sketch pad
black + blum
offers the grown-up answer to the
lunch box.
bye-bye,
brown-bag
blues
by dan macsai
photographs by
LIsa shIn
anyone can put a
sandwich in a baggie. but
try packing a full-course
meal, and you’ll be lugging
around a drawer’s worth
of tupperware. “the Japa-
nese solved that problem
with bento boxes,” says
dan black, who co-owns
the London-based design
firm black + blum. yet, as
of mid-2009, there wasn’t
an equivalent solution in
america. so black and
partner Martin blum set
out to create one.
[ 1] black + blum’s first
next-gen lunch tote, the
bento box, sold 100,000
units within nine months
of its May 2010 launch.
however, its cubic dividers
precluded a sizable market:
people who snack on
amorphous foods, such as
yogurt, soup, and salad.
“For them,” says black, “we
needed something potlike.”
[ 2] “It looked like a
zeppelin,” says black of
an initial product sketch,
whose liquids-only top
compartment was quickly
dismissed as overkill. “We
wanted to make a food
carrier, not a water bottle.”
[ 3] Early prototypes
(see white, pictured) had
bulky, thermal-insulation
strips and lids that sealed
via “friction fit.” “the whole
thing felt precarious to
open near a keyboard,”
says black, whose team
fashioned new models with
simple screw-off tops (see
yellow, pictured), designed
to mimic the aesthetic of
old-school Mason jars, as
in the final product (see
green, pictured).
[ 4] during transit, a strap
mechanism holds both
containers in place as the
weight of their contents
keeps everything taut.
once empty, the smaller
pot stacks into the larger
one to save space.
upgrade
Moleskine
creates Modern
Mobility
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[ 5] to engineer the
perfect spork, all 12
black + blum employees
spent four months using
different models to lunch
on soup and noodles.
“I liked the white prototype,” says black of the
rejected jumbo-size
design, “but my staff
said it was just because
I have a big mouth.”
“We make tools for the contemporary
nomad,” says Marco Beghin, president
of Moleskine America. The beloved
notebook brand expands its offering
this spring with a collection of sleek
accessories for traveling, writing, and
reading. To develop the line, Moleskine
enlisted famed Italian designer Giulio
Iacchetti, who, as a longtime fan,
approached the project with an easy
sense of familiarity. “Moleskine shows
strong character,” he says. “Its
5
connotations are obvious; its mood
is precise.” The collection features
such objects as a clean messenger bag
($130) with detachable compartments
for customization, reading glasses ($50),
and an ingenious pen (from $15) that
happily clips onto the brand’s classic
notebooks. “It is the most significant
element,” Iacchetti says, “because
it represents the connection between
the mind, the hand, and Moleskine.”
( moleskine.com) —Stephanie Schomer
