NEXT WEEKEND: THE BLAK\Designmart

In celebrating the early winter dark hours, Brite collective presents THE BLAK\designmart!! 

 

THE BLAK\DESIGNMART

A 2-day only holiday sale featuring 30+ emerging designer/makers presenting limited edition BLAK products under the theme of black to celebrate the early winter nights! In addition, a separate open designmart where more designers will be there to represent and sell their own work outside the theme.  

ALSO We're excited to share that this event will help support the new non-profit design organization, Seattle Design Foundation. SDF's mission is to create a platform for local creatives, in both social and financial capacities.  

DATE/TIME

DEC 15-16 SATURDAY-SUNDAY 11am-5pm

LOCATION

1011 E. PIKE STREET, SEATTLE 98122 @CAFFE VITA BEAN ROOM

EVENING SOCIAL: SAT 5-8pm

 

Come meet the designers and enjoys special BLAK drinks, snacks, & treats!

**Come dressed in black or something relating to the theme!!**

FEATURED DESIGNERS:

&c. / Aaron Murray / Aleks Pollner / Ampersand As Apostrophe / Ample / Blk Pine workshop / Brakish / Bultman Ceramics / Cassie Hibbert Design / Christianna Shaw / Erin Kendig / Fleet Objects / Free Time Industries / fruitsuper / Glasswing / Grain / HighLow Jewelry /Irene Wood / Jessalin Beautler / Kaleidoscope Vision / Kate Greiner / Kimberly Baker / Ladies & Gentlemen Studio / Maiden Noir / Maudern /Metrode / Mimot / Neon Noble / Nicholas Nyland / Noal Nyland / OBJECT / OUI / Ozen Company / Piano Nobile / Ria Leigh / R&L Goods / Sarah Loertscher / Studio Arno / Ta+ma / Tanya Aguiniga / Urbancase / VonTundra /Zero Sept...and MORE!!!

GET THE LATEST UPDATES & RSVP on our FACEBOOK EVENT PAGE

FEEL FREE TO SHARE THIS with anyone & everyone! THANKS!!

VALUE DESIGNERS at VALUE SHOP: Part 2

Here's the second half list of the participating studios!

13. Ladies & Gentlemen Studio:  That's us... Jean & Dylan (also co-organizer of the popup, Brite Collective, and JOIN)  like to keep a diverse array of things from chalkable piggy banks, to servers, to jewelery, to serving trays, and even lights.  Some might call it lack of commitment, but they prefer to call it diversification!

14. Material Good:  Founded on a vision that a company can include working for a cause in it's core vision, material good donates a portion of all sales to causes that promote curing and preventing cancer.  Their "Little Shirley" vases are an homage to founder Lauren Burman's grandmother, who inspired the idea for Material Good.

15. Meet Me Here: Jonas DeVerona creates simple well-constructed bags, accessories and clothes with quality materials and a keen eye for details.

16. Metrode: Caitlin collaborates with skilled small town hobbyist & crafters to create products in their craft with her creative vision and aesthetic.  The result is an elevation of traditional crafts beyond kitsch to the point of high design.

17. Object: Photographer Charlie Schuck is a man of many visions, but fortunately for us he has a soft spot for design.  Through the opening of Object, a Belltown design store and event space he champions good design with a minimally curated collection of furniture, lighting, home goods, jewelry, accessories, and vintage objects.

18. Paper Hammer: A paper studio/shop founded by Ed Marquand  (of Marquand Books - Seattle publishing company) that's all about bring back art of paper goods and book binding.  Their studio based in Tieton (a small Eastern Washington town recently revitalized as an artist town) creates their goods with the loving care that few care to give to papergoods these days.

19. Perhacs Studio: Founded by Brandon Perhacs and based on Bainbridge Island, the studio creates graphically playful products many of which can be customized by their users.

20. R&L goods:  Jean & Chika whip up a lovely collection of handmade wallets, notebooks, and other softgoods with prints in collaboration with Piano Nobile.

21. Studio Arno: A brand new company founded by Justin Lyle who makes sophisticated modern bolo ties using an array of exotic woods.

22. Ta+Ma:  We love Designer Tamae Satsu's eye for details and materials in her line of simple soft goods made from high quality leather and felt.

23. Urbancase:  Darin Montgomery of Urbancase is all about designing objects and spaces that contribute to a simpler, pared back lifestyle. 

