As Rhode Island School of Design’s (RISD) 18th president, Crystal Williams believes that education, art and design, and staying committed to equity and justice are essential to transforming our society. At RISD, the Detroit-born activist is working to drive meaningful change centered on expanding inclusion, equity, and access. To back that up, Crystal has more than two decades of higher education experience as a professor of English as well as serving in roles that oversaw diversity, equity, and inclusion at Boston University, Bates College, and Reed College. The ultimate goal behind Crystal’s role at RISD is to enhance the learning environment by making sure it includes diverse experiences, viewpoints, and talents.

However, Crystal’s talents go beyond the halls and classrooms of colleges and universities – she’s also an award-winning poet and essayist. So far, she’s published four collections of poems and is the recipient of several artistic fellowships, grants, and honors. Most recently Detroit as Barn, was named as a finalist for the National Poetry Series, Cleveland State Open Book Prize, and the Maine Book Award. Crystal’s third collection, Troubled Tongues, was awarded the 2009 Naomi Long Madgett Poetry Prize and was a finalist for the 2009 Oregon Book Award, the Idaho Poetry Prize, and the Crab Orchard Poetry Prize. Her first two books were Kin and Lunatic, published in 2000 and 2002. Crystal’s work regularly appears in leading journals and magazines nationwide.

Today, Crystal Williams is joining us for Friday Five!

Martha’s Vineyard Photo: Crystal Williams

1. Silence

Originally, I was going to write about a place that inspires me. But when I truly started to consider places I find inspiring, I realized that each of them elicits and enables silence and stillness, a refraction of silence (at least for me). So then, silence itself is the thing that inspires me. Silence inspires me to delve and investigate and allows me to situate myself in wonder and awe – in the amplitude and magnitude of who and what and how we are as a species, to sometimes take issue with personal fears or traumas or worse – the behaviors that ultimately impede personal and spiritual growth or insight.

For me, silence is a great gift. Perhaps the greatest. It is a balm. Through it, I connect to the world not as Crystal Williams of this particular body but as a congregation of embodied energy and spirit. In this way, it is the catalyst through which all good art, poetry, ideas, and leadership emerge. So it is among the most inspirational things in my life – and among the most rare, given my life.

Photo: Crystal Williams

2. Lucille Clifton Poem

I admire many poems. But Lucille Clifton’s “won’t you celebrate with me” (which is how it is commonly known although Clifton did not, in “Book of Light” originally title the poem), is the one that inspires me the most. It is a poem that speaks to resilience, fortitude, bravery, imagination, hope, and it names what being a Black woman in the United States can and often does elicit.

“won’t you celebrate with me
what I have shaped into
a kind of life? i had no model.
born in babylon
both nonwhite and woman
….
…come celebrate
with me that everyday
something has tried to kill me
and has failed.”

Nancy Wilson, Carnegie Hall, 1987 Video still courtesy YouTube

3. Nancy Wilson, “How Glad I Am,” Carnegie Hall, 1987

There are moments in art when an artist transforms one thing into another, utterly broadening, deepening, and transmuting the original meaning. In this live version of “How Glad I Am,” her encore performance at the 1987 “Live at Carnegie Hall” performance, Wilson – a vocalist I listened to obsessively as a younger person – transforms a simple song between lovers into a rousing tribute from an artist to her audience. This performance is the most profoundly loving example I have witnessed of an artist speaking directly and forcefully to the mutuality between artists and audiences. And it’s become a kind of personal soundtrack when I’m walking through my life, especially my life as a poet and now as president. Often, when I’m among creatives, I hear Wilson’s gorgeous, gravely voice imploring: “you don’t know how glad I am [for you].”

RISD students Photo: Jo Sittenfeld

4. Young Creatives

Listen, these young people at RISD and young creatives everywhere are our best-case scenario. They are our visionaries, if only we can amplify them, listen to them, and then get out of their way. They have all the love (and strategy and insight and knowledge) we need if we can help them wield it successfully. They have all the intelligence and ingenuity we need to help solve our challenges and advance what is good, right, and just among our species. Added to those attributes are other facts: they are funny and curious and eager to learn and gloriously unusual.

