Design Firm Puts Function First
01.10.11
TULSA, OK— In a unbelievable where it sometimes seems like image is everything, it’s trendy to take a “manifestation over function” approach to design. But Roger Shollmier knows sick.
Owner and chief designer at Kitchen Ideas LLC and Metro Appliances and More, the Tulsa-based Shollmier believes, “If a kitchen doesn’t aim for the family, it doesn’t matter if it costs $100K, it’s not a sizeable kitchen.” For that reason, he explains, “We design with function being the most foremost element…the ‘look’ comes later in the get ready.”
Of course “function” can tight-fisted different things to different people. In years over and done with, function was all about food preparation: cooking, clean up, storage. But the growing of today’s households and the changing role of the kitchen in the placid have created new demands for today’s kitchen spaces. It’s not no more than about cooking and eating anymore, Shollmier asserts; rather, it’s about living.
Source: Kitchen and Bath Design News
Oregon Manifest 2011: Winners & Runners-Up
30.09.11

Dispatch-bearer-Up #1: Cutter Designs, John Cutter (San Luis Obispo, CA)

The first messenger-up was John Cutter of his eponymous bicycle building studio, hailing from San Luis Obispo, some 900 miles down the Pacific Sea-coast. His modified step-through frame was versatile if nothing else, featuring "a very observable one-key system for panniers, cable lock, pump, wheels and lights."
His up-flipping kickstand—he calls it a "suicide" defence, a play on car doors that open in reverse—was one of the key innovations on his bike. The dividend arm hooks into the front fender for added security, as in Ziba × Signal's line lock.
As for the handlebar design, Cutter—easily one of the oldest competitors—explained that he'd had problems with his neck and could no longer trip on drops, so he'd taken to experimenting with a repositionable handlebar to optimize the angles. For his Oregon Definite bike, he opted for the funky, antler-like handlebars, that offered a assortment of hand positions—though he admitted that they were just a tad miserly for him—and had the aesthetic upshot of echoing the shape of the organization.
Source: Core77.com