DWR founder on bike accessories
While in Amsterdam, Design Within Reach founder Rob Forbes noted the variety of interesting bike accessories he saw on people's two-wheelers. He took a slew of great photos of bike lamps and bike seats, thinking of them as a source of cultural information. From his blog post, titled "Spotting Bikes and Birds":
Bike seats... are a window into the design and cultural sensibilities of the place... The majority are classic leather seats (saddles) made by the venerable Brooks Saddle Company - tasteful and preppy, but not particularly functional in the wet Danish climate. The Danes get around this problem by using plastic bags, often elegantly tucked in under their bike seats, as if styled for a J Crew catalog photo shoot. Their choice of bike seats reveals a contrast in the mentalities of the Dutch and Danish. Dutch bike seats are eclectic, practical, casual, unpretentious, and even a little messy... They rarely use expensive brand name seats (fancy leather saddles would get ripped off in Amsterdam).Link (Thanks, Lawrence Wilkinson!)
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Pee Wee Herman would be proud. However, you would still have to worry about Francis coming around and trying to steal these accessories.
Can someone explain to me how Design Within Reach is.. well... Within Reach? It seems to me one of the goals of mid century designers was for their products to be available to median income families. Hard for me to cough up $3700 for an Eames Lounge... $8000 for a Knoll sofa...
Every item that I've looked at in the DWR catalog, I've found at 20% - 40% less, elsewhere, just by googling it. Even the shipping is dramatically marked up over other sources. The pictures are pretty, though.
Guys,
I'm pretty sure it's Rob Forbes.
Steve Forbes is the freakishly tall, free market fundamentalist who thinks the tax cut is mans greatest invention
The founder's name is Rob Forbes, not Steve Forbes!
Fixed!