I watch them here at RISD in their multi-colored outfits, hair-dos, and platform shoes, giggling with each other in front of the snack machine or intensely applying their best thinking to each others’ work during critiques. I listen to them grappling with big ideas, considering, reconsidering, and redesigning our world as if on slant, eschewing the boxes into which we have crammed stale ideas that continue to guide our actions. And I watch them in their magnitude – in the more quotidian actions of their lives trudging up and down the severe hill outside with their humongous portfolios and unwieldy art projects, and think through it all, “Wow” and think “to be so young and so powerful and necessary” and think “thank God” and think “Thank you, young people, for saying yes to the impulse that brought you here.” Not only do they inspire me, they humble me and they – each one of them – feel like a balm, like hope incarnate.

Photo: Crystal Williams

5. My Parents

My folks married in 1967 against all odds. They were of different ethnicities – he Black, she white. Different places – he from the Jim Crow South, she from Detroit, Michigan. Different eras – he born in 1907, she in 1936. Different careers – he a jazz musician and automotive foundry worker, she a public school teacher. And different educational backgrounds – he, we think, not a high school graduate, she a college graduate. And yet, they found each other over the keys of a piano and decided, against society’s cruel eye and hard palm, to love each other and to love me. I now understand the courage it took for all of that to be true, for them to make a way, for them to walk through the world in 1967 as a couple and with me as their child. That courage inspires me. Those decisions inspire me. They inspire me. Everyday. All day.

Work by Crystal Williams:

Kin by Crystal Williams, 2000 Williams utilizes memory and music as she lyrically weaves her way through American culture, pointing to the ways in which alienation, loss, and sensed “otherness” are corollaries of recent phenomena.

Lunatic: Poems by Crystal Williams, 2002 Williams confronts large-scale social and cultural events such as September 11, the death of Amadou Diallo, and the Chicago Race Riots in addition to exploring the often paralyzing terrain of loss, desire, and displacement. Among its most common themes is personal responsibility.

Troubled Tongues by Crystal Williams, 2009 In each of the three sections of this book is a prose poem meant to be read aloud in which a character, interacting with other characters, is named for a quality. They are Beauty, Happiness, and Patience.

Detroit as Barn: Poems by Crystal Williams, 2014

This post contains affiliate links, so if you make a purchase from an affiliate link, we earn a commission. Thanks for supporting Design Milk!

Kelly Beall is senior editor at Design Milk. The Pittsburgh-based graphic designer and writer has had a deep love of art and design for as long as she can remember, and enjoys sharing her finds with others. When undistracted by great art and design, she can be found making a mess in the kitchen, consuming as much information as possible, or on the couch with her three pets. Find her @designcrush on social.

A Brutalist-inspired apartment in the suburbs of Rome in Tor de’ Cenci recently received a complete renovation by STUDIOTAMAT. Designed for a lawyer couple, the project consisted of renovating the 120-square-meter apartment, along with a coveted 40-square-meter terrace. The Casa Rude residence overlooks the Castelporziano Nature Reserve offering both wooded and sea views, an ideal locale after years of living in small apartments in the heart of the city. Now, their space is filled with natural light, original character, and modern conveniences.

“What guided us in the design was the desire to enhance the distinctive features of the unique terraced building, dating back to the 1980s, which houses the apartment. We wanted to restore fluidity to the spaces, encourage the opening, and the discovery of pre-existing materials and details, on which to set a new vision,” says STUDIOTAMAT co-founder Tommaso Amato.

The main living area is designed much like a open plan loft with unfinished walls and the support structure’s exposed concrete visually connecting the spaces.

Paired with the original Brutalist details are a variety of tones, textures, and materials that add up to a visually enticing space. The roughness of the terracotta tiles on the oval island and concrete pillars are juxtaposed with the smooth Patagonia marble countertops that connect the two.

