tumblights: 11/5

Clockwise from top left:

1. Portraits sculpted out of tulle by Benjamin Shine via Design Milk

2. Liquid Light  by Kristine Five Melvær via Mocoloco

3. Sugar-Based Graffiti That Confronts the Legacy of Slavery via The Atlantic Cities

4. Alvo Stool by urbancase via Design Milk

Enjoy these? Find more daily at percentblog.tumblr.com. And even more stunning images on my pintrest.  

learning sf: laurel from public bikes

[Paula Scher for Public Bike's Public Works project]

In today’s learning sf, I sat down with Laurel Collins wholeft the world of industrial automation to first join the team at TchoChocolate before starting her current gig at Public Bikes. Public Bikes is adesign-focused bike company bringing bikes to the masses. They are about tolaunch their most affordable- and approachable- bike yet. I sat down withLaurel in a café across from their Valencia Street pop up shop, one of threePublic Bikes shops in the Bay Area, to talk biking and San Francisco.

Be sure to check out some upcoming events at Public Bikes atthe end of the interview!

Did you bike before taking a job at Public Bikes?

I’m generally athletic. I played soccer in college and aftermy soccer career, I started doing triathlons, because once an athlete, alwaysan athlete. I needed something to train for. So I was biking for the triathlons.I was not a casual biker. For me, bikes and cities did not come together. Itdidn’t occur to me, especially with a small child. Working with Public hasopened my eyes to a completely different world. Even with a child, you caninvolve bikes in your life to a much greater degree that I ever thoughpossible.

So if it wasn’t biking, what drew you to Public Bikes?

There was a philosophical match for me with the company. I’mpassionate about urban spaces and my own personal environment, having it be pleasingand rich and functional. San Francisco, for me, personifies everything I wouldlike in a city. It is functional, you can bring up a family here, there areparks, there’s color, different neighborhoods. It’s eclectic.  It’s just a great place to work andlive, so for me adding bikes to that whole mix a no-brainer.

Now I’m hyper aware of all the passion around biking thereis here. It’s one reason we’re on Valencia Street; it’s the center of the bikecommuting community.

How does design play a role at Public Bikes?

Our products are oriented around design and lifestyle. Ourcustomers are women who maybe haven’t biked in 5 years and they want to go downto the market with their functional, beautiful basket and put all their fruitsand vegetables in it, and go to work and tool around town and look good doingit. We’re not a super high tech bike-y type of company.

Those people are going to find those bikes, so what’sreally great is you are expanding the market for people like me who get here orto other cities and realize how much more convenient biking can be. Design hasplayed such a role in the company… founder of DWR

The accessibility of the bikes is part of the design of thebikes and the company. It is interesting to me that so few bike companies thathave anything quite like public bikes. They are sort of a nod to the past- theold French mixte, the Dutch step-through. I think people are getting back tothe time, when things were simpler and more carefree. When I look at the brandas an outsider, it’s fun. It’s playful. It’s almost like being a kid again.Back to the pure enjoyment of riding a bike, I get see that everyday [whenpeople go on test rides.] It’s probably the best thing about my job.

We don’t want to be any way exclusive. We want to beinclusive- we just want people on bikes.

read more: after sandy

Much has already been written about Hurricane/Superstorm Sandy. Here are a few pieces covering design, community building, and adapting to a changing world.

Airbnb may not have read my reflections but they, along with several other companies, have been responsive according to Fast Company. Citizens are banding together to assist the overwelmed disaster relief teams in FastCo Exist. My former boss wrote about preparing for climate change in The Nation and Next American City covered what this means for designers.

"Airbnb is to waive its fees on all properties in the areas devastated by Sandy, after one of its homeowners offered up her rooms for free to victims of the disaster. The offer stands until November 7 and covers New York, the Hamptons, Providence, New Haven, and Atlantic City. It also urged its hosts to lower prices."
- Andy Dugdale for Fast Company

"We’re not from the Red Cross, FEMA, New York Cares, the public housing police or any other city agency. We’ve never met before and we aren’t affiliated with any one organization, school, or group. We come from all corners of the city: Elmhurst, Crown Heights, Cobble Hill, and even downtown neighborhoods like Chelsea and the West Village, where the power’s still out. Each of us showed up this morning for the first time, after we saw a notice on a website, got an email, or saw a Tweet that volunteers were needed at 46 Hester Street on the Lower East Side, where a local Asian community organization called CAAAV has become the hub for an almost completely self-organized aid effort."

