For Megan L. Schnitker, owner and founder of Lakota Made LLC in Mankato, Minnesota, plants have a purpose. It is a purpose that can take on many forms, serving as food and medicine, teacher and healer, and to her, it is one that has also evolved organically over the years through Lakota Made to serve as a powerful vehicle in…
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Social design
To Diego Olivero, an award-winning multidisciplinary designer whose portfolio transcends object, landscape, and installation in a rich study of people, place, and process, design can serve as a powerful catalyst. It is expansive and dynamic in its role as a vehicle of social change and impact, and a platform for sustainability and innovation. It can be deeply personal and steeped…
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Made to measure
Theodore Alexander Furniture has become synonymous with widely available, luxury home furnishings for the modern residence, with stockists and showrooms around the world. One of these showrooms is housed in the Michigan Design Center in Troy, Michigan, and together with its series of Ralph Lauren Furniture offerings provides visitors from around the Midwest with the best of the global design…
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Crafted legacy
Despite the rise of industrialization in the 19th century and the technological revolution of the late 20th century, craftsmanship has endured. It is an art and craft of making; bridging the gap of alienation between maker and material left in the wake of growing assembly lines, mass-scale production, consumer culture, and an age of digital landscapes. Even as machines replaced…
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Design Corner: Eucalyptus
Earlier this spring, Motawi Tileworks in Ann Arbor, Michigan released one of its latest handcrafted tile additions: the 4-by-12-inch Eucalyptus art tile, which depicts the gentle draping and verdant growth of Eucalyptus trees in the Pacific Northwest. Motawi, an eclectic art and installation tile crafter, is known for its intricate, handmade tiles inspired by painters, illustrators, lithographers, and designers, from…
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Exploration in organic
Elegantly minimal and a composition of precise and savory intersection of wood and metal, the growing, ready-made collection within the Edgework Creative furniture portfolio are versatile and accessible in nature. The creative fabrication studio based in Columbus, Ohio, embraces a mission to make quality, handcrafted furniture a part of everyday life, bringing functional and beautiful furnishings to modern residential and…
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Material craft
For the small team of artisans at Edgework Creative, a furniture, millwork, and metalwork studio in Columbus, Ohio, growth has been swift and fast ever since their DIY effort at creating a new kitchen table seven years ago erupted into requests for custom furnishings from their surrounding community. Their portfolio now includes hundreds of custom projects in the commercial and…
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Artful tile
Since its founding in 1992, Ann Arbor, Michigan-based firm Motawi Tileworks has been redefining the role of tile installations in residential and commercial spaces with its artful, handcrafted tile designs. Depictions of a snowscape at dawn, Amaryllis in bloom, and indigo tulip buds are only some of the designs offered through its extensive art tile collection, which is also highly…
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Project Atigi
Nearly one year ago, Canada Goose Inc., a luxury performance wear brand in Toronto, Ontario, launched its social entrepreneurship program known as Project Atigi in partnership with the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, or ITK. The representational organization is the national voice for the four Inuit regions of Inuit Nunangat, representing Inuvialuit, Nunatsiavut, Nunavut, and Nunavik in northern Canada. The first…
