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It’s weird because I still feel like I don’t know what I truly want to do, but I do know what it feels like when I do something that I want to do, if that makes sense. I want to work for the joy of what the work is, which I feel like I’m doing now. When I left advertising, I never wanted to put myself in the position of having that kind of work stress again. I don’t have that stress at Media Temple; it’s not because the job isn’t hard. But I’ve shifted to doing design for service as opposed to design for selling stuff. I guess my “Aha!” moment was leaving advertising. Now, I want to do work that helps small businesses, like when I had my studio and did work for sole proprietors. I get to do that here at Media Temple. I design and create things that hopefully make the lives of our customers—who I believe are the top of the creative class—easier and better. Also, around 2002 or 2003, I understood the importance of delegation for the first time. I always want to be a designer, but I enjoy the delegation process and the collaborative aspect of things.

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There is an authentic community of people who fabricate here. For example, with the ice cream company I’m working on with Kevin, everything is made by hand. There isn’t that notion of LA outside of LA, though. It gets a bad rap as being a fake city. There is a great amount of drive, craft, and authenticity about so much that is happening here.

It’s casual but inspiring, and I truly feel like I want to be constantly making something here. I didn’t have that feeling after being in New York for a long time: it was too much about the rat race. There is a little more creative freedom in LA as opposed to New York, which Tina Roth Eisenberg is going to hate me for saying. (laughing)

http://thegreatdiscontent.com/interview/jon-setzen

I only worked in the UK for a few months after graduating college so it would be hard to compare, but I do have a theory about living and working in Los Angeles that makes it unique. It‘s a city that appears to be full of freelancers… actors, directors, crew, stylists, designers, architects, artists etc. But there is also a huge immigrant population who set up businesses here in production, manufacturing, fabricating. This is lots of what would be considered traditional craftsmen and labourers. It almost seems like self employment and entrepreneurship is the norm. When I first came here it irritated me slightly that people would start a fashion collection without any schooling or training and many succeeded. Now I am impressed by anyone that does that. It takes courage to know that you don’t know what you should do and just do it anyway. I like that the emphasis is on the importance of the idea.This city and possibly America in general changed my personality. I am way more assertive and more willing to take risks. I don’t believe I would be doing what I am doing now if I had stayed in England.

http://www.freundevonfreunden.com/interviews/tracy-wilkinson/

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Wood Brick Lamp. unlebrel.tumblr.com

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http://instagram.com/moreandco

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http://blog.poketo.com/2014/02/20/ben-medansky-studio-visit/

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Brendan Ravenhill on The Future Positive

What route did you follow through education to get to where you are today? What advice would you give to someone who has just graduated?

For my undergrad I studied Sculpture at Oberlin College which taught me how to be a critical thinker but was short on teaching technical skills. I spent the next 6 years after graduation working a variety of jobs where I learned how to build things and work smarter. During those years I worked as a carpenter, a lobsterman, a timber framer, a boatbuilder, an executive director of a nonprofit, and a welder/fabricator at a metal shop. By the time I enrolled at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) for my Masters I had undergone a thorough and diverse journeyman education. RISD allowed me the opportunity to return to theory and critical thought while also further expanding my technical abilities.

The advice I would give to someone out of school is not to be afraid to invest in yourself. I've learned more working in the real world than I ever did in school. Jobs are an amazing place to learn, and sometimes it's worth it to sacrifice pay in the short term to find a job that will give you skills you can have for life.

Is LA a good place for young product designers? How does the city affect your work?

LA is an amazing place to be a product designer. There still exists a vibrant manufacturing sector that offers a wide range of technical abilities. We find new fabricators all the time that expose us to new materials or manufacturing methods. I am constantly impressed with the range of things you can have made here locally. That plus the fact that there is great Mexican food and it's always sunny make it pretty ideal.

What is a typical day at your studio?

I get up around 7am and after coffee head to my home studio to sketch for an hour or so before my employees come in. We touch base briefly about the day's goals and then I'm usually on email for an hour or two corresponding with customers and vendors. Around 11, I usually head out to visit some of my local fabricators to check the status of our projects. Afternoons in the shop are the reward for a productive morning and if all my office work is done I'll try and disappear into the shop for the rest of the day to work on new ideas and prototypes. Evenings are for work around the house and property with many late nights back in studio drawing or organizing till midnight or so. 

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http://theradder.blogspot.com/2014/02/studio-visit-heather-levine-ceramics.html

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http://www.core77.com/blog/core77_questionnaire/brendan_ravenhill_on_switching_from_boat_building_to_industrial_design_working_in_los_angeles_and_how_a_bottle_opener_jump-started_his_business_25639.asp

Education: I went to the Rhode Island School of Design for a master's in industrial design.