VALUE DESIGNERS at VALUE SHOP: Part 1

On behalf of Brite Collective & JOIN, I'd like to just share what all this VALUE SHOP excitement is about!  We now have 20+ design studios which we'll feature at the VALUE (pop-up) SHOP for this coming weekend!!

We got some design "O.G."s, but also some new friends in the mix! Here's a sneak peak & a little something about each of the designers  alphebetaically ordered starting with the first half of the list....

1. Ample: Is a modern furniture & lighting studio founded by Andy Johnson.  The studio produces everything right here in Seattle, Washington with a strong preference for local materials and a deep conviction that furniture can and should be built to last a lifetime - or two.  

2. Aleks Pollner: Ceramic porcelain artist who tests our perception of precoius porcelain objects and what it  means when things are just meant to be broken.

3. Ashley Helvey: the multi-talented textile artist, stylist, foodie, prolific blogger, and ultra-skilled thrifter. 

4. Blkpine Workshop: Christa Thomas & Nin Troung (also the co-organizers of this popup) have this amazing knack for juggling multiple creative businesses and roles at once. They are the founders/designers of Blkpine Workshop (Seattle-made bags),  Maiden Noir (menswear brand), Cafe Weekend (a delightful cafe), and on top of that Nin's a creative director for Stussy.  And we think we're busy with just one studio!

5. Brackish:  An up & coming furniture company founded by Forest Eckley & Andy Whitcomb.  Their thoughtful approach to design is based on a simple balance of carefully salvaged materials to create one-of-a-kind furniture pieces that are equal parts warm and industrial.

6. Erich Ginder: A PNW native who draws upon natural and traditional imagery from his youth to create fresh, playful remixes of classic forms.

7. fruitsuper: A seattle duo that puts the fun in fundamental with their simple, colorful, and functional products.

8. Glasswing: A collective founded by three roommates (Forest, also part of Brakish, Alisa, and Sean)who see eye-to-eye in all the little things that matter for living a quality life.  They have a shared interest which sent them on a mission to gather the best sources for delightful everyday essentials from scented homemade candles, honey from nearby farms, accessories, and more.

9. Grain:  Our Bainbridge Island-based friends whose thoughtful designs are dedicated to social and environmental responsibility.  Their goods are produced in small batches at their island studio or through special collaborations with expert artisans in the US and abroad.

10. Herman Yu:  A Seattle designer who creates beautiful printed cards and calendars featuring artfully manipulated natural images that are simultaneously graphic and ethereal.

11. Iacoli & McAllister:  A collaboration between Jamie Iacoli and Brian McAllister that yields an impressive line up of lighting, furniture, jewelry, and small products.  Their work never ceases to be an amazing intersection of materials and geometry.

12. Jessalin Beutler:  A collection of accessories and clothes that are feature bold geographic patterns HAND-painted by Jessalin herself!

So yah......quite a list already, eh? This is like rounding up all the super hereos with all their super making powers!

Well, guess what? we're only at the half way point! More designers to follow for part 2!

BLANC success!

More details on the BLANC sale later but let's say it's been so encouraging to see Seattle get excited about design!

The past two days have been so inspiring that we decided to open the shop again today (Sunday) from 11-5! at Caffe Vita's bean room at 1005 e pike , Seattle.

Come visit us!

Special BLANC Mailers

I'm excited to share these special mailers that Chelsea Heffner of plainMADE  and I collaborated on to reach out to some special museums / shops / press in Seattle, Portland, Vancouver, and NY!

Each card is unique and it's just a little something that we hope will entice them to come check us out and/or support the event!

....but mostly I just wanted an excuse to get Chelsea to do some beautiful hand-painted artwork! :)

Her free-hand color washes is totally perfect for what I had envisioned for BLANC. She even got these beautiful slightly textured thick water-color paper to paint on. Then I did the layout for the text and printed it with just my printer!

I was more than surprised and happy to find that my ghetto Canon MP470 printer did SUCH a stellar print job, didn't chew up the paper or die!

 I really hope people will get them and keep these for awhile....I know I totally would!

BRITE Terrarium Workshop...Round 2!!

Due to popular demands we decided to do a 2nd Terrarium Workshop at BRITE again! This time will be a Valentine's Day theme terrarium workshop! Let's spread the love!
Date: Feb 12th
Time: 4-7pm
Cost: $20/person
Includes: Terrarium ornament kit, tools & materials, treats & refreshments, and good times!
More details & how to sign up here!

