Do It Yourself Douchegordijn

Huge thanks to editor Kim van Rossenberg for featuring Ty D.I.Y. Edition in the latest issue of Dutch magazine 101 Woonideeën!

Vinyl shower curtains are scary!

Matt Hickman posted a great response to the question of why standard PVC shower curtains are so dangerous to our health and environment on the Mother Nature Network yesterday. Here is an excerpt:

"...PVC vinyl shower curtains... contain the infamous and ubiquitous chemical plasticizer, phthalates, and a slew of other toxic chemicals that can easily off-gas in a hot ‘n’ steamy bathroom and pollute the air in your home. In various studies, phthalates have been linked to a myriad of health concerns including genital deformation, abnormal breast development, lowered IQs and ADHD in boys; shortened pregnancies in expectant mothers; and damage to the liver, kidney and reproductive system."

On recyclability he wrote:

"...PVC, a compound of chlorine and petroleum products, is the hardest to recycle of all the plastics and the production of it is highly polluting and releases carcinogenic dioxins into the air."

On safer alternatives he wrote:

"Mercifully, there are numerous alternatives to vinyl shower curtains made from materials like hemp, organic or non-organic cotton, and non-off-gassing EVA plastic, but be warned, you’ll probably have to pay a bit more. But as evidenced above, I think you’d agree it’s worth it. While perfectly acceptable, non-vinyl shower curtains can be found at major retailers like Bed Bath & Beyond and Target, I’m a huge fan of Grain’s Ty Shower Curtain that’s made from recyclable, long lasting and breathable — less mold and mildew! — HDPE (#2 plastic). For a couple bucks more, Grain also offers a Ty DIY Edition that comes with a permanent marker for shower curtain doodling."

Thanks Matt!

Ty D.I.Y. Edition + Mike Perry + Readymade

Check out the June/July issue of Readymade. It features our Ty D.I.Y. Edition customized by one of our favorite illustrators, Mike Perry. We have been anxiously waiting to see what he came up with, and we couldn't be more pleased!

If you like it as much as we do, you can enter to win the one-of-a-kind curtain at Readymade here.

June Real Simple on Newsstands!

We just got our copy of the latest issue of Real Simple featuring Ty D.I.Y. Edition. The editors at Real Simple suggest Ty as a good Grad/Hostess gift. We agree!

Die kleine Kunstlerin!

Our favorite emails to receive here at Grain are from people who have used our products and have really connected with them. They totally make our week!

These photos come from Julia Schenk in Germany. She worked with her Mann and six year old Tochter to customize their Ty D.I.Y. Edition and was kind enough to send us some process shots. Danke Julia!

Exclusive Ty in UncommonGoods catalog!

We put together an exclusive Ty D.I.Y. Edition kit for the Summer UncommomGooods catalog and it is finally out. The kit includes all three marker colors so you can create designs like the one below. Check out the full catalog here.

Ty D.I.Y. Edition at Urban Outfitters!!!

Yep, get them while they are hot through the Urban Outfitters website!

Grain at the Whitney Museum Store!

We are SO super excited to announce that our Ty D.I.Y. Edition shower curtains, Chi-Chi necklaces, and Electric Love rings will soon be available for purchase at the Whitney Museum Store! Big thanks to our rep Marianne!! Woo-hoo!!

Image above: "Untitled (I shop, therefore I am)" by Barbara Kruger from 1987 from here.

Zero Waste: Sold Out!

Last summer we designed Zero Waste (in collaboration with our dear friend Mika Carmichael) in response to American Design Club's call for concepts for Areaware's Design To Go.

They were looking for products that encompassed the idea of travel. We thought a bag would be a great response to that - especially one that you could add your own designs to over time. We envisioned people adding notes, maps, and other info that they collected in their everyday travel.

The final pattern for Zero Waste was made to utilize a single sheet of HDPE (leftovers from our Ty and Ty D.I.Y. Edition shower curtains) and allows for zero cutting waste, hence the name.

We didn't put much effort into spreading the word on the bag after Design To Go, but the word definitely got out and as of today we are totally sold out! Thanks so much to Commerce With A Conscience, NOTCOT, Better Living Through Design, What The Cool, Visual Therapy, and Green By Design for the recent posts.

