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Photo by Benjamin Norman for The New York Times

In New York City there are plenty of places to get drunk, starting with my kitchen. But most crave a more glamorous experience, and in a city of millions, glamor is often equated with exclusivity and secrecy. Faux speakeasys have become as much of a cliché as drunken fistfights in the Meatpacking District. Yet for a brief period earlier this year, a group of artists ran a true speakeasy in the most unusual of locations: A water tower atop an abandoned building in Chelsea.

Photo by Benjamin Norman for The New York Times

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Now that our friends at Matter have firmly established themselves as purveyors of some of the finest contemporary furnishings this side of Houston St., they're looking to expand their house label. They launched MatterMade in 2010, partnering with designers to produce a new collection for every NY Design Week since (we took note in 2011). For this year's MatterMade Collection, Creative Director Jamie Gray called on New York's Roman and Williams to design a line of furniture and lighting.

At its core, the Roman and Williams for MatterMade collection is a marriage of two entitites with a shared vision of the American design landscape. The first commercially available collection of lighting and furniture by Roman and Williams, the line includes: Woodrum, a family of lighting, Hub, a coffee table and side table, and Reader, a sling chair and foot stool. The unifying theme within the collection is an emphasis on superior materials and exceptional craftsmanship. Standard wood species offered are reclaimed white oak, teak, and walnut, each with a simple and pure finish that highlights the wood. Custom unlacquered brass hardware adorns each piece and provides an extra touch of luxury and elegance.

After a decade of creating award-winning bespoke spaces, such as the Ace Hotel and the glamorous Boom Boom Room at the Standard Hotel, this line of furniture and lighting presents a gateway for bringing the unique world of Roman and Williams into a broad spectrum of interiors. Whether ultra minimal, contemporary, or the most classic of spaces, the Roman and Williams for MatterMade collection adds a necessary hint of familiarity, articulation and decandence.

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As knitting, weaving, and other traditional methods of textile production have made the leap from old-age pastimes to mainstream DIY hobbies, designers have been pushing the boundaries of what's possible with stitched and woven fibers. This week we found a late-spring blast of innovative handmade textiles—plus one new collection that was woven by the wind.

Exhibited at New York's Wanted Design last weekend, the Guatemala City design studio Fabrica's Seat Ball has a soccer-equipment core surrounded by spring-suspended cushions made out of cotton rope. The combination, which can be used for seating, a yoga ball, or an ottoman, wraps up a current recreational preoccupation in an ancient crafting technique.

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Content Sponsored by Heineken

The numbers don't lie: thanks to advances in medicine and other trends in culture, the average age of the population is increasing: according to a report by AT Kearney, the life expectancy of folks in highly developed countries is increasing by one year every five years. Yet this growing demographic is largely neglected by major brands, which perpetually look to younger generations of consumers as the relevant segment of savvy early adopters.

Of course, this reasoning—the earlier you reach your audience, the better—holds true for Heineken's current Ideas Brewery challenge to design a better drinking experience for the 60–70-year-old drinker. Submitting your entry as soon as possible affords a significant advantage in terms of garnering public votes, one of the four criteria for advancing to the round of six finalists, who will receive an invitation to a two-day workshop in Amsterdam and a chance to win one of three cash prizes.

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wants an Industrial Designer
in Cumberland, Rhode Island

Fred & Friends wants to give you the opportunity to work on a wide range of creative projects, and the satisfaction of seeing your ideas through from beginning to end. They design, import, and distribute fun and clever gifts, home goods, and personal items to specialty retailers worldwide and want you to join their in-house creative team as an Industrial Designer.

They do everything in house and encourage each person who works there to contribute ideas and collaborate in the production process. Spruce up your outstanding portfolio and click the link below. If you happen to have experience designing products for the housewares industry, you're ahead of the game!

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I recently hunted down and acquired Braun's classic Sixtant SM 31 razor from a source in Italy. The freaking thing was made in 1962 and it still works perfectly, but finding it wasn't easy. For those of you who don't want to spend your days scouring eBay and Etsy, here's a chance to pick up another Braun design classic without putting in the legwork: They've announced they're re-issuing their iconic ET66 Calculator, designed by Dietrich Lubs and Dieter Rams back in the '80s.

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Photos by Simon Markhof

With the help aerospace engineers at EADS, Somerset, UK-based Charge Bikes have refined and expanded their 3D-printed dropout production since we first came across them last August, as evidenced by a new vid from last week. However, German IDer Ralf Holleis does them one better with the VRZ 2 Track bicycle, developed under the VORWaeRTZ moniker. (Further details on Holleis's practice are scant; from what I can determine, he's connected to the equally mysterious designlab coburg.)

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#37: W.C. Rueck - "Daily Trophies" / #24: Ladies and Gentlemen Studio - "Mirage Shelving" / #36: Todd Isaacs (SPACECRAFT) - "Fir Horns" / #8: Christopher Specce - "Decoy" / #6: Brendan Mullins - "Princess Cut Diamonds" / #2: Andrew Sack - "Skate Wax Candles" / #9: Colleen & Eric - "Bonus Table (Podium Edition)"

For NY Design Week this year, our friends at the American Design Club presented their ninth group showcase, Trophy: Awards We Live With. Per the brief: "A trophy is a memento, token, or symbol, used to commemorate an achievement or victory. Whether they are awarded, stolen, or created, trophy objects can come in many forms." As with Noho Next (which included several of the same exhibitors), the exhibition occupied a basement café/bar space; unlike Noho Next, in which the work was distributed throughout the space, the trophies were cordoned off on a makeshift stage area—an oversized display case, if you will—framed by a kitschy slatwall backdrop.

#11: Craighton Berman - "Daily Aspirations" / #34: Taylor Mckenzie-Veal - "War Trophy" / #30: Muzz Design - "Ring of Approval" / #27: Made in Chinatown - "Stanrey Cup" / #5: Artin Yip + Chris Beatty - "Gnome" / #29: Misha Kahn - "Coatrack" / #35: The Office of Brothers - "Victory Shims" / #13: Egg Collective - "Badges"

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While Amazon had already received City Hall approval to build a new HQ in Seattle, apparently they've had a change of heart with the design, perhaps inspired by the forthcoming Facebook West and the Apple Spaceship. The skyscraper part of Amazon's multi-building plan remains the same, but they're looking to switch up one of their low-rise structures for something a bit more eye-catching. Here's the previously-approved, now-scuttled building design:

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All photos by Kathryn McElroy

It's been quite a year for the MFA candidates in the School of Visual Arts' Products of Design program, not least because the first-year students are also the first ever students in the fledgling program. This past weekend, the first half of their graduate studies culminated with ALSO!, a winsome design intervention at WantedDesign, which the tight-knit cohort of 16 students realized in the three weeks leading up to NY Design Week. They'd originally developed the concept for Sinclair Smith's five-week Design Performance studio intensive, and the NYCxDesign festival (which wrapped up just two days ago) was a felicitous opportunity for them to put their studies into practice.

Through a roving set of mobile interventions, visitors to the show participate in an unfolding narrative around celebration, sustainability, digital mediation, storytelling and scale, each expanding the conversation around design beyond form, function and materiality.

Broadly speaking, each of the six stations (two wearable, three carts and a single immobile station) offered a different perspective on not only the work on view at WantedDesign but also one's fellow attendees and the venue itself. From the uniforms—white short-sleeve button-down (with the logo emblazoned across the back), dark denim, white plimsols and orange socks—to the seamlessly constructed equipment, which remain as the tangible artifacts of the experience, the students crafted a thoughtfully executed body of work.

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