A custom dining table with a Shou sugi treated wood top rests on a black base and a glossy red ceramic leg for a sleek look.

A large, multifunctional birch wood cube is built to hide the pantry, hold coats, provide storage, and house a TV.

A wall of perforated bricks separates the living room and home office allowing natural light to pass through. A custom desk extends out from the built-in shelves and is held up by a circular red wheel, complementing the dining table’s leg a few feet away. The wheel allows the desk to roll along on a track to a new position.

A pivoting door visually separates the public areas from the sleeping area, which houses a main bedroom with ensuite bathroom, and a guest room.

In the primary bedroom, sliding ribbed glass doors offer privacy to those in the bathroom while allowing light in.

The large terrace features an outdoor kitchen, seating areas, dining space, and outdoor shower, all of which benefit from sunset views.

STUDIOTAMAT Photo: Flavia Rossi

Photography by Serena Eller Vainicher.

Caroline Williamson is Editor-in-Chief of Design Milk. She has a BFA in photography from SCAD and can usually be found searching for vintage wares, doing New York Times crossword puzzles in pen, or reworking playlists on Spotify.

The Lattice Day Bed is a minimalist daybed made of grey quarry stone designed by Mexico-based designer Andrés Monnier. The original design features a stainless steel and marble base, while variations can also include white marble, travertine, volcanic rock, basalt, or granite rock.

“Is our human existence an interconnected reverie?” Such is the provocative question posed by the designer, an invitation to contemplate our roles within our perceived reality. The theory underscores the vast tapestry of human consciousness, where each individual weaves their unique interpretation of existence.

The daybed serves as both a physical representation of Monnier’s interpretation of dreams, while also functioning as the very conduit to actualize said dreams. He believes that the collective dream-state might not merely be an idle illusion, but a platform for transformative energy.

Leo Lei translates his passion for minimalism into his daily-updated blog Leibal. In addition, you can find uniquely designed minimalist objects and furniture at the Leibal Store.

In celebration of Pride, Artsy happily presents the Artsy Impact Auction: Artists for Pride, benefiting the Ali Forney Center. New works by a diverse group of emerging and established artists will be bid on through June 29th at 12 pm EST. TM Davy, Didier William, Jo Messer, Kyle Meyer, Kate Pincus-Whitney, Erin M. Riley, Emma Kohlmann, Caitlin Cherry, Elizabeth Glaessner, Jordan Nassar, Haas Brothers, Vickie Vainionpää, Leilah Babirye, Darryl Westly, and Nedia Were have come together in allyship to support the cause by way of sharing their talents.

Ali Forney Center’s mission is to protect LGBTQIA+ youth from homelessness and to empower them with the tools needed to live independently. Through this partnership, the auction will directly support the critical care, direction, education, and career services that Ali Forney Center offers to these at-risk homeless youth.

Nedia Were, The Black Swan, 2022

We had the opportunity to speak with Simon Haas of the Haas Brothers, who have their Fairies Witherspoon piece featured in Artists for Pride (seen in the lead image). “This piece is from a body of work we call Fairy Berries. Each of these pieces is a little like a Faberge Egg, small and ornate,” said Simon. “These pieces are little meditations – they take a really, really long time and a steady hand, and the resulting piece is an opulent little world of its own.”

Kate Pincus Whitney, Gertrude Stein and Slice B Toklas Muss

“A lot of the work we make is playful, but an equal amount of it is intensely process-based. When I am doing beadwork or making process-intensive projects like this I am very much in a meditative state of mind,” Simon shared. “This kind of work is almost necessary for me and my mental health.

Leilah Babirye, Lady Nabuuso, 2016

Measuring 10 1/4 × 4 1/2 × 4 1/2-inches, Fairies Witherspoon is hand thrown and slip trailed porcelain detailed with gold lustre and brass plate. The underside is stamped with “HAAS BROTHERS 2020”, and it’s accompanied by a Certificate of Authenticity signed by Nikolai and Simon Haas.