- Anya Kamenetz, FastCo Exist

"What can we do? Three major options: (1) abandon our coastal cities and retreat inland, (2) stay put and try to adapt to the menacing new conditions or (3) stop burning planet-warming fossil fuels as fast as possible."
- Mike Tidwell, The Nation

"For architects, designers and planners, this means stepping up. We need to redesign and rebuild our infrastructure, and we need to do it sooner rather than later. Sandy gave many of us a few days out of the office. Now it’s time to get back to work for a shared future." 
- Eric Corey Freed, Next American City

two new way to find percent jewelry + a new rue

[Happy Halloween!]

I have three sweet treats today. Monday I spent the morning visiting various city and state government buildings in order to officially secure my business license for both jewelry and design services. This step has been a long time coming and I'm thrilled to finally take on clients for design consulting and also be able to sell my jewelry in stores. But don't worry, you can still always visit my Etsy shop.

In fact, I've already accepted my first store! 5th Stitch Collective is a great boutique with a mix of handcrafted and curated clothing, jewelry and gifts. It's located at 2352 Market in the Castro in San Francisco. I'm honored to be part of their collection.

Plus, I'll be selling this Friday at Art Murmur/First Fridays in Oakland. You can find me at Uptown Fenders (401 26th Street) from 6-10pm. I haven't done a craft fair since this summer so I'm thrilled to get to interact with shoppers and hear feedback on all the new pieces. Stop by and say hello!

Finally, see the spooky cover up there? The newest Rue came out today. So many great stories in there, including the Halloween fashion shoot that gave us our cover image.

weathering Sandy together

I spent the night working on another post about some exciting news, but kept returning to news of Sandy and the devastation wrought on the East Coast. Reading Facebook and Twitter to check on friends, I saw several posts asking why New York City, in particular, was not better prepared. The answers to that are myriad, but it got me thinking what could be done better in the future. Sadly, storms like Sandy are only becoming more frequent. No single weather incident can be directly linked to climate change, but Sandy fit all the checkboxes, including that the sea level rise was far greater than predicted.

So what can be done to better prepare? Beyond the macro-level of major construction renovations and government programs, there are many small scale possibilities. 

Code for America developed Prepared.ly to help citizens in Austin prepare for wildfires, including checklists and the ability to track your progress securing your home, real time information on risk, and direct connection to fire safety professionals. Imagine an app that helped local residents prepare for a storm including checklists for grocery shopping and prepping the home, tips on safety in case of power and water outage, up-to-date storm information, and the ability to send information to emergency responders. 

Much of the concern for safety in a storm like Sandy is the ability to either evacuate safely or prepare to wait out the storm. With the rise of the collaborative consumption economy, what are the possibilities for collaborative evacuations and storm preparedness? Imagine Lyft, Zipcar, and RideShare all coordinating drivers with passengers. Less cars on the road makes a quicker evacuations and helps ensure those without wheels have a way out. Airbnb users in safe areas could post emergency availability at affordable rates so cost wouldn't be a hinderance. For those in affected areas who do not need to evacuate, what are the collaborative possibilities for buying supplies instead of grocery stores being flooded with panicked shoppers hoarding water? 

Clearly, these are only a small part of the solution. For instance, many of those most at risk are elderly, and less likely to be utilizing these forms of technology. But what if, from the West Coast, I could secure a safe ride for a family member in New York online or if, through an app, could find someone in her apartment building to check in once the power and thus, her phone line, went out? 

There are better ways for us to design our cities to deal with changing conditions, but there are also ways for us to design around our changing society to build better communities that are able to weather storms together. Let's figure them out. Fast.

Until then, please consider donating $10 or how ever much you are compelled to the Red Cross for the Disaster Relief fund. It truly all makes a difference. 

tumblights 10/28

Clockwise from top right: 

1. Recycled room divider via Design Milk

2. Participatory planning resulted in a riot of color for Copenhagen via designboom

3.  Social 01 project in delft via designboom

Enjoy these? Find more daily at percentblog.tumblr.com. And even more stunning images on my pintrest.  

new percent jewelry

What's this? Oh yes- new jewelry on percent.etsy.com! As you can see, I've been very inspired by crystals and natural stones, as well as playing with new textile materials. There are even more new items than I've shown here, so hop on over and take a look.

Plus, this is only the start of my new collection so I have more pieces that aren't listed or that are still in development. Stay tuned for more percent jewelry news.