First design job: While I was in grad school, I designed a bottle opener that got licensed by Areaware. The bottle opener was one of my thesis objects—my thesis at RISD was about investigating objects that, through wear and use, develop a patina and increase in value. The bottle opener was a simple object that I created to investigate some of those material properties. I made eight and gave them out to friends, and one made its way to Areaware and they picked it up for licensing. That was my first "licensed object" job.

What is the worst part of your job? Bookkeeping. I never realized how much of my time would be spent on bookkeeping and e-mailing and doing all the paperwork that goes into the backend. You know, I consider myself lucky if I spend a couple hours a day designing. That's what I work for, but more often than not it's a lot of paperwork and correspondence, and that's the part I don't necessarily love.

What time do you get up and go to bed? I get up around 6:30 in the morning and go to bed by around midnight. My wife—who works from our studio—works East Coast hours, so we start work at our house around 7:00 or 7:30 every day.

What is your favorite productivity tip or trick? I guess the biggest thing is just to never stop. If you get stuck on something, recognize that you're stuck and keep moving. Just move on to something else. I'm constantly giving myself a long to-do list, and whenever I'm at a point where I don't want to do something on that list, I look at the next thing and just move forward.

What is the most important quality in a designer? Execution. Having ideas isn't the hardest part. The hardest part is actually to be able to execute and push through those ideas.

What is the most widespread misunderstanding about design or designers? Well, for designers, I guess it would be how much time is actually spent designing. I thought that I would spend 30 to 40 hours a week doing design, and I'm lucky if I spend 10 hours a week. It's rare that I have time to come up with new ideas.

What do you hope to be doing in 10 years? I hope to have more furniture being licensed by some of the bigger European and American furniture and lighting producers, while also continuing to have my small studio practice of self-produced work. I'm really attracted to this idea of building a studio that does both of those things.

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http://www.sightunseen.com/shop/melodic-suspensions-wind-chime/

$180-$195

Materials: Aluminum, brass, and copper tubing; brass sheeting; stained glass; wooden beads; leather; string

Measurements: Approx 18-20″ long

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Ace Hotel London

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Bottle openers by Fort Standard

Bought one today after lusting for one forever

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Ana Kraš by Jody Rogac

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http://www.bunchmag.com/a-visit-with-ben-medansky/

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http://shop.alittlemorelikethis.com/collections/cosmic/products/roll-up

Made of sturdy 10 ounce waxed natural canvas. 

Handcrafted by Winter Session

13 x 8 inches (adjustable height)

8 pockets for supplies

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http://blog.stevenalan.com/2012/08/02/a-visit-with-btw-ceramics/

 To get the lines I draw them, paint the underglaze, then scrape it away. I was experimenting, making the shapes of the cups and I always liked the idea of inlay, so I was looking at the shape of the cup and started making lines that followed it, mimicking the form, and kind of went from there. To get the irregular edges, after I throw it, I just kind of tear a piece back and leave it raw. I do the same thing with the cups – I leave it overlapping where it comes together.

And the lovely rippled texture inside?

Those are the throwing lines from the wheel that my fingers make. I  used to smooth them out, but now I prefer the way they look, so I leave them.

What’s a typical day like for you?

It’s fairly varied. It’s very different every day but usually I try to fire just at night. I put the kiln on at night before I leave, because if you’re in here when it’s on, it gets really, really hot. I have stuff  cooling in there right now. Most of the time I try and make the raw stuff first at the beginning of the day so it has a decent amount of time to dry out. It takes about eight hours. It does depend on the size and thickness of each piece. It’s not completely dry but then you can work on the actual decoration, because you can’t do that when it’s wet. So there are all these different stages in the process with many steps. First it’s raw, and then you make the basic shape and let it dry out. You wait until it reaches a stage called “leather hard” – when the clay is still technically wet but you can pick it up and manipulate it and it won’t lose it’s shape. That’s when I make the lines. Then when it’s really completely dry, you can smooth it and sand it.

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Heather Levine

http://blog.needsupply.com/2013/08/25/artist-interview-heather-levine/

Can you explain your process to us?

Most new projects take a bit of trial and error and learning my limitations. Clay is an amazing material but can be challenging and demanding with what and how you try manipulate it. For the lamps I throw the vessels on a wheel. After waiting for them to become leather hard I trim the pieces to refine the shape and openings. Then I measure and carve lightly with a needle tool the pattern I want to carve out. All openings and shapes are carved by hand. The lamps are then bisque fired, then masked and glazed and then fired to cone 10. Then wired for their specific location. The shapes/cutouts are saved, cleaned, and holes are placed in them. The cutouts are then fired to cone 10 and used as parts for my wall hangings. Each wall hanging is one of a kind and made only with the parts I have available at the time. I saved my parts for many months feeling too guilty to throw them away, so the wall hangings are a great solution for recycling my cutout shapes.

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Arnold Circus stool by Martino Gamper