MERRY CHRISTMAS

Merry Christmas and thanks to everybody who has supported me throughout the year!

Delivery Day!

Delivery Day in the DesignWorks Studio. This was when the first delivery of embrace arrived a few days before Christmas. A manic day as I did a quality check and boxed each one up for delivery.

Branded.

Today I've been preparing and testing my branding tool for embrace. My first (delayed) batch is due to arrive this week, and before each unit is packed up and dispatched I will be personally checking each product and stamping it, this means that no product is going out without my seal of approval. The stamping is extremely subtle, but Nice!

Stamped using my business card debossing tool, and a vice, beats a £200 branding iron.

(above - birch embrace)

PRESS

It's an exciting week here in the studio as I await the arrival of the first batch of embraces. While I'm planing the final box inserts I thought I'd upload some recent press cuttings to keep you all informed of how global embrace, is becoming,

On the subject of PRESS I also got some great news this week that embrace is to be featured in a Book! Featured Press:

Sunday Telegraph Magazine - Nov/09
MD - Oct/09 (Germany)
Homes & Garden - Oct/09
FX - Sept/09
Designer - Nov/09
Deco - Nov/09 (Greece)
Cubes - Nov/09 (Singapore)
100% Insiders Guide - Sept/09

manufacture

Last week was a busy one....and included a 7 hour journey down south to sunny Dorset where I visited the manufacturers of embrace! So for all you great people who have ordered "don't worry, your order has not been affected by the postal strike" it is still being manufactured. The first batch is well underway now and is due for delivery at the end of this month.

See a quick factory shot above. I'm about to hit the road for the airport now for a quick 2 day trip to Barcelona so I'll be adding to this post as soon as I get back with more info and some better images.

nice

Last week I set up a scene to take some images of embrace, and just as I got it set up managed to knock the slr from the tripod and broke the lens. So while my new lens is on order I thought I'd give you a little taster.

old pics

I've just finished a search through some old uni images for some pics of the stable and stumbled across some pics that I thought, if I had the blog back then, I would have probably put them on.

1. a pic of the original rockingstool (against a graphic background), before it had been exhibited at the graduate show and I found people didn't have a clue how to sit on it.

2. the beginnings of "experiments in plywood" a 1:10 scale range of bent ply furniture, including embrace, stable and the rockingstool as part of my 3rd yr final project.

3. Jess showing the strength of the rockingstool in it's cantilever position. I think the way this version of the rockingstool flexes is brilliant, but it would probably kill anybody that eat's well. hense the development.

4. The stable being laminated and manipulated once it has been removed from the former "has anyone seen the small spring clamps?...I can't find them anywhere".

the box

today i'm looking to order the first batch of my boxes in preperation for the first batch of embraces arriving. Here you can see the prototypes that I made for 100%. As seen as though each box cost me a small fortune and I spent god knows how much time exposing and aligning screens I thought they were more than worthy of a quick blog.

proper bender

As promised....A video of the homemade jig for bending the wallstore prototypes in action.

Oh and a bit of advise, don't buy tesco value drills, they are tosh!

end of an era

it's been a long time in the making and there's been many different jigs some that have only lasted for one pressing but some that were just pure work horses. And today was the sad day that the powers that be made me throw them away :( as seen as though embrace is being professionally manufactured now I don't think we will be needing these, but I didn't want all that hard work to go un-noted.

cheers johnny for pulling the trolley

embrace in a box

I'M NOT STANDING STILL

Hey guys, I know it's been a while since the last post but don't worry! I'm not standing still (hense me moving in the picture above :). It's just been hectic since the show, and I've had to have my business head on for a few weeks while I secure the finance and get embrace into professional production. The interest has been worldwide, so for all of you not in the UK I hope to have it stocked in retailers near you soon.

Thank you to those guys who have already placed orders, and I just want to let you all know that embrace is in good hands now and is being manufactured in the UK to highest standards. I'm hoping to recieve the first batch mid november, and I will be shipping them out immediately after that.

I also want to thank all the everyone who has taken the time to blog me and especially the big guys NotCot and Swiss-miss who are directing 100's of hits to my website every week! I'll try and include every blog i've seen but sorry if your's is not included I just havn't seen it.

I also want to thank all the guys who have featured me in the press I will be updating my site with a PRESS page as soon as I have done all the scanning to show you guys all the glossy print i've been in.

NOTCOT

Thanks to guys over at notcot for blogging a great image of embrace sitting proudly on their box's at 100% futures. And for their nice comments!

http://www.notcot.com/archives/2009/09/john_greens_emb.php

I'M BACK

wow, what a week! I'm slowly coming back to reality and getting over my london jet lag! The show went great and now there is lots of follow up work to get on with, one of them being ordering the first batch of 100 embrace's. So keep your self posted. I have also planned the long awaited photoshoot coming up in the next few weeks and then there will be a big update to the website, cleaning it up a bit and getting a nicer more consistent design.

The interest at 100% for the wallstore (pantone) was absolutely crazy, it was just killing me telling people I couldn't sell it when so many people were trying to buy it. so hopefully by next month I will have a distributor on board and I will be able to get back to all those nagging for one.

things will be moving very fast for me now in the lead up to christmas so keep checking back to keep yourself up to date.

