The user: The modern, nomadic apartment dweller.
The problem: Limited kitchen counter and cabinet space.
The solution: Clever products that make smart use of limited room.

In modern kitchens, space is always at a premium. Designed with the urban apartment in mind (but useful to all cooks), the Urban Kitchen brand combines innovative function and space-saving utility with a clean, contemporary look.
 

Cut & Prep System: This system combines a large cutting board with multiple prep trays and eliminates the need to lift the board in order to scrape ingredients into the pot. The trays can be stacked with ingredients to reduce the counter-top footprint or stored inside the cutting board when not in use.

Folding Colander: This 2-quart colander is made from flexible rubber for compact storage.

Garlic Stash & Smash (left): This cellar keeps garlic in the dark, maintaining freshness and preventing growth. The lid also functions as a peeling mallet, allowing the chef to smash a clove and remove the skin much more safely than with the side of a knife.

Oil and Vinegar Cruets: The tops of these stylish cruets have a drip-catch bowl to keep the table clean.

City Dishrack: This dishrack provides space for the dishes from a typical dinner for two. The rubber drying mat rolls up and stores snugly inside the rack for out-of-the-way storage.

The Urban Kitchen brand was developed in conjunction with Christopher Raia Studio, Hammock Productions, and Boston Warehouse.

For more housewares, see the Greens and Animal House.

Made from an exciting new recycled material, the Greens are a premium line of kitchen goods. Gaining high retailer demand and a major award nomination before they were even available, these hand-tools have exceeded all expectations.

The line was developed with a specific plastic in mind for manufacturing: an innovative blend of recycled polypropylene and shaved wood fiber, which both reduces the amount of plastic used per product and utilizes an otherwise cast-off material. This wood-PP blend is hygenic, inexpensive, and very sturdy.

The plastic blend works best when left in earth-tone colors, which led to the Green’s development as a diverse family group. A lengthy brainstorming process led to numerous excellent concepts, which allowed us to develop all 10 items in the line simultaneously.

Through the development process, each of the character’s qualities suggested intrinsic personalities. As a result, writing the marketing copy for each individual Green came easily.

Developed in conjunction with Christopher Raia Studio and Boston Warehouse, we were all honored to have the Greens named a Finalist in the 2010 Housewares Design Awards.

For more consumer products, see Animal House and Urban Kitchen.

With a nod to Frank Gehry’s Easy Edges furniture, these dining chairs elegantly highlight both the strength and beauty of corrugated cardboard.

Made from recycled cardboard, the chairs come in two styles: the cubic Davis Bold and the jaunty Davis Italic. In both designs, the seat and back are cantilevered off of the front leg, boldly relying on the cardboard’s natural strength for structure.

The chairs have been featured in numerous publications including Architectural Record and the French edition of Playboy.

Davis Italic

Davis Bold

For other home furnishings, see the Cable Table, the AeroLamp, and the Cadence Cardboard Shelving System.

Inspired by an airplane fuselage, this halogen lamp is assembled from 15 parts in a tab-and-slot fashion; the entire structure is held together with only 2 screws.

While there are a small number of OEM parts, all of the custom parts are individually laser-cut from stock aluminum and anodized. When illuminated, the concentric nesting rings of the design cast unexpectedly beautiful shadows.

Additionally, the lamp is fully positionable: a simple ball joint both holds the plane to the base and allows it to rotate freely.

Although it’s initial run was limited to 20 copies, the AeroLamp was designed with multiple manufacturing methods in mind, for scalability. The initial prototypes were made from laser-cut balsa wood.

If you are interested in unusual manufacturing methods, you may also like to see the Cadence Cardboard Shelving System or the Greens kitchen tools.

Guiding group concept generation is a tricky business, requiring the lead to give direction without crushing ideas.

Seeking new product options for their climate technology, Oregon Scientific and the Connecticut marketing firm Fletcher Knight needed a session leader with both design familiarity and an understanding of group creative dynamics for a 2-day brainstorming session.

With each member of the 8-person team tasked to arrive with at least 3 concepts in-hand, the group started strong and quickly developed over 60 product concepts.

Session Notes

These initial concepts were winnowed down to the most exciting ideas, and illustrated in manner that both described the core concept, but left the ideas open to further interpretation.

Concept Illustrations

For further process work, see Animal House and Tendon Computer Cables.

These products are part of a line of over 30 tools that put some fun into cooking. The products’ playful natures belie a strong focus on ergonomics and function.

Co-developed with Christopher Raia Studio for Boston Warehouse, the Animal House brand quickly established itself as Boston Warehouse’s top-selling premium brand, widely available at retailers including Target and Pier One.

The development process was rigorous and detailed. Out of dozens of ideas, only a few individual concepts made their way though development, prototyping, and engineering reviews to reach manufacturing and product launch.

For more consumer goods, see the Greens, Urban Kitchen, and One packaging. Further concept development work can be seen on the Oregon Scientific brainstorming session.

Who thinks cardstock boxes layered in garish graphics and hygienic phrases is a sexy thing to leave on your nightstand? Definitely not ONE Condoms, so they brought us in to design a sleek, clean package that a modern boy or girl of today won’t mind keeping around.

The shiny stamped tin shell has minimal text to maintain discretion: It can be carelessly left on a bedside table without giving away its contents.

Flip the tin over, and the semi-translucent back hints at the contents, which are easily accessed via a hinged door.

For more consumer goods, see the Greens and Animal House

This piece of portable laboratory equipment uses X-ray spectroscopy to safely analyze material samples in the field. Launched in 2007, it received the 2007 Gold Award at the IBO Industrial Design Awards

Developed for fieldwork applications that require bench-top power, this XRF spectrometer brings together the portability of a hand-held device with the analysis quality of a laboratory-grade instrument. The award-winning design was developed with Michael Cattafe Associates.

For more molded plastic products, see Urban Kitchen, Animal House, and the Greens. Other electronic products include Tendon Computer Cables and the AeroLamp.

Show us a designer wouldn’t be psyched to develop shelving made from cardboard, and we will show you a boring wiener-kid.

This modular system uses interlocking cubes made from identical L-shaped sections. Held together firmly with wooden dowels, the cubes can be stacked and connected to create shelving of almost any size.

For related projects, also see the Davis Chairs

Nerve Action’s first self-released project, this sexy side table was created for the nomadic lifestyle of modern apartment dwellers: it packs flat, but is dead-simple to assemble:

Step 1: Insert rod. Step 2: Tighten nut.

Constructed from hand-finished Baltic birch, the table uses single a custom-machined leg and 12 standard bicycle cables for structure. It is a deceptively simple assembly process, yet both sturdy and elegant.

For more home furnishings, see the Cadence Shelving System, and the AeroLamp.