You can see some photos from our last event here!

MORE at UCU!

I'm also SUPER excited to have some terrarium ornaments & kits at UCU this weekend.
We did this for our Brite Terrarium Wonderland Workshop couple weeks ago, and figure this is also a good opportunity to share what we created!
These will be available at our L&G booth with ornaments already made, and also the kits for the DIY peeps out there.The workshop was a collaboration between our friend Nicholas Nyland where he did the lovely illustrations and I designed the kits!

Each kit comes with:
Instruction, ornament ball, ribbon, soil, activated charcoal, various moss types, and a surprise white animal figurine.
Once I started making them, I just couldn't stop!! It was like putting together a miniature world...or more like a miniature WONDERLAND...
The great things about these ornaments is that you can keep them up beyond the holiday season especially for someone like me who never get around to do much holiday stuff! Who really has time to put up lights in & outside of the house, decorate trees, go gift shopping, wrap the gifts, send out Christmas cards, AND bake holiday treats?...oh I guess that's most people, huh?

With the little time I have to do the fun holiday activities that most people gets to do...my little terrarium ornament is a nice little added festivity in our boxes-stacked-and-shipping supplies filled house!

Brite Terrarium Wonderland Workshop, 11/20 this Saturday!

Brite & SOIL Artist, Nicholas Nyland is excited to present:

TERRARIUM WONDERLAND WORKSHOP!!

WHEN: This SATURDAY, 11/20th, 12-3pm.

WHAT: You will learn to make lovely terrariums ornaments for the holidays and also make terrariums from found containers!

WHERE: Brite Social Studio- 676 S. Jackson Street,

HOW: Pay $15/person, which will include:Terrarium ornament kit/ tools to use/ instructions/ Vita coffee, Tea, or Dry Soda/ Treats/ and good times!

Bring your own containers and make more terrariums or donate to the group!

 There's a limit of 20 people for this workshop. So please RSVP by

photo by Land-Rich

Brite's Take Out Take Off

As we did ourselves out of a blog-hole...here's a little glimpse at our very first official event in the new Brite space on Jackson and 7th here in Seattle.

Our goal was to introduce people to our new neighborhood in a fun, engaging way. Quick, what's the most fun, engaging thing you can think of?... If you said "FOOD!" you're 100% correct!

Here's how it worked:



Our lucky guests got to mingle and draw maps of the area from memory. Everyone's knowledge varied a lot...just what we were hoping for.



After mapping, we divided everyone into teams of 3-4 members and assigned them a two block section of the International District. People then each picked two adjectives from a hat.

The mission: go to your area and find a single dish that can be described by the two adjectives.



The stores in the area ranged from restaurants, grocery stores, medicine shops, to bakeries...

After finding their dishes, everyone brought their take-out back to the Brite space, where everyone shared stories from their part of the neighborhood and gorged on the buffet of delicious treats. What a way to kick off the Brite space?

For more, check out the Brite blog and flickr

See the rest of the photos of the event HERE!



I'd like to Tap That: Office made with Pallets

Check out this post via Design Boom about this cleverly designed office space by A Dutch design firm, most architecture.
They designed the spacing using a bunch of handsome-looking pallets piled up in compelling ways while turning them into functional working spaces, seating, and even a staircase!We've been collecting pallets & wooden crates to fill up our Brite Social Studio space for the fact that they're so readily available and free ...but of course the pallets aren't nearly as nice as the ones you see here.
Pretty ridiculous how even Dutch PALLETS are better and cooler than ours!....sheesh!!
I can only imagine even living like a homeless person there would be pretty amazing...I'd go for that.

Brite Space In Progress

Brite crew: Dylan, Jean, Christa, Nin

Here's what we've done to the Brite space so far....Just so you know...it's a work in progress...and also our budget is limited (i.e. no budget)
But between finding materials from Dylan's work, collecting crates from the ID, and bringing random things we have around our house, we're pretty happy with what we've been able to do so far for the space!
A coffee table made with stacked pallets.
the wall of crates are all scavenged from the ID since there's such an abundance of Asian produce shops! Nin impressively put that up in mere couple of hours!

We even got a coffee & tea station! Thanks to Caffé Vita for always supporting our endeavor!
Nothing like some take out Chinese food after working some late hours at Brite...That's one thing that we don't have to worry about...that there's always food available in the International District!
Curious people passer bysBrite's theme for this month, to explore the concept of "space Available" and what it means to use space in a creative way.



