Opening night of Ctrl+Alt+Design...

If you missed the Ctrl+Alt+Design opening last Friday in Seattle, here are a few (not so great) pics. I promise to go back a take some better ones before it closes on July 12th. Tricia Martin has some better shots over on her blog here and here.

Above is a handmade paper lamp shade by LiT. Below is a Tyvek bag by Meet Me Here. The following is a lighting installation by Brite Collective, Jason Neufeld's ceramics (on the pedestal), two clock designs by Stanley Ruiz, a standing lamp and chalkboard paint animals by Ladies & Gentlemen, and our Café America chair and Ty Recyclable Shower Curtain poking out from behind the crowd.

There was so much great work to see that we are definitely going back to spend a calm afternoon taking it all in. Big thanks to JOIN: Design Seattle for all hard work that went into making this show happen!

UPDATED 06/17/09: Here's a link to some great photos from opening night taken by Erik Johnson of Hankbuilt.

Ctrl+Alt+Design on Cool Hunting!!

A nice long post... with a good shot of Café America included! Read it here. If you missed the opening Friday, Ctrl+Alt+Design is up through July 12th in Seattle.

UPDATED 06/16/09: Also see a nice post about the show in the Seattle Metropolitan magazine blog, Who What When, written by Laura Cassidy here.

Bellevue By Design

If you are a Seattle-area teen interested in art and design, you should check out this new program called Bellevue By Design that Chelsea Green of Grain will be leading at Open Satellite this July 13 - 31st, 2009. The program will run Monday - Friday 10:00 am - 3:00 pm. Here is the full description:

Bellevue By Design is a three-week, college prep/intensive exploration for local teens passionate about art, design, and architecture. Participants will engage in the public and private identity-building processes of their hometown. Through meetings with local artists and community stakeholders, guided field work, and studio art making, teens will have the opportunity to reshape their city with a rich (and unexpected) array of tools and information. A final presentation of the teens’ research, process, and design solutions will be publicly presented at Open Satellite or at a Bellevue partner organization.

To learn more about the program please contact Laura O'Quin at laura@opensatellite.org or 425.454.7355.

Café America on Contemporist...

Super excited to see the big crisp photos of Café America on Contemporist today! See the full spread here. Thank you for the support Dave!

Grain presenting at GreenDrinks June 18th

Our friends at Open Satellite have invited us out to Bellevue to present at the next Eastside-Seattle GreenDrinks on June 18th 5:00 pm - 7:00 pm. We will be presenting our Ty Recyclable Shower Curtain as well as talking about some of our up-coming projects. If you are in the Seattle area, we hope to see you there. The event is sponsored by Georgetown Brewery, so don't forget to bring your own reusable cup.

The current Open Satellite exhibition is Vehicle by New York-based artist Seth Kinmont. It is an amazing installation of in-process electric cars and is not to be missed!

Bazaaro

James and I took a break from the office/studio today to meet some of our neighbors and sell our Ty Recyclable Shower Curtains at the Indie Bandita Bazaar on Bainbridge Island. We signed up on a whim and weren't sure what to expect, but it ended up being a fun day full of shower curtain conversations and sales. Our chic booth (pictured above) dazzeled passers by, and some even recognized us from the Bainbridge Review...

Tomorrow, Saturday June 6th 10:00 am - 4:00 pm, my little brother/budding entrepreneur, Tyler, will be "manning the booth" with some of his friends from Woodward Middle School. Come by after the Farmers Market and check out all the local wares!

UPDATED 06/09/09: Below photo is of our "sales associates" working the booth.

Ty on the Mother Nature Network!

Here's what Matt Hickman, eco-living expert/blogger for the Mother Nature Network, wrote about Ty in a piece titled "Against the grain" from June 2nd:

"Here’s a new PVC-alternative shower curtain that’s recently crossed my path and should appeal to those, dudes or not, looking to green-up their bathrooms: The Ty Recyclable Shower Curtain ($30) from Bainbridge Island, Washington-based, Rhode Island School of Design-founded sustainable design firm Grain. It’s made from HDPE, the petro-based but highly recyclable plastic found in shampoo bottles and the like. The Ty is, of course, PVC-free and doesn’t off-gas. It does breathe, slowing down the mold and mildew growing process and giving it a longer life. It's also ethically made in the U.S. and packaged minimally in recycled paper. In terms of design, there's not much to look at (only available in white) but I still (think it is) super cool.

Also available from Grain are two slightly more pricey but no less intriguing green items for the home: Café America ($600), an indoor/outdoor chair made from recycled chain link fencing and a bench ($500) made completely from scrap wood and clamps.

I’m looking forward to new developments from the folks at this brainy, grainy green design collective from the Pacific Northwest."

See the full post here. Purchase Ty through the Grain website here.

Reminder: Ctrl+Alt+Design June 12th - July 12th

Just a reminder... If you are in Seattle June 12 - July 12, come check out our new work at Ctrl+Alt+Design. We'll be showing with 26 other designers (see below) in this Join: Design Seattle curated exhibition.

