Industrial designer and architect Gianfranco Zaccai – focus of this week’s Why Design series on Herman Miller – prefers to draw his inspiration from real world interactions. From redefining simple tasks like cleaning floors to improving the quality of the patient care experience, Zaccai creates better living through design. This week’s roundup explores just of few of those creations.
Industrial designer Matthew Plumstead is having quite a year. The Cranbrook grad debuted his wall-mounted valet, Clip Tree (above), at the ICFF in New York where it was an ICFF Studio award winner. With raves from the press and public, he decided to bring the Clip Tree to market via Kickstarter. Recently, Matthew founded a design studio, McCarty Quinn, in Saint Paul, Minnesota, with a focus on useful and contemporary home and office products. Take a listen to the music that’s inspired him along the way in this week’s Playlist.
Yves Béhar has thoughtfully envisioned and realized the future of design through countless products, from shoes to mobile apps to task seating. Celebrating the first featured designer in Herman Miller’s new “Why Design” series (launching today), Lifework presents six items that represent Béhar’s innovative portfolio of design solutions.
Whether experimenting with air, space, light, or form, the work of designer J. Kyle Daevel inhabits the dimensional world with equal parts precision and imagination. After receiving his BFA from the University of Memphis, Kyle moved on to an MFA at Cranbrook Academy of Art. Since then his studio has output everything from furniture to graphic design to public art. His eclectic work is complemented by his equally eclectic taste in music. This week’s Playlist explores the musical dimension he inhabits.
Along with partner Brendan Young, designer Vanessa Battaglia founded UK design consultancy Studiomold in 2003 to provide product development and interior design to local and international clients like Aeon, Touchtile, and John Lewis. In 2010, the pair founded Mineheart and produced a “lovable collection” of lighting, accessories, wallpaper and more. Vanessa shares the melodies behind her design in this week’s Playlist.