A BRITE Opportunity

So we all know that summer is officially over, and that this year has definitely gone by WAY too fast. But we're happy to share a great exciting news for BRITE Collective where we have been given a store front spaces for the next 3 months as a temporary residency in the Seattle International District!

What does this mean?
This means that we get to use this space to host creative events and activities as a platform that can foster individuals to create, connect and leave inspired. Also this will give us an opportunity to connect with local groups/designers/artists/businesses and collaborate to do something fun and out of the ordinary!

Here's a preview of our space and the rough set up. ...
How did this happen?
well...really...it's because of our current unfortunate state of the economy.... But all this is a total blessing in disguise! I see it as a new Renaissance way of living where people, whether they like it or not, have to keep an open mind for things that more temporary, flexible, and unpredictable....and I think all of us are learning to adjust to this new way and trying to embrace the concept of "living in the moment" by taking advantage of the resources & opportunities that are all around us. Just within the past year I've seen so many interesting new food cart/truck business popping up, met new people doing super interesting projects, or new groups coming together to gain forces to do something great...I think we all are looking to make the best out of the worst.

And his is exactly what the Seattle Store Front project is all about. The idea formed when all these vacant/for lease spaces are popping up and dramatically changing the dynamic & the feel of the area. It's never appealing to see or walk through places where you see that every turn you take. So various local Seattle organizations formed this project to encourage creative individuals/groups of all realm to utilize existing vacant store fronts as an opportunity to experiment and bring something positive to the neighborhood as well as help building a stronger sense of community and arts in the area. So despite the unfortunate existence of these vacant spaces around town, this is totally a perfect creative way to put a positive spin on it all.

Brite is really looking forward to take full advantage of such opportunity and is planning on teaming up with local groups, artists, designers, musicians, you name it!
We got a ton of ideas to host variety of workshops, installations, music and film related events, holiday parties and more!!
For the first small event, we invited couple of guys who organizes the annual PARK(ing) Day for Seattle, where they get people to set up parks in what would normally be parking spots or vacant gravel lots for one day simply for the goal to get people to see & use existing spaces differently.
We participated in last year's PARK(ing) day, and this year the timing worked out that we got the space around they same time that PARK(ing) day was happening. So we decided to set up temporary park-like elements in our vacant space as a way to get some fun activities happeing there to start!
Our set up of an indoor picnic with some ARCADE magazines....
Four Square = four times the fun! So much space (1300 sq/ft much of it!), so many ideas, and so little time!....It's going to be an action packed winter because we got LOADS of ideas/plans which will be taking place really soon!
Stay tuned! 

Eat My Story Report: Part I

This last Saturday, Brite's collaboration with Tricia Martin of Eating is Art went super well! The event, EAT MY STORY:Make a Pizza, Tell A story, had a great turn out. Besides making and tasting some (actually A LOT) of pizzas, everyone also enjoyed some fantastic house wine, as well as delicious Via Tribunali appetizers donated to us.
Tricia made these wonderful individual pizza peels for each story submitted. It had the story, and all ingredients drawn on there. It made the experience that much more special.
Tricia is super diligent and did her homework of updating about the event already. So here are some photos from her. I'll have more updates later and TONS of delicious looking photos. Everyone making their own dough. It's harder than it looks!
We got to taste 20+ never been tried pizza flavors!!
Plum jam+lavender+quince pizza/ peanut butter+almond butter+honey+apple pizza/ huevo ranchero pizza/ heirloom ketchup pizza/ pork belly+lotus root +cilantro oil pizza/ chocolate+coco nibs + habanero peppers pizza, ....and more!Stay tuned!

What a Glorious Park(ing) Day!