Kyle Meyer, Unidentified 91a, 2023

“Being gay myself, and having experienced first hand the challenges that come with that, it is really meaningful to me to be able to support my community. I can’t imagine the added difficulty of facing homelessness caused by or made more difficult by being LGBTQIA+. This is a truly important cause, particularly in this time of increasing intolerance.” Simon went on to add that he plans to “continue being a vocally out gay man and advocating for others in my community. It is so important that we make ourselves heard and support each other in our fight for equality. The LGBTQIA+ community is not a monolith, we are a collection of communities, but by coming together and advocating for each other we can accomplish so much more than we could on our own.”

Jo Messer, Show up whenever, 2023

To learn more about Artsy Impact Auction: Artists for Pride or place a bid, visit artsy.net.

Kelly Beall is senior editor at Design Milk. The Pittsburgh-based graphic designer and writer has had a deep love of art and design for as long as she can remember, and enjoys sharing her finds with others. When undistracted by great art and design, she can be found making a mess in the kitchen, consuming as much information as possible, or on the couch with her three pets. Find her @designcrush on social.

As a graphic designer, Bob Dinetz has worked for some of the world’s biggest companies – the ones in many ways determining how we spend our time: Apple, Adobe, The New York Times Magazine, and many more. Good graphic design, he says, is about boiling the brand down to its essence, and responding appropriately – and at that level, it shares certain similarities in his approach to his highly successful line of ceramics for the home: “A lot of times in graphic design, which I still do, it’s about distilling a problem down into the elements that are easily understood,” he says. “It’s about communication and clarity, and that’s what I’ve tried to bring to ceramics. A lot of the shapes I make are quite simple – they just have a few simple ridges or rims that react to glaze and to light. There’s quite a parallel between the work I do in graphic design and in pottery.”

In this week’s Milkshake, Bob shares several pieces of his own, showing work that combines a patient yet experimental approach to color and glaze – one that’s perfectly suited to a practice like ceramics, in which happy accidents (and even some unhappy ones) can lead to aesthetic revelations. “For me, color is really the mixture of clay and glaze together – which sounds like an obvious thing, but it took me a while to figure it out,” he says. “Earlier on, I would think of glaze as just like paint – a treatment over a surface. But really, in the type of firing that my work is in, the clay reacts with the glaze and the atmosphere and the kiln, and [the color] comes through the glaze. What happened was one day I just mixed a glaze too thin, and a lot of the clay came through the glaze and it created an interesting effect. I learned over time to control that and refine it.”

Also in this week’s Milkshake, Bob shares the biggest challenges of his work – ”The setbacks that happen in pottery [are] pretty common, but take a while to get used to,” he says – as well as what he does to ensure that his art world expands rather than shrinks over time. (It involves Instagram) For that and more, tune in!

Diana Ostrom, who has written for Wallpaper, Interior Design, ID, The Wall Street Journal, and other outlets, is also the author of Faraway Places, a newsletter about travel.

Milkshake, DMTV (Design Milk TV)’s first regular series, shakes up the traditional interview format by asking designers, creatives, educators and industry professionals to select interview questions at random from their favorite bowl or vessel. During their candid discussions, you’ll not only gain a peek into their personal homeware collections, but also valuable insights into their work, life and passions.

The origin of Tidbyt can be traced back to a litany of questions many of us ask ourselves each and every morning: What time is it? Do I need to wear a coat today? What time do I need to leave for work? Co-founders Rohan Singh and Mats Linander’s backgrounds in software and computer science made them ideally suited to address these questions from the perspective of technologists. Yet, both also identified with a growing number of everyday folks harboring the desire to reduce any reason to reach for their phone throughout the day. Thus, the pair set out to create a solution for users to glean the most basic of information without giving into that ever-present itch.

