Guatemala Bound!

A couple weeks ago we found out that we received a grant from the Guatemalan Exporters Association to travel back to Guatemala to work on some new product development. Today we made it official by booking our flights for September.

The goal of the trip is to visit with some new artisan communities as well as attend the largest craft fair in Central America. Above and below are a few pictures from our 2006 trip where we visited Antigua, Chichicastenango and several villages surrounding Lake Atitlan.

Needless to say, we are beyond excited and can hardly wait for September!

Grain Sale on Fab.com!

Our first sale with Fab.com will be live tomorrow Tuesday July 26th!

The three day sale will feature Grain personal accessories and home products at big discounts including exclusive colors (see photo below) of our Electric Love rings. If you don't already have an invite, email us at shop [at] graindesign.com and we'll see what we can do to get you one.

Happy shopping!

Welcome Nina + Robyn!

We are super excited to have two new interns with us for the summer. Nina and Robyn (pictured above left to right) are both Seattle-area natives, friends and sophomores at the Rhode Island School of Design. They will be working on a number of projects while they are with us, but they can't seem to get enough of making, so we are keeping them busy with lots of Electric Love ring production as well as Bound mirror wrapping starting next week.

Here are short bios that Nina and Robyn put together for us with links to their work:

Nina Raizel: "I am a rising sophomore at RISD, majoring in jewelry. When not making jewelry, I love beading, knitting, sewing, working with wood and metal, doing taekwondo, and baking cupcakes. I enjoy interning for Grain because of their innovative designs and their dedication to using sustainable materials. You can see my work on Etsy here."

Robyn Luk: "Having discovered an interest in woodworking and furniture design over wintersession, I will be studying Furniture Design when I return to RISD in the fall. My curiosities include the workings of sustainable design and business in this field, hence my enthusiasm about interning at Grain. During my spare time, I enjoys wildlife photography, woodworking, baking, and reading. Feel free to check out some of my work here."

Here's to a fun summer on Bainbridge!

Field trip to Selfridges!

On our recent trip to London, we checked out the Supermarket Sarah installation at Selfridges and found our Chi-Chi necklaces and Electric Love rings happily on display.

New Products in the Grain Shop!

The new website has been pushed back a couple weeks, but in the meantime, all our new products are up in the shop. Above are our new Bound wall mirrors available in 16" Dia and 24" Dia. Below is our Hung wall mirror and our Spool modular system.

Much more in the shop or check out our online catalog!

Team Players

Yes, there is strength in numbers! Huge thanks to Jess Chamberlain of Sunset for her continued support of all of us at JOIN and her fun piece in the latest issue of Sunset featuring a full page pic of our fearless founders, Jamie and Brian of Iacoli & McAllister.

Post Design Week Press

We had an amazing time in New York last week. We're still processing, but wanted to share a few links from the nice press we received. Thanks to everyone for their support!

At the airport, we were excited to find our Bound hand mirrors mentioned in the New York Times' Three Design Shops Popping Up in New York. For a recap from the Noho Design District (where we showed work with the American Design Club and Sight Unseen), here is a great summary from Sight Unseen.

While we were setting up our ICFF booth, we found this nice post from Laura Cassidy's Wear What When blog for Seattle Metropolitan Magazine featuring our work along with fellow Seattle designers: Greypants, urbancase and Iacoli & McAllister.

After ICFF, we were happy to read that we were selected by Inhabit as part of the Best Green Furniture Design at ICFF 2011 (see above) as well as one of 15 Young Designers and Collectives to See at ICFF according to Apartment Therapy.

We also wanted to send thanks to Jess Chamberlain of Sunset for her ICFF 2011 (some Seattle-based faves), Ghislaine Viñas of Interior Design for including our Bound hand mirrors in a nice post from the Noho Design District, and Carl Collins of Core77 for including our Bound wall mirror in their Noho roundup.

Views from ICFF

Here are a few quick glimpses into booth 849 at the International Contemporary Furniture Fair showing our new Spool wall system, small hemp wrapped Bound mirror, manilla threaded Hung mirror and Iacoli & McAllister's Large Frame Light Cluster. Our new website will be up next week. In the meantime, info on all the new products can be found in our online catalog.