From Seattle, WA: Brite Collective, Heath Bultman, Dreamlets, Forty-Five-09, G.S. Gartrell, Grain, Greypants, Iacoli Mcallister, Jeff LaCoste, Meet Me Here, Ladies & Gentlemen, Paul Pitacitelli, Submaterial, Urbancase

From Portland, OR: Tricia Martin, Erik Johnson

From Milwaukee, WI: Misewell

Chelsea, MA: Timothy Liles

Providence, RI: Elisa Werbler

New York, NY: Andre Claire, Charles Constantine, Sallyann Corn, Martin Gloeckle, Joe Kent, Kiel Mead, Jason Neufeld, Stanley Ruiz

The opening is June 12th, 6:00-7:00pm (all ages), 7:00pm-Midnight (21+), at Ouch My Eye 1022 1st Avenue South in Seattle. Hope to see you all there!!

Blu in USA Today!

We were excited to see our friends/clients at Blu featured in an article titled "Prefab homes sprout green designs, improve affordability" in USA Today a couple days ago.

At $135 - $175 a square foot we think that you are going to be reading a lot more about Blu in the near future! Above is a rendering of their Blu Origin home design. Read the full article here.

More Model Citizens...

These new Model Citizens photos all come from the Core77 New York Design Week 2009 slideshow. They were taken by Lisa Smith (above) and Glen Jackson Taylor (all below). We were proud to see that 18 of the 445 pics posted from the busy week were from Model Citizens. View the whole slideshow here.

Appropriated Series: Bench by Grain.

Anno Domini calendar by Stanley Ruiz.

Frame Pendants by Iacoli McAllister.

Ceramic pots by Jason Neufeld.

Bombus Shelters (buriable beehives) also by Jason Neufeld.

Shelf by e. carmichael.

NYC Metro Cuff by Design Hype.

Interior installation by Nathan Thomas Studios.

Grain at JOIN: Design Seattle's Ctrl+Alt+Design exhibition!

We have been selected to present Café America and Ty at the First Annual Design Review established by JOIN: Design Seattle at Ouch My Eye. The blind jury included Jon Junker and Seth Grizzle of Graypants, Inc, Jamie Iacoli and Brian McAllister of Iacoli & McAllister, Dylan Davis and Jean Lee of Ladies & Gentlemen Studio and John Gascon and Mike Christensen of Ouch My Eye.

The show will include the work of 26 designers and an installation piece by (knee shy) and will be up for an entire month!

Here are the details:

Ctrl+Alt+Delete

Ouch My Eye

1022 First Avenue South

Seattle, WA

June 12th - July 12th

Opening: July 12th, 6:00pm-7:00pm (all ages)

7:00pm-Midnight (21+)

Hope to see you all there! Facebook invitation here.

Thanks RISD Views!

It was cool to find Grain mentioned on a number of pages of the Spring 2009 RISD Views magazine. Firstly, our Sustainability Systems Strategist, Sami Nerenberg (also the youngest adjunct faculty member at RISD) contributed an inspiring article (pages 10-13) entitled Changing Design / Designing Change. 

Reminder: Sami needs your vote on Ideablob this week. Please support her amazing Room by Room project here. 

Secondly, Grain was grouped with our friends at Ecolect and Dawn Danby of Aylanto in a section called Designing a Sustainable Future (page 28). 

Finally, there was a nice little mention of the summer program that I led at the Seattle Art Museum last year called Re+Vision: Design Your (Neighbor)hood (page 33). 

Download the full magazine here. Thanks again RISD!

Post Model Citizens...

Thanks to everyone who came out to support Model Citizens in New York last weekend! Our favorite part of the show was getting to know all of the designers exhibiting. It was such a great community. See links to all of the participating designers here. Big thanks to Erika Carmichael for the invitation.

Above and below are some pics from the show. The ceramics in the second to last shot are by Zena Verda Pesta. The cardboard partition wall and mirror cut-outs in the last shot are by Ben Blanc.

We were thrilled to sellout of the Ty Recyclable Shower Curtains that we brought (should have packed more) and happy to have convinced many a sitter of the comfort level of our Cafe America chair.

Read more about Model Citizens exhibition (including a mention of our Cafe America chair) in the Metropolis Magazine blog post here or on Core77 here or here.

UPDATED 5/28/09: See all our photos from Model Citizens here.

Go Time! Please Vote!

Thanks to all of YOU, we're in the FINALS - but now the real competition begins! Please vote again for our Room by Room pilot here!! Or if you haven't already, please take a minute to sign up!

As an exciting update, Room by Room has gotten a grant! As part of the stimulus package, the Workforce Investment Act has chosen Room by Room as one of its pilot projects to provide job training for at-risk youth!!

Plus we have a sweet new video! See above. :-)

Thanks for VOTING!!!

Ideablobbing to the Finals

We are proud to announce that Sami has made it to the finals for her Room by Room pilot show on Ideablob!! This means she has a 1 in 8 chance of winning $10,000!!!

Voting starts again May 22nd so rev up your engines friends and get ready to vote! Competition is SUPER tough and we will need all the support we can get. 

Sign up to be a "Network Node" to message all your friends starting Friday. 

Or be a "Blog Master" to write and comment on blogs across the web to link to Ideablob!

To sign up, contact Sami : sami (at) graindesign.com

Woohoo!!!

Flat-Pack: Cafe America

Our new chair, Cafe America, which we are showing at Model Citizens in New York May 16-18, was designed to compress for flat-pack shipping. This improves shipping efficiency and saves on packing materials and costs. We can actually ship two in one box so I suggest buying a pair! Above is James demonstrating the assembly process. All that is needed is a few minutes and an allen wrench.