Budget Design

Not too happy to see that Chicago Home & Garden would support a business like this - it is the nightmare of almost every product designer I know: their good designs being taken to Chinese & Indian factories to be knocked off and sold for cheap. Sure, it's normal. Doesn't make it right.

I have been meaning to stop in and check this place out. Thanks for the report. I'm more curious now than I was having passed the place.

T8
www.strangeclosets.com
When design takes priority, the result is often strange closets.

We are not in the business of "supporting" or not supporting--we're a media company and we report on all that's new, good and bad.

In response to the comment about supporting knock-offs: Jan is absolutely right that we are simply reporting on the opening of a new store and its contents. That said, you bring up a valid point and it's a good thing you posted. One comment this particular shop owner made was that the Indian pillow makers/designers he hires are actually artists themselves; he is providing them with some direction—and employment, which is always a good thing. The democratization of design (as is manufacturing in China and other places) is a complicated thing. Some argue it's positive—that once ideas are out there, it's fair for them to be reproduced and made accessible to people who might not otherwise be able to afford them. Others, like you, argue that this bastardizes the original design and robs the original designer of his/her proper due. I see both sides. At the end of the day, though, this posting is about a new shop. Thanks for reading and please tell us about the product designers you admire. As you know, we love to promote local designers and appreciate their work tremendously! —Gina Bazer

This piece does indeed put a "positive" spin on the methodology of a shop owner who openly admits to pilfering ideas in order to profit from them. You encourage readers to go and support it. Otherwise, it would not have appeared on your radar, or you just wouldn't have published it.

I find it odd that Kevin so flippantly admits to knocking off well known designers. This type of activity is not new by any means. It happens all the time in broad daylight and behind closed doors, but no one likes to admit to the public that they do it. He's really playing both sides of the game in an interesting however shady way. I wonder how the local design community will take his store. I have to say that this store could just be a way to hock inventory to the public that TJ and Target do not want.