New York Design Week

It's kind of unbelievable that it is almost time for New York Design Week again, but we've been busy and are super excited for this year. With a new website (launching May 13) and several designs debuting at the International Contemporary Furniture Fair and Noho Design District, it will be one whirlwind of a week.

If you are in New York, come visit us at the following:

International Contemporary Furniture Fair

Saturday May 14 - Monday May 17

10:00 am - 5:00 pm (closes 4:00 pm May 17)

Jacob Javits Center

655 West 34th Street, Booth 849

American Design Club Presents: Use Me

Friday May 13 - Monday May 16

12:00 pm - 7:00 pm

The American Design Building at Great Jones Lumber

45 Great Jones Street

Sight Unseen Pop-Up Shop

Friday May 13 - Monday May 16

12:00 pm - 7:00 pm

The American Design Building at Great Jones Lumber

45 Great Jones Street

Grain at Poketo

We're loving the new photos of Poketo's spring collection of artist tees and dresses paired with our jewelry which you can also find in their online shop.

Looking for summer intern...

Our beloved intern Claire is leaving us in June after a year of amazing work. It is going to be difficult to fill her shoes, but we are on the hunt for a new intern (or two) to start in late June. Here is what we are looking for:

As our summer intern, you will have an opportunity to contribute to all aspects of our design consultancy and studio from research, to design process, to production assistance, to a variety of administrative projects. Knowledge of Adobe software and confidence in design drawing and model making is ideal.

This position would be a great fit for an Industrial Design or Furniture student, though we can tailor the position for a Graphic Design, Textiles or Architecture student as well.

Our focus this summer will be working on the growth of our in-house product and furniture line, which we show annually at the New York International Gift Fair and International Contemporary Furniture Fair.

Our home studio is on Bainbridge Island, a 35 min ferry commute from downtown Seattle. The position is unpaid, but we do cover ferry costs, lunch and coffee.

We are looking for someone who could start around June 27th and work through the summer. Full-time would be ideal, but we would be open to part-time as well. We could accommodate two interns.

To apply, please send portfolios and resumes to Chelsea chelsea [at] graindesign.com.

UPDATE 04/25/11: Huge thanks to everyone who applied. We are happy to report that the position has been filled. We will be looking for more interns in the fall so please continue to email info to Chelsea if interested in future postions.

Spotted at Anthropologie!

Big thanks to Ben Blood for spotting our custom cosmetic bags for Anthropologie in their New York store!

Seattle Mini-Boom

Big thanks to John Rambow for the great article on JOIN and the Seattle design scene on Fast Company's blog today! We always love being mentioned along with our fellow JOIN'ers: Iacoli & McAllister, Ladies & Gentlemen Studio and BLK Pine.

Grain at Anthropologie!

Our custom Sololá cosmetics bags for Anthropologie are finally available!

Several months ago we started a collaboration with Anthropologie when one of their buyers spotted our Sololá purse. We worked with them to create this custom cosmetic bag using the same vintage huipils that we source in Guatemala. Each bag is totally different. You can find them online and in selected stores here in the US and UK.

N.E.E.T. Magazine

We just wanted to give a quick thanks to N.E.E.T. Magazine for featuring Electric Love, Sololá and Bound in their March issue. N.E.E.T. is an "eco-friendly, grassroots style bible for the digital age" founded in 2005 in the UK and we're thrilled to be included throughout the issue. Thanks again Stephanie!

2010 Donation Time!

As part of our 1% for the Planet commitment, we are proud to announce donations to The Organic Seed Alliance, PCC Farmland Trust, The Nature Conservancy, and the National Park Foundation. 

We selected these organizations because of their great local initiatives, both social and environmental, and because we have directly enjoyed the results of their work in the past year; from the trails we walk to the food we eat. 

As members of 1% for the Planet, we donate 1% of our annual sales to environmental causes. Thanks to everyone who supported us in 2010 for helping to make this donation possible!

JOIN @ NYIGF

A few quick pics from the JOIN booth at the New York International Gift Fair. We'll be here until Friday in booth 3916...

BLK Pine

plainMADE

Ladies & Gentlemen Studio

Iacoli & McAllister

R&L

Grain

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