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Design Glut's in-house product design studio is known for our line of intelligent, socially-relevant products. We also provide innovative design solutions to outside clients. Learn more.
LATEST NEWS
November 19, 2008
NEW PRODUCTS
Check out the online store for new products by Design Glut! We've launched the World Links necklace, which has the continents of the world connected by links of chain around your neck. And our new Cubic Switchplates play tricks with your eyes. They're only 3mm deep, but it looks like they're protruding inches off the wall.
October 14, 2008
NEW ONLINE STORE AND PRESS
We just redid our online store to make it easier for our customers. The new layout is simpler to browse and has some additional functionality. Fancy Schmancy! We also have new press to report: Elle Decoration, Max, and 5 Au Clock.
September 21, 2008
NEW PRESS AND STORES
The October issue of Metropolitan Home covers the Slow Food Tray as part of a group of products using words as decoration. We also have three new stores: Spring and Stewart and Stand here in NY, and Composition in Colorado.
September 2, 2008
NEW PRESS: SURFACE
The new edition of Surface reports of the trend of designers "using oil as fuel for thought." Crude Black is included.
August 22, 2008
NEW PRESS: DFUN
The Crude Jewelry was just featured as the cover story in the current issue of DFUN, a Taiwanese fashion and design magazine.
July 15, 2008
NEW PRESS: WALLPAPER
The August '08 issue of Wallpaper is hitting newsstands right now. Check out the interviews with "NYC's new design wave": Todd Bracher, Design Glut, Takeshi Miyakawa, and Test Collective.
July 10, 2008
NEW PRESS: WATCH
The Smoking Gun was just featured in the latest edition of Watch.
July 9, 2008
ABOUT DESIGN GLUT
We’ve expanded the About Us area - check it out to get a better feel for who we are and what we do.
June 30, 2008
NEW PRESS: MAX
The fashion magazine Max just published a great-looking piece on Crude Black. We can't actually read it, but we're hoping they said nice things.
June 23, 2008
SMOKING GUN NECKLACE
The Smoking Gun is now available on a chain! It makes one pimped out necklace.
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• Todd Bracher
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• July 2008
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• November 2008
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ALL INTERVIEWS
(Alphabetical)
• Brad Ascalon
• Brooklyn Salsa Company
• byAMT
• Cake
• Character
• Citizen:Citizen
• Curatorium
• Diaroogle.com
• Domestic Aesthetic
• Exit9
• FuckOffSarahPalin.com
• Harry Allen
• Mint
• Nooka
• NOTCOT.com
• Pomp&Clout
• redstr/collective
• Reiko Kaneko
• Robert Langhorn
• Skinny Vinny
• Sonic Design
• Supermarket
• Swiss Miss (upcoming)
• Todd Bracher
• TZ Design
MONTHLY ARCHIVE
Subscribe to
Posts [Atom]
July 30, 2008
Scot Spratford of Make and Cake
Make is a product design consultancy run out of Red Hook, Brooklyn. Cake is their quirky counterpart; the designers' creative outlet for their own ideas and products. We sat down with one of the founders and listened to his story. We love how diverse these two companies are, with a portfolio that includes both a shelf derived from department-of-defense technology and chrome gnomes.
Cake/Make
160 Van Brunt Street
Brooklyn, NY 11231
718.797.9182
Cake
Make
How did the group of you start working together?
Originally there were five of us - we all met at Pratt during grad school. After school most of us were freelancing. In 2000, Kevin got a project from a housewares client. It was too big to handle alone, so he assembled the group. We got together, once or twice a week, ate pizza in our living rooms and developed twelve products to pitch to the client. We hoped they would pick one or two to go forward with, but they ended up picking ten!
All of a sudden we had a whole new set of problems. They were paying us, but we had a huge about of work to do and didn't have a real work space. So we moved here. It was good timing, Red Hook was was just turning, and we got 5000 square feet. Make was officially a business.
What led you to form Cake?
