Friends! The Worth Your Salt Pop Up Shop merchandise is now available online thanks to Subports, a text-to-buy retail platform. All profits go directly to the designers themselves (who shared the cost of running and installing the shop).

We are also selling a limited-edition Object Design League poster and wrapping paper, designed by Michael Savona and hand screened by Rebecca Foster. The design is a reinterpretation of the icosahedron ODL logo in stripes, printed in dark purple.

The proceeds of the wrapping paper will help us fund future exhibitions and events. We are in the process of incorporating as a 501(c)3 tax exempt organization and appreciate your support!

Click here to purchase.

The Object Design League, in production with Pavilion, is excited to announce Worth Your Salt, our inaugural design pop-up shop, opening in Chicago for the 2009 holiday shopping season. The shop will feature a collection of objects by 19 emerging American designers, bringing together themes of industriousness and play. Object Design League will also be offering a limited edition wrapping paper designed by Michael Savona and hand screened by Rebecca Foster.

The shop will open at Pavilion’s storefront in Bucktown on the day after Thanksgiving (Nov 27), celebrating “Black Friday” with an evening shopping reception. A second reception will take place the evening of December 3rd. In collaboration with Subports, a text-to-buy retail platform, products will also be offered online for a limited time.

Participants include: Craighton Berman, Peter Bo, Garrett Brooks, byAMT, Bradley Duncan, Patrick Gavin, Giffin'Termeer, Steven Haulenbeek, Iacoli&McAllister, Sara Jacobson, Lebens&Walsh, Timothy Liles, Lynn Lim, Materious, Plex Design, Stanley Ruiz, Michael Savona, Studio Vandenberg, and Zach Weiss & Kai Williams.

Dates and Location:
November 27 - December 11, 2009
Pavilion: 2055 N. Damen/Chicago, IL 60647 (map)
Black Friday Opening Reception: Fri Nov. 27, 5-9pm
Reception (part of December on Damen): Thurs Dec. 3, 5-9pm
Hours: Mon CLOSED, Tues 12-6, Wed-Fri 12-9, Sat 12-6, Sun 12-5

More details and a slideshow of projects here.

November 4-14
@ Wright
1440 W Hubbard
Chicago, IL 60642

Wright introduces Timeless, an exhibition of unique works by Constantin and Laurene Boym. As modern alchemists, the Boyms create sculptural works from the archetypal forms of everyday objects. The new series, a mediation on essentials, makes the ordinary timeless.

Artist Reception
3 November 2009
6 – 9pm
with a conversation with the artists led by Zoë Ryan at 6:30pm
RSVP

The Object Design League is seeking submissions for Worth Your Salt, its first ever pop-up shop, produced in partnership with Chicago design boutique Pavilion. The shop will open in Pavilion's Bucktown storefront on November 27th, the day after Thanksgiving, with a Black Friday reception, and maintain day and evening hours until December 11th.

This pop up shop aims to provide emerging American designers with a retail opportunity during the holiday shopping season, while also bringing a select cross-section of designed objects to Chicago in a half-exhibition, half-boutique format.

For more information on how to submit, click here.

[Participants in Shin Azumi's workshop construct a maze, using helmets to alter players vision]

I had the opportunity to participate in one of the many Boisbuchet workshops run by Vitra this past August. Set in the Southwest of France, about an hour and a half train ride from Paris, Boisbuchet provides a landscape that is part fantasy vacation, part independent investigation and part global crossroads, all splashed with a couple of glasses of red wine.

Maarten Baas led our week long studio under the theme of Intuition and Pleasure. Through Vitra's supply of materials (think as much cardboard and colored tape as you could possibly want) we worked through a series of short exercises, working fast and dirty and steering clear of any of the processes and analysis we are so accustomed to in our regular practice and education. For this experience, it was much less about the final outcome than it was about feeling for a sense of direction and following it to see what might turn up.

[Don Zinzell's musical house project with Maarten Baas on snare drum]

The other formative part of the week was the opportunity to engage with such a varied cross section of people under the broad umbrella of design. Out of the approximately 50 people there, either participating in a workshop or working, I was one of three from the US. To spend six days and nights, never having dinner with the same person beside you, and having to re-explain and consequently, reconsider either your background story or how you asked others for theirs, was a large part of the experience. It seems that no matter where they were coming from (Croatia, Spain, Norway, UK, Switzerland, Germany), everyone had much the same story, piecing together their lives in a similar way I find myself doing, navigating practice after grad school, balancing relationships, moving to new places and all finding themselves in the middle of a small town in France with a huge wad of tape in their hands.

[Testing my big rocking project, installed in the dorm]

[Afternoon coffee break]

An archive of workshop pics here http://boisbuchet.blogspot.com/

Our friends at Golden Age present:

NICHOLAS GOTTLUND, PLAIN + FANCY exhibition and book launch

August 29 - September 24, 2009
Opening reception: Saturday, August 29, 6-10 pm

ABOUT THE SHOW:
Golden Age is proud to present Plain + Fancy, a photography exhibition and publication from Nicholas Gottlund. With Plain + Fancy Gottlund uses the concept of animism to present objects in nature (oak leaves, antlers, a branch from a spice bush) as elements of a cultural narrative shared by all. The photographs are stark, subdued and emotive. The exhibition will also feature sculptures of the same theme.

ABOUT THE ARTIST:
Gottlund grew up in a log cabin in rural Pennsylvania and has exhibited widely throughout the United States. In addition to his work as a photographer he runs Gottlund Verlag, a printing press that showcases emerging photography. The artist will be present.

More info here.

In response to the dearth of American design, the organizers behind the 2009 season of Design Miami are soliciting portfolios from designers throughout the region. From the Carribean to South America to Central America and North America, the project seeks portfolios of "high quality, high concept objects-for-use made through handcrafted, high-tech and/or experimental processes," as well as "from emerging, experimental architects."

For your chance to put America on the map and be part of Design Miami, send portfolios, postmarked no later than 1 September 2009, to the below address.

Design Miami
Attn: Wava Carpenter
3841 NE 2nd Avenue, Suite 400
Miami, FL 33137
USA

Just a quick note to let you know the results of the ODL Planning Meeting on July 27th. Between 2009-2010 we will be working up a bunch of new projects including: a pop-up shop/retail opportunity, a series of publications, an off-site show at ICFF and NeoCon 2010, and expanding our mini-events to include workshops, crits, and panel discussions.

More information after the jump!

Continued...

Liz and Kegan of the Brooklyn based blog, Design Glut were vacationing in Chicago a few weeks ago, and took some time out to interview people involved with the Chicago design scene, many of whom are ODL members and friends. Check it out: Lisa and Caroline on Object Design League, Craighton Berman, Fueled By Coffee, Richard Wright of Wright Auction House, and Bruce and Stephanie Tharp of Materious.

Finally, Lisa's got an article up on Core77 about the larger movement of emerging design clubs in the USA, including our new friends JOIN:Design Seattle and The American Design Club in NYC.

We've rounded up all online press for The Promise of This Moment Exhibition!

For your reference:
Core77
Designboom
Architect's Newspaper
Wallpaper Magazine
Design Milk
DesignRo
Creativity Online