apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

(I'm remembering a Sex in the City episode where Aiden is showing his designs in a warehouse-type setting with other designers - this would be my dream.)

thanks,
Arran

Dear Arran,

The Bay Area has a healthy number of independent designers, many of them working in Oakland, but as far as we can tell (and we've been blogging this beat for more than a year now), they're not organized and there's no one-stop showroom where you can see their work. There's a loose confederation called LaunchPad, but they are not active enough as a group to sponsor shows like Brooklyn Designs.

Until someone does wrangle the independents, we have two ideas for you: Propeller and the AT:SF Designer archive.

Propeller's proprietor, Lorn, is a patron of local designers, and showcases the work of many in his Hayes Valley shop.

And here at AT:SF we've been profiling local designers since we launched in early 2006. Check out our Designer archive; the vast majority of the craftspeople featured are local.

Says indie designer Thomas Wold, (who we haven't yet profiled) "We have some local 'design' stores like Limn or Zinc, but not really any focusing on independent designers exclusively to promote what is happening on the "ground level". Propeller might be the only one. Den kind of did it too."

Anyone else?