We at People of Resource were pleased to debut our design exhibition, Yall & Us, on Saturday, June 5, 2010 at our studio in the historic Telephone Factory at the end of Modern Atlanta’s design week.

Although the focus was on design from all over the US, it was certainly our goal to put a bit of a Southern accent on the proceedings.

Toward that end, we sought to align every aspect of the event with that combination of scrappiness and hospitality for which the American South is known. In contrast to the typical trappings of the design exhibition world (wristbands, “no sit” signs, and corporate sponsors), Yall & Us attendees paid no admission and enjoyed complimentary Bourbon & Blenheims and Pimm’s Cups while admiring 40 design objects by 15 designers from across the US.

Hands-on interaction with the objects was encouraged and those who were especially intrigued were able to order prized pieces for themselves from their mobile phones thanks to e-commerce support from Subports.

The design of the exhibit itself drew on the utilitarian language of workshops: information about the objects and designers was displayed clearly on clipboards throughout the space. Illumination was provided by generic, everyday clamp lamps fitted with halogen bulbs.

FEATURED DESIGNERS

Craigton Berman, Chicago
Design Glut, Brooklyn
Et. Al., Etc., New York City
Jason Miller, Brooklyn
Joey Roth, San Francisco
Jonas Damon, New York City
Kiel Mead, New York City
Materious, Chicago
Object Group, New York City
Refined Sugar Studio, Cincinnati
Rich Brilliant Willing, New York City
Studio 1 AM, Chicago
Thoughtbarn, Austin
Von Tundra, Portland
Wintercheck Factory, Brooklyn

COLLABORATIONS

One exciting aspect of planning, designing, and producing this exhibition was the opportunity it presented to work with talented friends on various components of the show. We were pleased to commission Jason Travis to photograph the weekend’s events. In the weeks leading up to the show, we commissioned Farbod Kokabi of Armchair to create the exhibit’s bold, minimalist promotional graphics. Finally, we designed an e-commerce site filled with objects from the exhibit for Subports. For their part, Subports handled development of the site and provided their innovative text-to-buy platform as the e-commerce backend for both the site and the exhibit itself.

It’s been a busy month for us, so we at People of Resource elected to leverage our 8×8 exhibitors booth toward a bit more progress on our many projects.

Depicted above is our attempt at a vertical studio. “Getting things done is the new black.”

Consider this your invitation to join us for a beverage or two at our studio in Poncey-Highland to see the result of Florian’s explorations of distance and contrast.

Obscura is an exhibition of new works that are created to be self-illuminated and thereby only fully revealed and understood in an environment of total darkness. Stephen will be showing his series of lighting designs called “Origin of Species.” We don’t want to give anything away, but it involves concrete, suspension, and taxonomies of lighting devices. It is, in short, very SK.

Obscura will open this Saturday from 6 to 9 pm. We hope to see you there!