The Cork Booklift is the perfect baking companion. If you’re not familiar, the cork booklift is a solid cork book stand that keeps your page open and your cookbook out of harm’s way. All the while, it keeps your page at a nice comfortable reading angle.
When the counters are floury and your hands are covered in butter, you’ll be glad to have a helping hand in the kitchen.
Check out Damein's favorite cookie recipe courtesy of "The Joy of Cooking" and Mrs Toll-house herself.
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We first approached designing the Marco Tray with a simple plan, find a pool shape that told a story, and also worked well as an accessory tray. Once we found the right shape, we could make a metal tray and make it just the right shade of blue to put a little Summer nostalgia in your home.
After pouring through pool manufacturer's catalogues, I learned a few things. First of all, most pools were designed and named a long time ago so the names are charmingly dated. Celebrity, Oasis, Magellan, Tradewinds; I am both rolling my eyes and kind of loving it.
The second thing was that the Kidney pool is perfect. It's a lovely organic shape for swimming and for storing a wallet, keys or whatever. It's an iconic shape full of nostalgia. The edge beautifully oscillates around from a tight S curve to a long lazy arc.
I assumed the Kidney pool was design in the 50’s and I was amazed to find out that it actually goes back to prewar Finland, designed by none other than Alvar Aalto! The guy who made this:
And this:
It's easy to see Aalto’s connections from that glass vase to a curvilinear swimming pool. And to tell the truth, his kidney pool was just a stop along the way to the kidney pool you picture in your mind. It wasn’t until the 60’s that it started to coalesce into the singular form we picture today.Locking down the color was critical for this product. We pawed through a couple hundred blue powder coat samples and found the best one that captures the memories of Summertime spent playing Marco Polo in the pool. And thus, Marco is the name we decided to give this tray because we couldn't bear trying to sell a Kidney tray.
How big is it?
Roughly 10 by 21 cm or 6" by 8". Its a comfortable size for most things that fit in your pocket.
Why is called the Marco Tray?
After settling on the kidney pool shape we really wanted to drive the point home the the name. When we think of pools it evokes childhood memories of playing Marco Polo under the hot Summer sun.
What’s it made out of?
Its hard to tell in a photograph on the internet but the Marco tray is made from 1.5mm thick carbon steel that's been powder coated.
Does it come in other colors?
Nope. As its form takes inspiration from Alvar Aalto's iconic kidney pool design we've naturally decided to make it swimming pool blue.
What will it hold?
Most anything you carry in your pocket! Such as;
The tetra puzzle started as an intuition: A tetrahedron (pyramid) has four corners and four faces, so there was a gut feeling we could break it up into four equal parts and build a puzzle from that idea.
For starters we broke the four corners out away from the center. But to make them interlock, they would each have to donate a piece back to their three neighbors. After a lot of trial and error, we were able to determine the right angles that would let the four parts slide open simultaneously.
With this theory in place, it came down to printing it out and trying. Even at this stage, you can get a puzzle printed and then find out it is no challenge at all... or it functions but isn’t really any fun. It’s an unpredictable process. So there are a lot of “puzzles” on the shelf that will never be made for one reason or another.
We’re stoked that the Tetra puzzle captures that little spark of joy that a good puzzle should. We’re thrilled to see it brought to life by our friends at Craighill. Thanks to them and almost 2 thousand backers on Kickstarer the Tetra puzzle will be available this winter.
For even more on the tetra puzzle and how it came to be check out the Kickstarter campaign here.
]]>The Cork booklift is a simple block of cork that holds books and tablets at a gentle angle. It all started as a simple cookbook holder. We built a couple prototypes and it worked beautifully. Those prototypes ventured into every other room of my house. Reading on the couch, studying for exams, playing an iPad game, it's a constant companion now. Convenient for cookbooks, iPads, coffee table books, and bedtime reading.
On the coffee table, thick, photo-filled books can rest opened, displaying beautiful pages all the time.
On the countertop it holds cookbooks up out of the mess and frees up space for tools and ingredients.
On your lap, the booklift helps hold the page, freeing up your hands to hold a coffee, a pencil or just to lean on a pillow.
Flipped over, the flat bottom holds tablets at a position easier to reach and read.
