For Refractory’s inaugural body of work and inception—forged at a moment of unprecedented change—its muse sings of a reverence for a frontier unbridled by time, when mountains were new, sandstone buttes clustered, continents drifted, and oceans receded. It speaks of mountain ranges, canyons, basins, and plateaus, shaped by deep-rooted geologic pressures and carved by powerful movements of rivers and wind. It gestures to the fire of transformation, the resilience of form and creature, the presence of materiality, and the harsh grace of natural forces. It embraces the rugged honesty of erosion, the celebration of unusual moments of irreverence, and a dedication to craft as integral to design—set in a region…
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Gallery Walk
“The annual RNDD Gallery Walk brings the local community, artists, and interior designers together in an inviting, unpretentious way. This enables the designers and artists to collaborate and showcase their highest levels of creativity, while interacting with the public via education and inspiration,” said Daniel Kinkade, founder and president of Daniel Kinkade Fine Art, a Chicago-based company that works to serve as a liaison between artists and collectors. Kinkade, an art consultant, has assisted in recruiting and curating artists to be a part of the 6th annual River North Fall Gallery Walk, which will take place on September 10 and September 11, 2021. This year’s event will feature 25 artists…
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Sustainability Deep Dive
As a shepherd of product ideas and designs for the human environment, the industrial design industry has a huge impact on the climate crisis and outstretched waste statistics around the world. To unpack this reality and connect through solutions, the Industrial Designers Society of America, or IDSA, kicked off its inaugural Sustainability Deep Dive conference last year, which tackled the complexity of imbuing the product lifecycle with sustainable processes, strategies, and experiences. This month, the conference made its second annual trek across current themes and innovations in industrial design and sustainability, and the resulting programming was a rich exploration of concrete solutions, wonderous and science-backed products, hopeful-but-firm calls to action,…
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Empathy in industry
A reusable epinephrine auto-injector; a minimalist household composter; an eco-friendly and contemporary ceramic and glass toaster: there’s no lack of innovation within University of Cincinnati alum Mary Friedl’s expanding portfolio. The industrial designer graduated from the university’s College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning last May 2020 and promptly won a competition for designing an eco-friendly toaster as a part of the Industrial Designers Society of America’s Sustainability Deep Dive 2020 conference. With an overarching goal for creating empathetic and impactful design work, Friedl has delved into design research and work that promotes health and sustainability, whether through products purposed for medical environments or those of which simply bring people…
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Venteux Chicago
Nearly a year after restaurant scenes were shaken nationwide by the coronavirus pandemic, Chicago’s Magnificent Mile will be invigorated this spring by a brand-new French café, brasserie, and champagne and oyster bar to be helmed by hospitality industry leaders, including Chicago’s youngest Michelin-starred chef. Venteux, a French adjective roughly translating to “windswept,” embodies the familiar character of the Windy City, and its culinary namesake will debut within the city’s Carbide and Carbon Building, a cultural landmark featuring Art Deco stylings and a century-old position in Chicago history. Venteux will be housed on the ground floor of the forthcoming Pendry Chicago hotel, within the Carbide and Carbon Building, and will feature…
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FlexScreen
Sourcing and installing the right set of windows is a key part of any design plan, whether for an ultramodern residential renovation, new commercial concept emphasizing biophilic design, or a spatial design project in any industry. Often, though, selecting essential accessories like window screens can receive less attention in this part of a design strategy. For Joe Altieri, CEO of the innovative, Pittsburgh-based company FlexScreen LLC, it is this specific window screen area—and its once-stagnant design themes—that has held interest since before Altieri launched FlexScreen in 2013. Altieri has made a career in the window market, along the way discovering a disconnect between the quality and progression of the window…
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Story and space
“We’re not just designers,” said Lisa Simeone, owner and co-founder of the Chicago-based interdisciplinary design firm Simeone Deary Design Group. “We’re much more than that now.” At Simeone Deary Design Group, where designed spaces are tailored to guest behaviors and expectations, the work goes well beyond design to ultimately reflect a love story of light, shape, and form. Each team member at the award-winning hospitality group has more than a singular task, but rather a holistic one as the hospitality design sectors continues to adapt and evolve with time. From brand curators, interior architects, and seasoned researchers, to historical translators for the designed environment and experiential curators for an ever-evolving…
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Ocean Intersection
Building upon its innovative and ergonomic office furnishings, the Steelcase Inc. name has come to embody a unique corporate and industrial value for sustainability. Whether through surface material partners specializing in sustainable leather or timber, or a sweeping carbon negative initiative—built off of its recent achievement of operational carbon neutrality—Steelcase Inc. of Grand Rapids, Michigan has been invested in sustainable materials and processes since inception. In one of its newest projects, Steelcase has partnered with Duvaltex, a Québec-based, leading North American office furniture textile manufacturer and engineer, and its CLEAN IMPACT TEXTILES™ brand, to create a screen and panel fabric called Intersection, which is made from Upcycled Marine Plastic. The…
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Detroit style
Between the mass production of accessible, timeless car designs, and the artistic innovation that pushed the automotive industry into each new age, Detroit’s influence on American car design, technology, and manufacturing has remained since the turn of the 20th century when Henry Ford touched down his Detroit Automobile Company and Charles Brady King test drove the first self-propelled carriage along Woodward Avenue, reaching speeds up to five miles per hour. In homage to this remarkable past, the Detroit Institute of Arts Museum, or DIA, is unveiling a special exhibition, “Detroit Style: Car Design in the Motor City, 1950-2020,” which will capture groundbreaking, artistic, and transitional moments in Detroit car design…
