocking chairs in the White House. In 1985, he became the first craftsman to receive a MacArthur Foundation grant. In 1957, the American Craft Museum in New York showed Maloof’s furniture in its first exhibition of studio-craft furniture. His work is in the permanent collections of New York’s Museum of Arts & Design and Metropolitan Museum of Art, as well as the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. His former home in Alta Loma, California, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and attracts 3,000 visitors a year.

Click here to visit the Maloof Foundation. Plus, here’s a thorough piece on him from This Old House. Below, Renee Russo pals around with Maloof.

Williamsburg’s A&G Merch is celebrating the launch of its A&G Mart, a section of the store that features the work of local artisans. Future Perfect’s David Alhadeff, is behind the concept of this store. Party is 6-10pm @ 111 North 6th.

[Photo courtesy of Pepper Watkins/flickr]
Gowanus Lounge writes:
BKLYN Designs Weekend, which was held at a number of sites in Dumbo, drew thousands of people to take a look at products from Brooklyn designers. There were nearly six dozen local designers, whose work was spread out over four locations including St. Ann’s Warehouse, the Tobacco Warehouse, Smack Mellon Gallery and the DUMBO Arts Center. There’s a large number of photos posted on flickr by bvicarious and some from Pepper Watkins.

By Mike Chino
DRUMROLL PLEASE…The 2009 BKLYN Designs furniture fair proved to be an incredible showcase for sustainable design, and in recognition of our favorite green designs on display we’re excited to announce the winners of our first ever BKLYN Designs Editor’s Choice Awards! As we walked through the show we were thrilled to see fresh new faces and established designers alike unveiling an inspired assortment of locally-sourced designs made from recycled materials, elegant energy-efficient lighting solutions, and beautifully crafted furniture of every fit and form. Read on for our picks for the finest trends in future-forward design!

MOST INNOVATIVE USE OF MATERIALS: FUNATURE BY HUGH HAYDEN
Hugh Hayden’s fresh new line of FUNature repurposes plastic balls into a bright bunch of furnishing solutions. We were particularly impressed with his tennis ball chair, which is composed entirely of recycled tennis balls that have lost their bounce.

BEST LIGHTING DESIGN: PAPER LAMPS BY LEVENT & ROMME
Levent & Romme’s elegant lamps consist of a single sheet of paper that has been laser-cut to let light shine through in beautiful patterns.

BEST STUDENT DESIGN: BUOY CHAIR BY EVAN DEWISTAN
Evan Dewistan’s Buoy Chair is a delightful piece of seating design that allows for a great range of mobility, encourages good posture, and is assembled without the use of any glue or fittings.

BEST KID’S DESIGN: BAMBOO KID’S FURNITURE BY ARGINGTON
Our editors were thoroughly impressed with the fit and form of Argington’s sustainably crafted kid’s furniture.

BEST OF THE SHOW: TRANSFORMING TABLE BENCH BY ECOSYSTEMS
Ecosystems’s transforming table bench stole the show with its innovative space and resource-saving design. Crafted from reclaimed wood, the multi-tasking furnishing easily transforms from a comfy bench into an expandable table.

Congratulations to all of our editor’s choice winners! Stay tuned for an in-depth look at each award-winning project in addition to more great green designs from show!