Practicing the Art of Shou Sugi Ban
We had the opportunity to use an ancient Japanese technique Shou Sugi Ban to charcoal and texturize a custom coffee table, for one of our favorite clients, Vida- Isadora Bratton-Benfield
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Custom TGM B-Ball Hoops for The Trailblazers Coach Terry Stotts
The Story Behind the Hoop: Celebrating 300th Wins for Coach Stotts with Custom B-Ball Hoops from our TGM Studioline
It was a fateful day when Bimma came into the showroom to discuss hosting an event, I knew our encounter was the catalyst for future collaborations and connections. Bimma is a Global Product Manager at Adidas, as well as founder of Claima Convos (an interview series featuring underrepresented entrepreneurs in PDX).
Above: Bimma (@iambimma), second in from the left, alongside Kait Hurley (@kait.hurley), Laura Elizabeth (@laura_elizabeth) and Drae Slapz (@thedraeslapz) photographed their promo photos in our space!
A few weeks after our initial introduction, Bimma had the insight to connect us with Todd Adams, the brand development manager for the Trailblazers. What an exciting connection! This was shortly after we had released our customizable TGM B-Ball Hoops.
We were made aware of the upcoming milestone victory for longtime standing successful Coach Stotts. His 300th Win with the Trailblazers.
January 18th we fabricated three Custom Basketball hoops for Terry Stotts, head coach, Neil Oshey, executive and manager for the team, and executive Harry Glickman.
We had the privilege of making these custom mini basketball hoops that now hang proudly in their respective offices.
See below for the art, renderings, and final product.
These hoops are done in black walnut, with a black powdercoated rim, and black net. Custom art work and engraving available.
Click here to Find the TGM B-ball Hoop!
Here is an image of our B-ball Hoop hanging in the #ehdportlandproject designed, curated and styled by the super talented @em_henderson
Carving Pumpkins The Skilled Edition
HALLOWEEN from The Good Mod on Vimeo.
- TGM Team
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Weekly Highlight: Re-Caning a Classic
Originally designed in 1956, when this vintage Hans Wegner Circle Chair first came into our workshop this past April, it was looking every day of its age. In fact, at some point in its storied life, this CH20 broke on through to the other side. So we called upon our in-house expert, Emily Scheltgen, to weave her magic. Literally.
"The biggest challenge with this piece, and with re-caning these older pieces in general, would be the materials. Sourcing them is somewhat tricky: furniture caning is such a niche discipline; it can be difficult to find the specific materials you're looking for. And for this particular Wegner chair, there were thick, curved cuttings of rattan along the bottom edges to cover the nails. Nobody sells that anymore!"
"So we brainstormed a little about different solutions, and ended up making a very thin piece of ash in the shop to replace it. Working with the caning itself can be a little complicated too. It's a natural product and therefore has some defects and variances, it breaks easily if you don't process it correctly, and it's really difficult to color-match if you don't buy enough at once.
The chair itself was in great shape, but the seat had totally broken through the frame, it was barely hanging on in the back corner, and most of the wraps had come loose. Luckily, I was able to find some reference photos online of other restored pieces, and some originals, and through taking it apart, and comparing to the photos I was able to come up with the pattern and match it almost exactly."
This same technique, craft and expertise is on show in Emily’s re-caning of the matching Wegner stool.
Designing the Pollinate Pitch Experience
The last few months have been massive for the team at The Good Mod, with many big new projects secured, some fully underway, and one of our largest ones to-date just completed: the conference room and pitch stage for Pollinate, a fast-growing interactive branding and advertising agency in Portland, which was just recently voted 2015 Advertising Age Northwest Small Agency of the Year.
photos by Arthur Hitchcock
Concept
The prompt was straightforward: develop lighting and a conference table to seat 15 people comfortably in a fairly small space of 21 feet by 18 feet. Goal was to provide an arena for multi-directional presentation that navigates both digital and analog work, while delivering an intriguing experience for Pollinate’s most important clients.
Taking inspiration from the energetic aesthetic of the agency, lead designer Brock Odalovich and owner-designer Spencer Staley decided to push Pollinate’s momentum to the extreme: surrounding the presenter with crystalline slabs of sheet metal visually breaking out of the ground, the design’s dramatic vortex explodes under a sci-fi inspired spotlight.
The table
The table’s major challenge was to seat that many people with enough leg room in such tight space, and identifying the need for maximum floor space for multi-directional presentation. Lead designer Brock Odalovich's solution was a horseshoe-style design with a base-less cantilever table that is sturdy and still allows for enough floor space around the presentation pit.
The base was created out of 1200 pounds of individually laser cut and hand-welded asymmetrical pieces of sheet metal. Special feat was the integral joinery in order to make the table base break down for a standard residential elevator. The tabletop iced the cake: 15 pieces of differently adjoined veneer pieces framed by oak hardwood edging visually extend the cascading facets of the steel base.
The light
Hovering above, Spencer Staley’s lighting design extends the crystalline language of the table with five individually shaped pyramidal boxes clustered into a star-shaped chandelier. Exploding into sharp angles, the 300 pound LED light piece is capped with removable shade panels covered in technical light diffusing fabric—all results of exciting new experiments in the use of materials.
"From the initial brainstorming session to the final installation we couldn’t have ask for a better experience working with The Good Mod. The creativity they brought into our showcase conference room leaves a powerful impression on our clients as they come to visit. We can’t wait to work with them on another project!"
- Laura Runkle, Pollinate