We started consulting for housewares companies, but we were also coming up with ideas on our own. Cake became our outlet for our own products. We decided to do shows, and went to ICFF with prototypes. We didn’t completely know what we were doing, you never do... Our consultancy work was very mass market focused, while the pieces for Cake are meant to sell in boutiques, and are inspired by form exploration and various things we like. Cake is about pieces that are fun for us. It’s the type of thing that can go into hibernation for a while, but new people will continue to discover it and love it.
As far as Make goes, who was your first big, breakthrough client?
Well, obviously there was the client which led us to form Make... But another big breakthrough client was a guy who had an aerospace company in New Jersey. He’d gotten a DARPA contract to develop a technology that allowed people to climb up walls like Spiderman. After the technology was proved to work, he had an idea for a soap dish utilizing the same pressure/suction system. He brought us this really scary contraption, which we though was pretty cool, and we ended up expanding it into a whole line of home products.
We helped name the company, worked on packaging, really everything. The end product was this modular bathroom system where the starter piece retailed around 16 dollars. He ended up selling a few hundred thousand pieces. I’m pretty sure it’s still available at Linens’N’Things and Home Depot.
What has been the biggest challenge you’ve had to overcome?
Getting new clients is a big one. You have to constantly be out there, finding new business, in order to keep it all going.
Do you have any advice for designers looking to band together and start something?
You have to be tenacious, get out there, be on the phone, and follow up – in a nice way. Talk to people. If you send in your resume, follow up with a phone call. I get stuff all the time; I just don’t have to time to get back to everyone. You also can’t get discouraged. People are going to reject you – you’ve need to get past that. Develop a thicker skin.
Cake/Make
160 Van Brunt Street
Brooklyn, NY 11231
718.797.9182
Cake
Make
How did the group of you start working together?
Originally there were five of us - we all met at Pratt during grad school. After school most of us were freelancing. In 2000, Kevin got a project from a housewares client. It was too big to handle alone, so he assembled the group. We got together, once or twice a week, ate pizza in our living rooms and developed twelve products to pitch to the client. We hoped they would pick one or two to go forward with, but they ended up picking ten!
All of a sudden we had a whole new set of problems. They were paying us, but we had a huge about of work to do and didn't have a real work space. So we moved here. It was good timing, Red Hook was was just turning, and we got 5000 square feet. Make was officially a business.
What led you to form Cake?
We started consulting for housewares companies, but we were also coming up with ideas on our own. Cake became our outlet for our own products. We decided to do shows, and went to ICFF with prototypes. We didn’t completely know what we were doing, you never do... Our consultancy work was very mass market focused, while the pieces for Cake are meant to sell in boutiques, and are inspired by form exploration and various things we like. Cake is about pieces that are fun for us. It’s the type of thing that can go into hibernation for a while, but new people will continue to discover it and love it.
As far as Make goes, who was your first big, breakthrough client?
Well, obviously there was the client which led us to form Make... But another big breakthrough client was a guy who had an aerospace company in New Jersey. He’d gotten a DARPA contract to develop a technology that allowed people to climb up walls like Spiderman. After the technology was proved to work, he had an idea for a soap dish utilizing the same pressure/suction system. He brought us this really scary contraption, which we though was pretty cool, and we ended up expanding it into a whole line of home products.
We helped name the company, worked on packaging, really everything. The end product was this modular bathroom system where the starter piece retailed around 16 dollars. He ended up selling a few hundred thousand pieces. I’m pretty sure it’s still available at Linens’N’Things and Home Depot.
What has been the biggest challenge you’ve had to overcome?
Getting new clients is a big one. You have to constantly be out there, finding new business, in order to keep it all going.
Do you have any advice for designers looking to band together and start something?
You have to be tenacious, get out there, be on the phone, and follow up – in a nice way. Talk to people. If you send in your resume, follow up with a phone call. I get stuff all the time; I just don’t have to time to get back to everyone. You also can’t get discouraged. People are going to reject you – you’ve need to get past that. Develop a thicker skin.