Last Friday, Christa, Julia and I organized a small BRITE event to take part in global PARK(ing) Day where hundreds of temporary mini parks were set up in actual parking spots or unused lots all around the world.
We were part of a bigger lot that used to be an old hipster stomping ground - former home of the Cha Cha, Bimbo's Burritos, etc. (On Pine between Summit & Belmont)
Now it's just an empty gravel lot, since after they tore down the whole block, the recession hit...
The PARK(ing) day was a day to give the community a reason to hang out there again....and we couldn't have asked for any better weather.
The Negative Space field sketch was inspired from a walk that Julia, Dylan and I did awhile back in July when we walked around Burien....yeah, that's right...Burien. Who would of thought anyone can spend that much time just wondering around, right? But after 2 hours of walking around, we left with thoughts and questions about other neighborhoods, and realized really how little we know and notice on an everyday basis....We were inspired to do other walks such as this. We wanted to take the opportunity on the PARK(ing) Day to get people to slow down and take a look at the Capitol Hill neighborhood.
Especially in an area that has so much history, people (the densest residential area on the west coast north of SF), various types of businesses, and landscape, this neighborhood has gone through some major changes in the last 5 years (and still in the process of). Some more controversial than others. While many of these issues have been presented as the good locals vs. evil developers, there has been many great positive improvements such as the Cal Anderson park which has quickly became a common landmark for most residence/students/professional in the neighborhood to hangout.As we walked we asked ourselves these provocative questions:

*How have all the changes effected everyone's connection and perception about the area....are they positive/negative? neither/both?

*With each change that happens, how has it effected one's knowledge, perceptions, memories, feelings, and their use of a certain area? (i.e. excavating of the old Cha Cha lot vs. the creation of Cal Anderson park)

*How do each of those elements tie into the way we associate with a place?...whether it be 4 block radius or a neighborhood, the city, or the entire country.

*How do we, as an individual make a place more pleasant for ourselves...and if possible, for others?

People participated on different levels depending on the time allowed. Many came by to say hello or during their lunch breaks to draw up some quick cognitive memory maps of what they knew about the area. Here's a whole line of maps hung up. For those who had more time, we then gave them each a special "biographical field sketch book" as they went on a self-guided walk, jotting down what they noticed.
Constance's conclusion: Pay Attention. (Constance came back and admitted that she spent half the walk looking for her car trying to feed the meter and got even more turned around)Jonhathan's Field Sketch: Great old buildings. (as an architect, he appreciates the old charming buildings of Capitol Hill)Jean's Findings: Great mix of pattern & texture that reminded me of Italy.
(I went on a walk myself and wandered around for 45min taking notes as well as photos. It was nice to just walk without having to get to any place....it was as if I was visiting Capitol Hill for the first time.

We even got some young BRITE participants! How cute!
Below are some other great mini-parks on the lot that day:
Below is an "Air" Park
A giant connect four, a table to make some art, Flash Volunteer, and a ping-pong table.

For the fact that it was a working day, the turnout was better than we had anticipated. We were just happy to see people out and about and actually showing support. Granted we couldn't get people to start the walk all at the same time, it was still a good trial run and a learning experience nonetheless. We hope that we can do this on a time of the day so more people can attend in the future and perhaps even do other less popular neighborhood walks like Int'l District, First Hill, Judkin's Park, Lake City...and many many more!)

Check out the Flickr set for more photos of the event and people's field sketch notes!
If you like to join BRITE's mailing list to hear about our updates, please leave a message with your email on our Facebook page.

American Designs are JOINing in!

OMG! I'm LOLing w/ X-citement and IDK why!! This new Core 77 article just came out highlighting the US design club movement and guess who they're featuring: JOIN Design Seattle and it's bff Brite Collective. The article basically prophesizes that design awesomeness is on its way to the USA on the wings of design clubs like JOIN sprouting up around the country. Read for yourself to find out the full scoop including profiles of Chicago's Object Design League and Brooklyn's American Design Club and efforts to get the government more involved in supporting independant design. Thanks Core 77! So great to see the momentum building! Everybody now: U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!...

Ladies and Gentlemen Home: For the love of all things vintage, clever, designed, and/or delicious

Take a Closer Look at What's Around....Even If It's Costco

When was the last time you stopped to appreciate the most mundane parts of where you live?
Have you ever hike along the woods off the highway?
Can fences be used to connect instead of divide?
These are a few of the questions brought up in a lecture Jean and I attended tonight by urban planner Thomas Sieverts and put on by Portland-based Suddenly.org.
Thomas's theory is that we need to come to terms with the already established sprawl of our urban environments and recognize the inherent charm and potential in the in-between state of being it creates. His suggestion is that we begin to shape our culture in a way that appreciates and enhances interactions of people with their location.