On a desk or table it lifts up the book and frees up space for notes, or a laptop; dramatically improving ergonomics, as well.
Initially devised as an elegant cookbook holder. With no clamps, no adjustments and no set up. We built a couple prototypes and it worked beautifully. But then it took on a life of its own. Those prototypes ventured into every other room of my house.
To the coffee table, where thick, photo-filled books can rest on an opened page all the time. On my lap, the booklift holds book covers open just enough to hold the page, freeing up my hands to hold a coffee, a pencil or just to lean on a pillow. Flipped over, my iPad crossword puzzle became way easier to reach and read. On a desk or table it lifts up the book and frees up space for notes, or a laptop; dramatically improving ergonomics, as well.
The booklift works by tilting the book forward 10 degrees reducing glare of overhead lights. It also lifts the book 20mm up, bringing it closer to you, making reading and page turns easier. This has the added benefit of protecting the book from anything that might be on the table or counter surface. The top faces hold the book 90% open, which helps the book stay on the right page while the cork surface grips the cover without any need of a bottom ledge. A gentle groove gives the spine some space so it isn't crushed on the table. Flipped over, it's perfectly flat which grabs onto phones and tablets with ease making gaming, scrolling and Sunday crosswords all more comfortable. When it’s not in use, 90 degree sides allow it to rest alongside the books on the shelf.
" This whole project started out of a desire to make cookbooks easier to manage in the kitchen and actually cook with. They take up a ton of counter space and common kitchen lighting glares off the pages. A little tilt and lift makes a huge difference. With the booklift at work, the cookbook now floats above the countertop keeping the book safe from the wet, messy surface. "
A cork oak’s bark is harvested every ten years or so over its’ 200 year lifespan, removing CO2 from the environment the whole time. The removal of the cork from the trees is fully sustainable (it's still done by hand to avoid damaging the tree). The cork oak evolved its thick protective bark to protect itself from insects and forest fires. Cork is water-proof, fire-proof, insect-proof, insulating and hydrophobic so it’s resistant to stains. At the end of its life, cork is recyclable and composable.
The world's best cork comes from Portugal. We’ve worked with a factory there to get a quote and make a set of prototypes. As soon as we’re funded, we will be able cut permanent aluminum tooling to make production units at larger quantities.
Please help us being this project to life without your support we could never make wonderful products like this. So if you believe in this project support it by backing it on Kickstarter.
Thanks so much
-Nate and Damein
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The Convex bottle opener is a reflective stainless steel ball ready to de-cap any beer or beverage. It’s made from a huge industrial ball bearing intended for use in heavy machinery, but re-imagined as a modern bottle opener.
With it's mirror-polished, spherical form, it beautifully warps and reflects its surroundings. It is made from super durable 304 stainless steel so the Convex bottle opener is designed to last a lifetime.
A hexagonal hole provides the leverage for gripping caps as well providing a sturdy base to prevent the ball from rolling when not in use.
A beautiful tool somewhere between ostentatious display and subtle camouflage. In some ways, it matches any room instantly, but it's also flashy and attention grabbing. A functional piece of art.
Inspiration
Convex mirrors are everywhere in our world. An astronaut’s face shield, a school bus safety mirror and in this case: huge ball bearings used to support industrial equipment. From mining machines to windmills, these balls are used to support heavy moving parts and reduce wear and tear.
We sourced some of these baseball sized bearings and realized what an opportunity there was. A single ball held in the hand is mesmerizing. Like some sort of magic trick, it warps your face and the whole room into an infinite, tiny space. We packed that experience into a useful object that you can keep around all the time.
How it came to be
We planned a method for machining the ball bearing into a bottle opener by machining all the way through the solid ball and peeking through the opposite side to leave just a tooth remaining. Just enough tooth to open a bottle, but we quickly learned how hard it is to machine stainless steel: We got a quote back for $72 a unit and decided to rethink the plan.
This was actually a lucky mistake. After learning that we couldn’t machine that much material away, we dug deeper and discovered hollow ball bearings. Typical bearings (like the ones in a skateboard wheel) are solid but larger balls are commonly hollow to reduce weight and material usage. With a hollow ball, we could use laser cutting to create the finished product, a much more affordable option, finally bringing this project into the realm of possibility.