And YES, we are working on Zero Waste 2.0!

Ty in Better Homes and Gardens!

Better Homes and Gardens contacted us a while back about an article that they were putting together on indoor air quality. The article was inspired by a recent study that found US homes often have higher levels of air pollutants than found outdoors. This is due to off-gassing building materials, paints, and products as well as mold and dust.

We are proud to have Ty and Ty D.I.Y. Edition suggested as safe alternatives to traditional off-gassing products in May's issue (see above and below). Check out the full article Breathe Easy on pages 213 - 218.

Below is a detail showing the Ty recommendation:

Target's Red Hot Shop

For the whole month of April, Target and Daily Candy are celebrating the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day with 10 products that help support a more sustainable lifestyle in Target's Red Hot Shop. We are thrilled to have Ty D.I.Y. Edition included in the mix!

Ty D.I.Y. Edition in Pregnancy & Newborn!

We just found out that Ty D.I.Y. Edition will be featured in Pregnancy & Newborn's April issue! Above and below is a sneak peak.

Ty featured on Oprah.com!!

Huge thanks to Simran Sethi for the great post on our Ty recyclable shower curtain in the second part of her article The New Loo on Oprah.com, in which Simran greens her bathroom.

Simran notes the 108 volatile organic compounds that make typical vinyl shower curtains so dangerous, and writes about Grain:

"Their Ty shower curtain is one of my most cherished bathroom items. It moves and breathes like a natural fiber, resists mold and mildew and is made from HDPE, a commonly recycled plastic."

This post was part of a yearlong project in which Simran (known as the "green messenger" by Vanity Fair) will be greening her first home, a 1925 historic two-story house in Lawrence, Kansas. Read more of Simran's posts on Oprah.com here or on her own website here.

To celebrate this post, we are offering a 15% discount on our Ty and Ty D.I.Y. Edition recyclable shower curtains now until the end of March. Just enter "OPRAH" at checkout to receive the discount!

Ty D.I.Y. Edition at RISD Works!

We just had to share the photo we received from RISD Works of their in store display of Ty D.I.Y. Edition. Kind of the best example ever! Thanks Matthew!

Best Ty D.I.Y. Edition photos ever!

We have received some great pictures of customized Ty D.I.Y. Edition's since they were launched last November, but these (found on Stomper Girl) really take the cake.

As designers, nothing makes us happier than seeing our product out in the world being enjoyed like this by super cute kids.

If you have Ty D.I.Y. Edition photos that you'd like to share, please forward to shop [at] graindesign.com. We'd love to see what you've come up with!

A+ Recap

It was a long week at the New York International Gift Fair. Our little display in the "A+: The Young Designers' Platform" was busy busy. We met a lot of great people and wrote some nice orders. The best part was getting to meet many of our buyers for the first time in person. Thanks to everyone who stopped by!

Above is our pedestal with Ty and Ty D.I.Y. Edition hanging in the background and non-profit Trash For Teaching.

The A+ wall text. You can read it in full in the press release here.

A view of Munire Kirmaci, Appree Co. and Loyal Luxe.

Marie-Pier Guilmain, Munrie Kirmaci and Jiyeon Ahn.

Ekdesign's pedestal.

A view of A+ from far corner of the booth with work by Munire Kirmaci upfront.

Steve from Trash For Teaching giving James and my Mom another lecture.

Our Electric Love rings (made of reclaimed electrical wire) in pink and white.

A view of our pedestal from above...

and with Ty and Ty D.I.Y. Edition hanging in the background.

A detail of our Sololá purses.

Display by Trash For Teaching. These are building block kits made from garment industry waste. All proceeds from their sale go to supporting the non-profit which brings waste materials into the Los Angeles school district to be used in art making programs.

Loyal Luxe's flat-pack cat house.

Lighting by Luca 12:00.

Appree Co.'s leaf shaped sticky notes.

Jiyeon Ahn of Luca 12:00 with an Electric Love ring at our pedestal.

Marie-Pier Guilmain, Maud Beauchamp, James Minola, Munire Kirmaci and Sangwoo Nam.

James Minola, Jiyeon Ahn, Munire Kirmaci and Sangwoo Nam.

And lastly... A detail of our Chi-Chi necklace prototype. Chi-Chi is handmade by artisans in Guatemala. It should be available for purchase in our shop in late March/early April.