When we first learned about Tidbyt, we described it as the “antithesis of high resolution” display-based devices continually refining toward imperceptibly small pixels. Instead, Singh and Linander’s small desktop Internet-connected info display was conceived to filter relevant data customized to the user’s own interests, whether it be the weather, stocks, sports, and a myriad of other interests. These channels are displayed through the filter of a retro 64×32 pixel LED display to further visually slow down the flow of information otherwise hosed towards us throughout the day.

My app list is primarily composed of information I typically would reach to my phone for. Open to independent developers, Tidbyt’s app catalog is ever growing, and filled with a mixture of gimmicky and truly useful apps developed for the pixelated platform. Images: Gregory Han

I was recently given the opportunity to experience whether the Tidbyt delivered on its promises to allow users to “spend less time looking at our phones and more time doing what we care about.” For the last several weeks I’ve had the wood enclosed unit placed on a shelf just beside my desk at an easily glanceable distance. Loaded up with a short list of Tidbyt apps displaying weather, sunrise/sunset, local air quality, sports news, and my Spotify song playback, I set both my iPhone and Android devices at an arm’s length away to dedicate to a less tethered relationship with my preferred serving of info.

As wildfires have become increasingly a concern across the globe, being able to take a quick glance at the AQI proved to be one of the most useful bits of information I loaded onto the Tidbyt. Photo: Gregory Han

The Tidbyt can be used to display photos uploaded from your phone, but the low resolution requires some distance and a close cropped image for optimal viewing. Photo: Gregory Han

Almost immediately I had to dim down the surprisingly bright screen to half its full luminescence, and preferred to keep Tidbyt set at a further distance than its originally planned proximity. While I thought it would be great to be kept abreast of NBA news, weather, and air quality viewable with just a turn of my head throughout the day, I found myself easily distracted by the carousel of apps switching from one to another (it was like working beside a miniature Las Vegas neon sign).

Launched as a beta feature late last year, Google Home voice control fortifies Tidbyt’s goals of reducing our dependence upon our phones (if you’re already invested in compatible devices like the Google Nest Mini).

Tidbyt’s designers preemptively identified this natural progression between users, their device, and the information it is designed to display. To alleviate any distractions, Tidbyt can be customized to display certain apps only at specific times during the day. I choose to keep a singular static digital clock display that reminded me of the Timex clock I grew up with, complete with large amber or red LED numerals, with other app reports scheduled to appear only at the start and end of the work day.

Now, this static display may seem to defeat the purpose of buying a multi-app device, but Tidbyt supports Google Home, meaning I can ask Tidbyt at any time to display the weather, check with local air quality, or see current NBA news by voice alone.

Positioned further away and customized to display the weather forecast, news, and air quality only at specific times of the day, the Tidbyt lives up to its goal of purposeful information without the tempting distractions of our phones. Photo: Gregory Han

Any additional display introduced into our lives, even one as cute and engineered as the Tidbyt, can easily become an additional distraction. Novelty’s fun factor is fleeting, and it quickly disintegrates into annoyance when you’ve got work to do. To credit Tidbyt’s creators, they seem to recognize the information we need throughout the day ebbs and flows, and have integrated a level of control across its display to literally and figuratively dim down our relationship with notifications. In doing so, I found a perfectly low resolution, hi-tech clock just smart enough and also fun to earn itself a place on my shelf.

The Tidbyt is available in Beech or Walnut for $199 at tidbyt.com.

This post contains affiliate links, so if you make a purchase from an affiliate link, we earn a commission. Thanks for supporting Design Milk!

Gregory Han is the Managing Editor of Design Milk. A Los Angeles native with a profound love and curiosity for design, hiking, tide pools, and road trips, a selection of his adventures and musings can be found at gregoryhan.com.

I’d love to have the minimal Hulasol, a combination outdoor sun umbrella and lighting solution, in my backyard this summer. In fact, it’s the first product to combine both functions in such a way, transforming the surrounding outdoor environment as a result. By day, Hulasol is a haven from the sun, protecting you from UV rays as you relax. By night, its illumination sets the mood for cozy time spent outdoors.

