Artists, entrepreneurs, and people who work with ideas all choose how much to work and how much to talk about their work. I’ll represent three work/ talk archetypes as structures:

One who evangelizes lazy, boring work is a charlatan. His structure is quick to build, but top-heavy. It will fall with an unassuming push, or under its own weight if given enough time.

The martyr spends her time head-down in the studio. She produces amazing work, but it will enter the world only if it’s discovered by some outside force. Her structure is a pyramid- solid, but inefficient.

The hustler realizes that work is invisible when nobody cares about it, but that getting people to care about bad work is energy misplaced. The hustler’s goal is to convert people to his or her vision, thus laying claim to the next cultural moment.

ID Magazine “New and Notable”, page 56:

Men’s Journal “The Wish List”, page 46:

7×7 “The Holiday Issue”, page 76:

The same thinking informs cars that lose value the second you drive them off the lot, fashion that only lasts one season, and iPods that look terrible when they get scratched through daily use. Our culture so values factory-freshness that the moment of box-opening is the only stage of a product’s life that’s usually designed. The rest is left to fate. We need to make products that exist in a user’s world, over a substantial period of time, instead of in stasis on a hoped-for shelf in MoMA’s design wing.

Every material feels the effects of time and use. My favorite designs articulate their wear artfully rather than attempt (never successfully) to hide it, or worse, to ignore its inevitability. Yixing teapots are left unglazed to promote the development of a patina over the course of many infusions. The most beautiful floorboards have a soft, almost frosted texture from centuries of bare feet, and you “season” rather than wear out cast iron cookware. Designers need to design beyond a single moment in time; freshness should be important for veggies and ideas, not a mass-produced product.

Like products, cities exist all the time. Designing for crisp, sunny days in early autumn and trying to “deal” with weather that deviates from this ideal isn’t just difficult, it’s a missed aesthetic opportunity. Why not use runoff to grow walls of fluffy moss instead of uneven bacterial stains in subway stations? Just replace the tiles with porous concrete and add some dried moss to get things started. Or sidewalks that use two kinds of cement that look the same when dry, but change when wet to reveal a pattern only on rainy days. Rain is already a trigger in a system of mostly hidden feedback loops – any other ideas for designing these loops into the city’s surface?

I see potential beauty in this waste stream though. I’m currently showing the Ceramic Speakers at Accent on Design, and arrived on set-up day with only my hammer, Japanese saw, ruler and sketchbook. I scavenged through the materials that other exhibitors were throwing out and designed/ constructed my booth on the spot.

PSFK visited me while I was building and designing.

Sorapot from Kevin Rose on Vimeo.

I’m excited to introduce some new work at IMM Cologne next week, and to visit Germany for the first time. If you’re in the area, I’d love to get a drink and meet up.

I’m showing my designs at the entrance to Hall 3.1, as part of DesignSpotter’s d3 exhibit.

What really has me excited is the chance to make my debut as an international DJ! Along with designers Miron Lior and Jo Meesters, I’ll be spinning dubstep, grime, and classic house this Tuesday. If you’d like to attend, just let me know. It would be great to see you there.

Sorapot has been out for half a year now, and many of my customers are designers, artists, engineers, and other creative people. You’ve given me extremely valuable feedback on my design, but I’ve always been curious to see your thoughts expressed the way you usually express them: visually. With the holidays here, a Sorapot Art Contest seemed like the only way to go.

To enter: create an image inspired by Sorapot.

• Your image can be a sketch, a painting, a photo collage, a rendering- anything that can be reproduced as a 1024 x 768 JPEG.
• The only rule: your image must visually represent Sorapot in some way- the teapot doesn’t have to be front and center, nor does it have to be photo-realistic, but it must be there.
• Email your image to contest@sorapot.com by Sunday, December 14th. I’ll post all images in a gallery here after the judges choose a winner.

The judges:

Michael from Design Notes
Jean from Notcot
Scott and Matias from Behance
Harry from MoCoLoco
Tina from SwissMiss

The prize: A signed, dated, and mirror-polished Sorapot delivered to your door, just in time for Christmas.

The resources:

• For high-res images of Sorapot to get you going, just visit the press pictures page. Feel free to use these images in any way for this contest.
• For those about to render, I salute you! Sorapot as a: Solidworks assembly (zip), Parasolid, IGES

If you have any questions, just shoot me an email. I can’t wait to see what you guys create!

I’m also excited to introduce the new mirror polished Sorapot. I’ve been planning this version for a while, but wasn’t completely satisfied with the quality of the finish until now. It took many prototypes to bring each of the Sorapot’s bends and crevices to such a high sheen. Uncharacteristically for me, I’m completely satisfied with this final version – I really wouldn’t change a thing. Its surface catches light very differently than the original brushed Sorapot, and it looks beautiful with darker teas. They’re available now on Sorapot.com

May 18th, 7 – 10 PM
410 West 14th Street

I’ll also be showing Sorapot at ICFF, booth #831 at the Javits Center from May 17 – 20