-How can we make the best out of the situation and be better aware of and enjoy the places we live?
-Can spaces between buildings become spots for gardens or for people to mingle?
-Can big commercial businesses use the parking lots to house community events like flea markets, fairs, or skateboard competitions?
Thomas posed these questions and more through a narrative photo tour through a Tigard, OR, an apparent suburban wasteland (similar to Burien, WA) of big box stores, fast food, and lower-middle class residences. The photos highlighted the hidden beauty of forests situated between strip malls, spaces between buildings, unofficial walkways, and well-intentioned. Some were beautiful examples spontaneous human resourcefulness others audacious attempts to insert "beauty" in an altogether bland location (think trimmed hedges in parking lots...what's the point?). All were scenes you could witness if you'd just notice it or take a thoughtful walk around a neighborhood near you....or keep it simple and get your ass out of the car. :DBillboard on I-5 between Seattle and Portland. It's always changing with some ridiculous messages on it. I love reading it every time we go by.
Playful signs on a roundabout by Hiawatha neighborhood off of S Rainer Ave in Seattle.
The point behind it all is that there's a natural desire to express human needs no matter the location and that we all need to recognize them and demand them, but it's also what we choose to see and appreciate what's around us.
Will there come a time where living in an abandoned strip mall or Costco building is just as desirable as livinging in industrial warehouses?
This whole lecture has opened up so many design potentials on this subject, and our heads are spinning with ideas for Brite!!...... oh boy!

Today July 2nd: Continuing event with Thomas Sieverts : there will be an organized walking tour in Burien neighborhood to practice this exact philosophy we described and explore what's around there. When's the last time you decided to stop and walk around Burien?? We can't say that we have....But we will tomorrow!

4:00 pm Burien through Community Eyes: Walk the city of Burien with Thomas Sieverts and artist, Boris Sieverts. (Gather at B/IAS 5th Ave SW & SW 150th St., Burien.) Free and open to the public.

6:00 pm Conversation and Nosh with Thomas Sieverts and Boris Sieverts, Burien political and civic leaders, neighbors, friends, and an interested public (at B/IAS, 5th Ave SW & SW 150th St., Burien; food and drink from Mark & Sal’s Deli). Free and open to the public.

Ladies and Gentlemen Home: For the love of all things vintage, clever, designed, and/or delicious

DESIGN Event: 2 in 1 day!

So this week it's gonna be packed with some awesome design actions along with JOIN's Cltr+Alt+Design Show this Friday!

JUNE 10th, WEDNESDAY: UW Design show 2009, 5-7pm
showcasing senior design students of Visual Communication design, Industrial design, Design studies, and MFA designs. I like their simple yet playful poster and website.
JUNE 10th, WEDNESDAY: Objectified Screening at Cinerama, 7pm
Join director Gary Hustwit for a special screening and post-film discussion. Sponsored by AIGA Seattle and IDSA NW. I'm Looking forward in seeing some my design heroes like Hella Jongerius, Naoto Fukusawa, Dieter Rams, and the Bouroullec brothers in the film...this will probably be the closest I'll ever get to "meet" them. I'm excited nonetheless.
Oh! Look closer and find the word "objectified" spelled out with objects!
I know, A lot going on, but if you miss the opening and screening, don't fret, the student show will be up for at least 2 more weeks and also Objectified will be playing at Northwest Film Forum in July.

Ladies and Gentlemen Home: For the love of all things vintage, clever, designed, and/or delicious

JOIN us at JOIN Design Show 6/12 FRIDAY

JOIN us for a celebration of 26+ fantastic designs from Seattle and across the states! Our next show, Ctrl+Alt+DESIGN will be opening on FRIDAY, JUNE, 12th from 7pm-Midnight.
Ouch My Eye Gallery is sponsoring the event by letting us use their awesome studio/gallery space with a bar and a new Cafe, Occhio. (Pronounced OH-KEE-OH)
This show is gonna be EPIC!! This is our first juried design show, and we were thrilled with the quality of work and design from the submissions.
There's a great selection of designers and design work from small accessories, jewelery, home decor, lighting, to furniture.

There will be music, all the designers and artists will be there, art installation by (knee shy), all of the BRITE lites, AND a one day only event at reception: Bread Friend Map by Tricia Martin. All I'm gonna say is, YOU+(2 x FOUR FOOT long loafs of bread)=AWESOME FRIEND MAP. If you wanna find out what all this is about, you just gotta come and check it out!! Here's a process shot of the homemade mega bread from Tricia....crazy.
Dylan and I are gonna have some smaller L&G designs there as well! ...Meet Mr. Rhino. Pleasure.
See you there!

