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... More

The work of Bettina Nissen mines the trappings of everyday living, drawing its symbolism, shapes, and even routines into the designs. Based in the UK, Bettina contrasts materials, colors, and other elements with her own wit and curiosity. The result - like her recent "Blurbs Coat Rack" - is a unique, instantly engaging line of home accessories, furniture, lighting, and more. Explore Bettina's studio, work, and music's impact in this week's Playlist. More

In the 13 years since Iris A. Brown Design was founded, Iris has collaborated with a non-stop cavalcade of creatives inside the vibrant New York City design community and its pulsing cultural machine. Her upbeat style and inexhaustible attention to detail has produced work for iconic NY institutions like Lincoln Center and the 92nd Street Y, as well as theaters, non-profits, wine importers, and textile manufacturers More

Photographer Clark Lara expresses his art by taking pictures of weddings in Houston, Texas, and the surrounds. See his studio space -- as well as what may be his most photogenic subject: his scene-stealing dog -- in this tour filled with modern Herman Miller designs (we spy an Embody Chair at the desk) as well as an impressive collection of vintage Eames and Nelson pieces. More

NYC artist Laura Hughes is a jack of all trades, with a career that started in photography and shifted, most recently, into needlepoint (her blog Meanderings in Thread might certainly have been Alexander Girard-approved). Take a look at Laura's combination home/work space in the middle of Manhattan in this office tour. More

What do Shaolin racoons, Apaches, magic, Jedis, and Herman Miller SAYL Chair have to do with TP1, the digital agency recently named "Montreal's Coolest Office Space"? Read on to find out and to take a look inside the award-winning walls of this creative company specializing in online, print, and media campaigns for private and institutional organizations, as well as artistic associations like the Montreal FRINGE Festival.
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Growing up in Japan, designer Akira Yoshimura developed a keen tactile sense and early appreciation of distinctive forms and objects. His passion for aesthetics and keen ability to express beauty through the manipulation of dimension laid the foundation for ShyShadow. Formed in 2007, ShyShadow produces an array of products from paper to furniture to home goods, seeking to promote a unique interaction between people and the products they use. Akira shares the unique interaction between himself, his work and his musical tastes in this week's Playlist. More

One by Four is a design studio and collaborative comprised of four friends: Brian Haines, Alejandra Abad, Natasha Maria Fernandez-Fountain, and Bruno Torquato. The partners met in high school and wanted to create a collective for their creative projects. Bouncing between Brooklyn and Ft. Lauderdale, One by Four serves as a design hub for sharing everything from fonts and custom Tumblr themes to monthly mixtapes -- making this studio the perfect candidate for this week's Playlist. Take a listen. More

With an affinity for playing and experimenting with raw materials, designer and product developer Martha Alvarez specializes in ceramics, but that's hardly all. From clay to computer, her work rolls between the physical and the digital -- in her inherited Mirra Chair no less ("I love it ... the Mirra is perfect for this," she says) -- where Martha also does stage design, product design, and photography. This eclectic range of creativity yields an equally eclectic and enjoyable set of songs for this week's Playlist. More

David Bridges, president and CEO of thelab, a media arts company headquartered in New York City, recently gave us a tour of his company's space in the Terminal Warehouse Company Central Stores Building, formerly a railroad freight terminal and the location of the infamous Tunnel nightclub (the curved structure in its reception area, above, pays homage to the building's history). Here, David talks about the advantages of an open, collaborative workspace and gives us a look at thelab's extensive collection of Herman Miller pieces, both vintage and new. While the photos barely do the large office justice (stay tuned for a video tour coming soon), they do give a glimpse at what it takes to be a thoroughly modern workspace. More