We're going to New York!

We are thrilled to be one of the six designers invited to participate in the "A+: The Young Designers' Platform" section of Accent on Design at the New York International Gift Fair later this month. We will be sharing a booth (curated by the American Design Club) from January 31st to February 4th with the following participants:

Sangwoo Nam, Appree Co. Sangwoo Nam is a young designer from Seoul, South Korea whose functional home accessories include the “Leaf-it” self-stick memo notes in the color and shapes of tree leaves, and Waterdrop Magnetic, round translucent magnets of various sizes which function as magnets while providing an indirect link to nature.

Jung Woo Lee, ekdesign Jung Woo Lee, principal product and graphic designer at ekdesign in Seoul, South Korea, strives to incorporate expressive design into a variety of functional office products, including cardboard file folders and USB media players.

James Minola and Chelsea Green, Grain James Minola and Chelsea Green, designers from Bainbridge Island, WA, embrace a mission to unite sustainability and business through design. Grain is a design collaborative which creates and produces home and personal accessories, including the “Ty” recyclable shower curtain, made of ethically-produced, high density polyethylene (HDPE). The new “D.I.Y.” edition comes with an attached permanent marker to draw custom designs on the curtain. Minola and Green, both recipients of several design awards, met while pursuing industrial design degrees at the Rhode Island School of Design.

Marie-Pier Guilmain and Maud Beauchamp, Loyal Luxe Marie-Pier Guilmain and Maud Beauchamp are pet accessory designers based in Mont-St-Hilaire, Canada, whose products are designed and manufactured entirely in Quebec. Their showcase work is the “chalet for cats,” a cardboard house for cats or other small domestic pets. Its innovative yet humorous design is inspired by Canadian-style chalets. Both Guilmain and Beauchamp received industrial design degrees from Montreal University.

Jiyeon Ahn and Jieun Kim, Luca 12:00 This female design duo from Seoul, South Korea, creates playful lighting and other home accessories, in which everyday objects become meaningful in a new context. One of their newest designs is “Soap, a portable light,” through which a unique light lamp – in the shape and color of a bar of soap – is controlled through touch. By rubbing the lamp in the same manner as a bar of soap, users can adjust the luminous intensity, and the soap’s holder acts as a charger.

Munire Kirmaci, munire kirmaci Munire Kirmaci is an industrial, product and spatial designer based in Brooklyn, NY, who designs home accessories as well as interior spaces. Her signature piece is “Salt and Pepper in One,” a stainless steel container which stores and dispenses both salt and pepper in one piece. Kirmaci received a Bachelor of Interior Architecture and Environmental Design from Bilkent University in Ankara, Turkey, and a Masters of Industrial Design from the Pratt Institute.

We are especially excited to be showing with Munire Kirmaci - an old friend who will definitely help keep us entertained over the five days of Javits action. Big thanks to Jamie and Brian of Iacoli & McAllister (who participated last summer) for inspiring us to apply!

UPDATE 2010-01-19: Here is a link to the official New York International Gift Fair press release.

More places to find Ty in 2010...

Ty D.I.Y. Edition will soon be available at the following new retailers throughout the US and Canada:

Green Depot
Green Depot is the nation's largest green building supplier. Ty and Ty D.I.Y. Edition will be soon be available through their website and in their LIVE store in Manhattan on Bowery (between Spring and Prince).

Carbon Environmental Boutique

Our first Canadian retailer is located in the historic heart of downtown Edmonton, Alberta. Carbon’s mission is threefold – to showcase and support environmental manufacture, to encourage and fortify ethical business practices and to advocate and promote non-toxic living.

Annie's Blue Ribbon General Store
A modern general store for a well-lived life, combining the charm of a country general store with the sophistication of a modern city lifestyle in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn.

MCA Denver Shop

Founded in 1996, MCA Denver became the city's first contemporary art museum. Two years ago David Adjaye designed it's new LEED GOLD Certified home in lower downtown. As of last week, you can find Ty D.I.Y. Edition's in their great museum shop.

risd|works

Located in Providence, every item featured is designed and made by Rhode Island School of Design alumni and faculty. All profits from risd|works sales are returned to RISD for use in furthering its mission.