Grain at Design Within Reach's M+D+F Exhibition!

We just found out that our new chair, Cafe America (designed by James) was selected to be shown at the DWR Presents: M+D+F 2009 exhibition in Seattle on May 7th! The above image is of an early prototype of the chair which uses chain-link fence as its main structure. We are so lucky to be working with the amazing 12th Avenune Iron custom forging and fabrication shop on the final piece. We are hoping to engineer it for flat-pack shipping as well as re-use old chain-link. Very exciting!

Read about our work in the DWR Presents: M+D+F 2008 exhibition here and here where we won the Green Award. 

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What is Good Design Now?

This months issue of Metropolis Magazine is a special product issue titled What is Good Design Now?. We were happy to see our Sami Nerenberg quoted in the Products for a New Age article (p.96-99). When asked about her recent studio Design for Social Entrepreneurship at RISD Sami said:

"There is a real hunger to work on these projects. Two years ago I was part of a minority at RISD interested in these issues. Today students are looking at our economy, looking at where consumerism has led us. They want to shift away from producing excess and do something that makes them feel useful."

It was also cool to see (in the same article) the Baby Incubator by Design that Matters that James worked on with Mike Hahn while at RISD. See his contribution on the Grain website here.