Ladies and Gentlemen Home: For the love of all things vintage, clever, designed, and/or delicious

BRITE lite RESULTS!!

Hello! We apologize for the delay!! We held our first BRITE event on May, 16. We FINALLY went through the photos (I took 400+ photos!) and can now share with everyone what a fun event it was!

Just to backtrack a little, Dylan & I and Christa & Nin (from Cafe Weekend) teamed up to organize this design charrette (and a trial run) with a mission to start connecting people through interactive and spontaneous design activities. We're calling it the BRITE Collective.

For this first event: BRITE lite, LOCAL DESIGNERS & CRAFTERS teamed up to participate in a spontaneous 4 hour community scavenger hunt/design-build to create ready-made lamps from household and second hand materials.
There was a good turn out with 18 people (total of 9 teams) who participated that day. We asked people to bring materials to share with everyone and there were a great mix of lamps that came from it. We gave every team a BRITE lite kit...which I had a little too much fun with. :D
Everyone also got a special wooden BRITE badge! Our plan is to do that for every event! ...I mean , who wouldn't want to be rewarded for such accomplishments! A simple badge is a perfect item that says "HEY! I accomplished something today and that's a wonderful feeling! (blank stare and a giant stiff smile)" And THAT's pretty darn special, wouldn't you agree? We were all about making this event special. Christa even went and got some cheerful balloons!
It was a beautiful Seattle day so we were able to open the garage door at the Hiawatha community space and some people worked outside or walked to the nearby Goodwill Dearborn to hunt for interesting materials for their lights.
Nin and I were in charge of documentenging the event...we followed people around trying taking candid shots capturing their process at the Goodwill. And in the process of taking photos, I crept around like a creepy stalker trying not to get noticed....and also trying to stop myself from shopping. That was hard.Oh and look! Here's Steve with his new Friend! Apparently he decided to replace his hand with a rubber dinosaur head instead. Oh! all the wonderful things you can find!
It was so inspiring to creative energy in the room and see everyone brainstorming, sketching, playing ,and exploring with materials. It was just amazing to see everyone use ordinary things and turn it into something extraordinary!!

 

Okay I'll stop with the talking.. On with the results!

Here are some lights people made in 4 hours! Drum roll.....

Pair of hanging lights made with walnut edge banding and paper cups by Lindsay & Sena.

Table lamp made with stainless thermos and glass coffee pot by Joelle & Steve. Hanging shade made with wire ring, staples, and letter envelopes by Mat & Dylan. Table lamp wit braille paper and Stevie Wonder record at the base by Christine & Nick. Hanging chandelier made with mix match of magazine organizers by Chika & Cat.Come see TONS more photos here to see the entire process! The lights will also be exhibited at JOIN's Ctrl Alt Design show at Ouch My Eye, beginning June 12th, with the opening starting from 7-midnight.

If you like what you're seeing and would like to know about our future events, please join our BRITE facebook !

Thanks to everyone who participated. It was a very fun day and great way to kick off the BRITE Collective!!

Ladies and Gentlemen Home: For the love of all things vintage, clever, designed, and/or delicious

BRITE LITE Showcase

We're gearing up for our debut BRITE LITE design charrette this Saturday! WOO HOO!!
I have to say, I'm getting pretty excited myself!!

WHAT: LOCAL DESIGNERS & CRATERS will team up together to participate in a spontaneous 4 hour community scavenger/ design-build to create ready-made lamps from house-hold and second hand materials.
There will be 20 some participants for this event, so it should be fun to see what everyone comes up with!

We'd also like to invite non-participants to come and see the results of everyone's ready-made lamps from 3-5pm.
WHEN: Saturday MAY 16th 3-5pm
WHERE: ARTSPACE HIAWATHA LOFTS/ in the Jackson Place neighborhood
843 Hiawatha Place South, Seattle WA 98144
WHY: Leave inspired to create something new, sign up to receive our future event updates, and get some espresso & treats at your new neighborhood spot café weekend.

If you're in Seattle, stop by and say hi! We'd love to say hi back!
Happy Friday!

Best Regards, Christa Thomas / Nin Truong/ Jean Lee/ Dylan Davis/ JoinDesignSeattle/ cafe weekend/ WKND/ Jackson Place/ Hiawatha Lofts

Ladies and Gentlemen Home: For the love of all things vintage, clever, designed, and/or delicious