Hulasol’s design makes it suitable for long-term outdoor use, while its aerodynamic qualities provide substantial resistance against extreme weather. Its materials have been treated accordingly, making the combination umbrella and lighting water-repellent and low maintenance, while also providing UV protection. Hulasol’s aluminum, steel, and stainless steel components are powder coated to last and are resistant to corrosion. This innovative outdoor product is ready to take on both the residential and commercial sectors.

A smartphone app gives you complete control over Hulasol’s dimmable lighting. The lamp is equipped with a battery or cable pack, allowing it to be used in spaces where there’s no electricity available.

A patented folding mechanism challenges the way we view traditional umbrella design, while simultaneously providing a strong visual statement. Simply fold Hulasol up into its organic pod-like shape and tuck away, taking up minimal storage space.

Design, development, production, assembly, and packaging for Hulasol are all made in-house or in collaboration with local Belgian partners. This results in flexibility, short lead times, and endless customization possibilities.

To learn more about the Hulasol, visit hulasol.com.

Kelly Beall is senior editor at Design Milk. The Pittsburgh-based graphic designer and writer has had a deep love of art and design for as long as she can remember, and enjoys sharing her finds with others. When undistracted by great art and design, she can be found making a mess in the kitchen, consuming as much information as possible, or on the couch with her three pets. Find her @designcrush on social.

Twice a month we’re inviting one of the Design Milk team members to share five personal favorites – an opportunity for each of us to reveal the sort of designs we use and appreciate in our own lives from a more personal perspective. Editor-in-Chief Caroline Williamson returns this week for our Take 5 series.

I’ve recently come across the porcelain tableware of Simone Doesburg, aka @graceofglaze on Instagram. Doesburg hand makes each piece in her studio in Ultrecht, The Netherlands. The colors and gradient glazes are stunning and have me re-thinking my bland white plates completely. The color pairings are so unique and unexpected but work delightfully well, like Blue + Berry, Purple + Marigold, Soft Pink + Lime, etc. Whether a full set or a few pieces, her work would make for a very aesthetically pleasing table setting.

The longer I’ve worked from home since the pandemic began, the more I’ve realized just how bad my home office setup is. I have an old IKEA desk paired with a great task chair I love, but when you are required to sit at your desk for 10+ hours per day, no chair is 100%. Since sit/stand desks have been introduced I haven’t been that excited to add one to my own space as they’ve always looked like they should be in a corporate setup, not my actual living room. And if I’m going to have to look at it all the time, I want it to look good as well. When this Geiger desk popped on my radar, I had to do a deep dive because I could not believe that it was capable of rising mechanically. There are no visible cables, motors, or buttons to tip anyone off to its capabilities and that’s what I love. I’m also in love with the simplicity of the design and just how beautiful it is, which is no surprise since BassamFellows designed it. At $4,995 for the displayed setup (with 2 drawers), it’s a bit outside of my budget but a girl can dream.

Perhaps I’m dating myself but when I was really little, I loved playing PAC-MAN at arcades and pizza joints. The game made me equal parts anxious watching the determined ghosts edging towards my chomping mouth and calm as I methodically guided the yellow icon through the halls of the maze. I couldn’t wait to start a new game when the ghosts got me. And since I’m also an AFOL (Adult Fan of LEGOs), per my sister, it seems only natural to join two of my childhood favorites into one nostalgic gem. I’m still baffled by the type of person who can visualize how to assemble tiny bricks together to create an actual design. They’re toys but they’re architectural toys that come together piece by piece much like any type of design would. LEGO designers do not get enough credit but they have my complete respect!

Now on their 4th collaboration, the Swiss brand Caran d’Ache and Paul Smith recently released six new two-tone 849 ball point pens in new color combinations that will make you want to pick up a pen again. As someone who has spent a lifetime on the hunt for the perfect pen, I can attest to the quality of Caran d’Ache’s writing instruments. Throw in the iconic British designer Sir Paul Smith and it’s a solid collaboration. I haven’t tried this particular pen style – they’re more of an investment piece or great gift idea – but they’d look great on any desk and no doubt make writing longhand that much more desirable. With these new color combinations, it’s very tempting to splurge.