We ordered samples from many, many suppliers to find the purest reflective ball bearings available. Endless handcut prototypes led us to a simple hexagon hole on one side providing three jaws to grip the bottle cap. The hexagon hole also provides a dependable resting point for the ball.
A gold plated edition of the Convex bottle opener adds a beautiful golden hue to the warped reflection. Sort of like looking through a glass of beer
Plated in 18 karat gold with the same stainless steel ball underneath doing all the heavy lifting. Depending on the style of your home decor, you might find this gold version better matches your vibe.
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Kenya Hara shares 100 short essays about simplicity and subtlety by exploring the nature of white. Single pages written up about rice, snow, sake... I am blown away that someone could write so much about so little and I mean that as a sincere complement. Kenya Hara dives deeper and deeper into objects and uncovers more layers than anyone would have know.
If you'd like to see more about what interests us or updates about what we are working on sign up for our bi-weekly(ish) newsletter Curio.
If you'd like to see more about what interests us or updates about what we are working on sign up for our bi-weekly(ish) newsletter Curio.
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]]>Zach Fried at Craighill interviewed Nate about the story behind the product:
"What was the jumping off point for the Cal Bookend, and how long did it take from initial idea to finalized form?
The Cal Bookend was conceived as a simple construction detail. Normally, a single bolt isn’t enough to secure two rods together, but bend the two rods across one another and a single bolt can lock them up into a distinct tripod form. We played with this caltrop form for a while before finding the right function as a bookend. It has a unique character and the assembly that takes place at home lets you appreciate the construction that gave inspiration to the whole design.
All told, we tossed the Cal Bookend back and forth between us for about six months before we approached Craighill with the design. Even as we located manufacturers and defined the details it never strayed far from the initial form.
Why did Craighill seem like the right home for the Cal Bookend?
I began my career working alongside Hunter in the early days of Craighill, working on the Jack Puzzle, Venn Puzzle, and Trophy bottle opener. This experience informed how I design, so approaching Hunter with our first ideas and launching our inaugural product with Craighill was a natural fit. There is some shared DNA between the two brands and there are a lot of design elements in the Cal Bookend that link to the rest of the Craighill collection.
This is the first product launch for Revision. How did you form your partnership and what do you hope to achieve as a design studio?
Damein and I stayed in touch after graduating from Appalachian State University together, and then we formed Revision in 2018. Our very different skillsets compliment each other, so we’re a small and effective design team. Owning and operating our own independent design studio gives us satisfying control over our own success.
As we see the first product from our studio enter the market, we want to build more high-quality pieces that are both elegant and affordable. Our goal is to build a strong body of work at a steady pace, bringing those designs into reality by partnering with great design brands like Craighill."
Images courtesy of Craighill
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I really don't know the first thing about greenhouses or what the most efficient/sturdiest/cheapest system of assembly is. But I know this one looks amazing. A tiny engineering marvel. I love seeing a well bent wire work so hard.
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Then, some outside forces caused me to pack up and go work in California. We both miss being distracted by motorcycles and drinking beers in the garage, but none of this would be here if we were still in that garage. In truth, ripping the band-aid off has stripped down the personal and focused us on strictly cofounding stuff. We define the problem together, then retreat back to our corners and noodle it out on our own before reconvening.
We’ve become so comfortable working remotely that we’re easily distracted when we get together IRL. We often revert to our old movie watching, wrench turning and beer drinking ways and just use that time together to be friends, not just business partners.
Because of the distance, all of our discussions have an implied urgency. There are only so many designs we can discuss together in a week so I pick through the cream of the crop before we get together. Likewise, formalizing our get-togethers gives them a goal that they were severely lacking before. Now, we get together and talk and then hand the problem back to one of us to solve. It used to just live in the ether of meandering conversations.
All this to say. There are hidden benefits to the way we work now that I never would have anticipated. And it makes me wonder what else we are taking for granted about our work-life.
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If you'd like to see more about what interests us or updates about what we are working on sign up for our bi-weekly(ish) newsletter Curio.
