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Design Wed Dec 02 2009
Object Design League's December Pop-up Shop
How do you design a piggy bank that promotes charitable giving? Or an umbrella that doubles as an anger management tool? The Object Design League's December pop-up shop, Worth Your Salt, has the answer.
The installation, in residence at Pavilion Antiques through December 11, represents the work of 19 designers who belong to the Object Design League, a collective co-founded by Caroline Linder and Lisa Smith that promotes independent object design in Chicago and beyond.
And what exactly is "independent object design"? Think of it this way: every object you come into contact with has a design, from coffee cups to paper clips, and most objects are designed according to the needs of the market. (People don't want their umbrellas to double as fake weapons, market research tells manufacturers.) But there are a few rogue designers out there who don't care to be restricted by the needs of the market -- or at least they're not always designing for it.
So Linder and Smith created the Chicago-based Object Design League to give those designers a forum to present their work, collectively self-promote, and experiment. But despite those lofty-sounding goals, Worth Your Salt is surprisingly accessible. While some of the objects weigh a bit heavy on the modern art side (a table top divider that "creates spatial boundaries on your tabletop," for $500), most of them could make -- ahem -- unique holiday gifts that won't break the bank, like raw clock or the coil lamp.
Worth Your Salt celebrated its opening November 27 with a Black Friday reception. Another reception (read: food and booze while you browse) will be held on Thursday, December 3, from 5-9pm, as part of the December on Damen retail event in Bucktown.