Lately, I’ve been on the hunt for a salt cellar, something that I can keep out on the counter and grab when I want a pinch of salt or pepper instead of a shake or grind. I saw a photo of it and immediately began to hunt down who made it as I loved the simplicity of it as well as its sculptural appearance. The fluted base seems perfect for pepper, while the magnetic swivel top closes to hold the salt within its perfect sphere. It comes in Walnut but I’m really loving the Maple as it matches my cabinets. They’re $50 which I think is well worth the price considering how beautiful it is as an object.

This post contains affiliate links, so if you make a purchase from an affiliate link, we earn a commission. Thanks for supporting Design Milk!

Caroline Williamson is Editor-in-Chief of Design Milk. She has a BFA in photography from SCAD and can usually be found searching for vintage wares, doing New York Times crossword puzzles in pen, or reworking playlists on Spotify.

Food has always been a canvas for creativity and innovation. It’s a medium that allows us to have fun and explore new possibilities. But it’s not just about playfulness; it’s also about making a positive impact on our planet. As designers and consumers, we have a responsibility to prioritize circular economy materials and products in our creations and purchasing decisions. One company that is leading the way in sustainable innovation is PEELSPHERE®, with their groundbreaking use of banana peels and other fruit and vegetable waste to create a durable and versatile leather-like material.

After years of witnessing the staggering amount of food waste generated by the food industry, it’s no surprise that a company like PEELSPHERE® grabbed my attention.

Founder, Youyang Song, pushed to develop a unique and innovative material from a closed-looped ecosystem. Their biodegradable material can be molded into a variety of shapes and sizes, making it an excellent alternative to traditional plastics. As a designer, it’s exciting to see companies like PEELSPHERE pushing the boundaries of what’s possible, and I’m hopeful that their faux leather material will inspire many designers to incorporate circular economy materials into their future work as it meets both their aesthetic and functional requirements.

Having undergone rigorous testing for strength, durability, and flexibility, it has proven itself worthy of various applications. Resilient against heat and moisture, it opens up possibilities for a wide range of products, including fashion, furniture, and even food design.

At Taste:Work:Shop we jumped at the occasion to R&D with PEELSPHERE’s material. Our studio is committed to making a difference by prioritizing circular economy materials when sourcing materials for our designs.

We played off the banana hammock and magazine rack concept. Our first display creates several nooks by sewing sleeves every 10” into the leather-like material. Each sleeve fits snuggly around poplar wood dowels that suspend the whole unit off of a minimalist black metal frame.

Here we photographed a savory inspired version of a camp style banana boat. Instead of stuffing that banana with chocolate and mini marshmallows before putting it in the fire, we topped our roasted friends with cheesy black beans, hot pickled carrot cabbage slaw, crispy pork belly, and lime zest.

Our second display design makes one larger nook to hold several ficelle breads. And a tray platform for Taste:Work:Shops exclusive flavored butter tubes. We’ve been experimenting with different savory and sweet flavor combos. For this shoot we landed on a Banana Butter and our famous Framboise Butter.

We thoroughly enjoyed working with the PEELSPHERE cloth, appreciating both its tactile qualities and how its material composition directly influenced our designs. We encourage others to experiment and innovate with PEELSPHERE leather, exploring various techniques such as cutting, grommeting, and sewing. We can’t wait to see the incredible results of your creative endeavors!

Courtesy of PEELSPHERE

Photography by TJ Girard/Taste:Work:Shop, except where noted.

TJ Girard is a sought-after food designer and creative consultant, celebrated for staging theatrical, interactive food + beverage experiences. She now resides in California where her creativity is solar powered! TJ writes the Design Milk column called Taste.