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Oh Metric. Like sunscreen/exercise/calling your mom, we all know you’re the right thing to do, and yet, we resist. I’m speaking as an American of course. The last holdout to joining team worldwide measurement system. (Well actually, three way tie with Myanmar and Liberia)
When Damein and I started putting real time into Revision, we had to decide which system of units we would use to build CAD models in. The decision wasn’t obvious. In school, I mostly used inches and thousandths of an inch to spec out designs. Same for my first few jobs. But I always had a soft spot for the relentless logic of metric. We opted to abandon our country’s standard and fully adopt metric.
Since then, I’ve found metric to be a delightfully useful system. I’ve tried to bring it into my life in every way I can. Here’s why it wins the day (it’s not the same things you’ve been told before).
Here’s what you already know about metric: it’s based on meters and you can divide things by 10s to reach other units. That all checks out, but it’s not metric’s superpower. Here’s where things get useful:
Humans are inherently bad at judging area. Look at a table and the number of square inches won’t spring to mind. Humans are even worse at judging volume. Is a 10,000-gallon room big or small? Adding a dimension makes things more abstract and harder to manage in our ape brains.
With imperial, each new dimension to be measured get’s its own unit mostly free of the base unit. The only way to get a good sense of ounces is to be a baker and use it every day. With metric, a good sense of centimeters equates to a good sense of milliliters. You can borrow the skill over and proceed with a decent guess. This is metric’s superpower.
Here’s what metric can do: I see a carton of milk that appears to be 10 cm by 10 cm by 22 cm. I can do the mental math and know that it holds 2.2 liters by measuring it with my eyes.
If you see a carton of liquid that’s 2 inches by 2 inches by 10 inches, how many gallons does it hold? I’ll tell you the answer: (2X2X10)/231. That’s right, someone decided there are exactly 231 cubic inches in a gallon so you get to throw that big ass prime number into your mental arithmetic. If you’re not a mental math genius, you can’t do it. The only option is to learn the gallon as a unit itself and hope that knowledge sticks. Someone might point out that if you use cubic inches determining the volume is rather easy. That’s true, but I’ve never seen a measuring cup with cubic inches on it. That’s not how imperial works.
I’ve found that my perception of volume has actually grown stronger now that I’ve been using metric for about a year. The American system I grew up with left me hanging with a long list of unrelated systems. I have to guess based on how many gallons it ‘seems’ like based on my mental estimation of a gallon as a standalone unit. Metric is so interconnected, it helps you perceive the logic and make better guesses in all kinds of situations.
For many people, this doesn’t really matter. But for a designer, or anyone who measures, it does. I spend all day making estimates and weighing tradeoffs between geometric changes to a design. It’s paid off tenfold to have a system that allows my mind to make decent estimations on the fly.
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For the past nine years he has been dishing out beautiful little animations that get my heart racing. Take a look but be careful you don't lose track of time.
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Eikekoenig - Graphic artist making some very moving work. Sometimes I get it, sometimes I don’t. But that rarely affects my enjoyment of the piece.
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If you'd like to see more about what interests us or updates about what we are working on sign up for our bi-weekly(ish) newsletter Curio.
If you'd like to see more about what interests us or updates about what we are working on sign up for our bi-weekly(ish) newsletter Curio.
If you'd like to see more about what interests us or updates about what we are working on sign up for our bi-weekly(ish) newsletter Curio.
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If you'd like to see more about what interests us or updates about what we are working on sign up for our bi-weekly(ish) newsletter Curio.
Behind the scenes of The Grand Budapest Hotel from Wes Anderson.
The cameraman behind the cameraman. Take a peak at how Wes creates those precise camera movements. See how many people it takes to dress a scene just right.
Also worth reading: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/film/the-grand-budapest-hotel/behind-scenes-wes-anderson/
If you'd like to see more about what interests us or updates about what we are working on sign up for our bi-weekly(ish) newsletter Curio.
If you'd like to see more about what interests us or updates about what we are working on sign up for our bi-weekly(ish) newsletter Curio.
If you'd like to see more about what interests us or updates about what we are working on sign up for our bi-weekly(ish) newsletter Curio.
If you'd like to see more about what interests us or updates about what we are working on sign up for our bi-weekly(ish) newsletter Curio.
If you'd like to see more about what interests us or updates about what we are working on sign up for our bi-weekly(ish) newsletter Curio.