Embrace - cut to precision

The first embrace being CNC cut. A massive thanks to Karl at stage one for making this happen. We still have part 2 of embraces to cut on monday morning, and were setting off to London monday afternoon. tight!

for sale!

Embrace's first outlet. A nice window display showing a nice Oak and corian set. Also if you near by check out the new headhangers and bags for life, the first products to be realised through the snowhome & johngreen. collaboration. (more detail to come on these once I've got 100% is underway)

To buy an embrace online please go to: www.snow-home.co.uk (snowhome is a UK based design store and can ship worldwide)

Headhook - prototyping

Working to the deadline, here's some headhook components being cut, due to be screen printed tomorrow and in snowhome on saturday ready for the launch. I need to be pressing embraces right now so bye!

pantone wallstore

The wallstores have arrived for 100%, not in the best condition though, so it looks i'm going to have to do some masking off and re-spraying. Adding things to the to-do list was not exactly what I had in mind!

the veneers are here

I was up at 5am this morning on the road trip to the capital, to collect the veneers for my first batch of embraces, As of next week i'm on an extremely tight shedule to get one embrace pressed a day! lets hope it all works out........only 1 week to the preview of embrace at "snowhome is 8" and only 2 weeks to 100%.

Thanks for sharing the driving Dad, and those eclairs were awsome.

embrace jigs...again!

Now things are getting serious. I've been working through the night to put this beast together. Now that embrace has been developed and I know the dimensions are right, I've gone for it and made a solid Jig. After hours and hours of hammering late night in the residency I'm about to press the first embrace today..on a bank holiday monday, cheers!

PANTONE wallstore's

Yesterday I bent up all the wallstores by hand and dropped them off at the powder coaters in preparation for 100%. I'm going to upload a video of that homemade jig in action soon/when i have the time. You will be amazed!.

snowhome is eight

Snowhome is 8 years old next month and to celebrate there is going to be a party. And guess what's going to be there?!............yep, embrace has it's first outlet. For the very first time embrace is going to be available to buy as snowhome is previewing Embrace one week before it's official launch at 100% design. So if you can't get your self to London here is your chance to come and see the real thing. (long live the prototypes - more to come on the journey of prototype to batch production very soon).

And that's not all "snowhome is eight" will also see the launch of some new products, exclusive to snowhome, designed in collaboration with my good self.

So make sure you get yourself down to the birthday party for drinks, birthday cakes and some exciting new designs!

Place: Snowhome, York (in store)
Date: Saturday 12th September 2009
Time: 10 - 5.30

Flyer pictured above: Designed by John Green, Printed 100% recycled Kraft Board. Nice!

bags for life have arrived

The snowhome bags for life arrived today. The bags have been neatly hand screen printed for us by alison hardcastle. Now we have small little competition to see which design sells best. My design is the "proper bag" and the one with a load of design silhouette's scattered about. Each bag has been printed as a limited edition of 25.
To get your limited edition John Green bag, go to: www.snow-home.co.uk

A few pieces of metal attatched to the inside of a mates jumper. I don't really get it, but thought it was cool enough to blog!

newquay = done

I'm back........feeling a little burnt but it's been a great week, recharging the batteries and hitting the surf everyday. Now there is only six long weeks to crack on for 100%, I can just tell there is going to be some sleepless nights!

100% design 24 - 27 September 2009 **REGISTER NOW**

100% design registration is now open to the public www.100percentdesign.co.uk. This means the show is fast approaching, and instead of stressing I'm about to dig out the longboard, and take a nice week out in the surf, I'm going to let my brain breath and plan out the next month and a half. It's going to be busy! The to-do list is already looking big.

I will be showing at 100% design, on stand J96 in the futures section, where I will launch my first range of products, titled 'experiments in ply'. The show will feature a few products from my university portfolio that I have spent months working on, just trying to make them viable and affordable whilst maintaining quality. There will also be some new products designed earlier this year and a 100% new product designed in collaboration with independent design retailer snowhome.

facsimile

who knew fax machines were also bin bag dispensers? ha, I've just spent 1 and a half hours rolling that bin bag in, and the worst thing is, i don't even know why it's there, what it's for or if I was even supposed to wind it back in.

i'll never say a bad word about emails again

bag head

I was set the brief to design an exclusive snowhome bag for life. My design will only be printed once in an exclusive hand screen printed run. The bags will soon be available to purchase from snowhome for somewhere under £5. So get yourself down there to bag your self a John Green exclusive.

Cheers Grabham for being a true baghead and modelling it so well!

Design for Dwell 09

eroz 09 was shortlisted in the design for dwell competition. But for me to win it, you guys need to vote!

Whether you hate dwell or not follow the link:

http://dwell.co.uk/designfordwell.php?design=25

and vote 5 stars.

Cheers

A night at the farm

Hand printing snowhome bags for life with Angus (the screen print guru) at a very nice farm based studio.

Thank you Alison for letting us borrow your great facilities.

Cast Pebble

The result of the Platten and Green collaboration.

WALNUT embrace in your face!

The penultimate prototype made in the residency workshops! this time doing the lay-up the proper way!

Proper Picture

I know its the 3rd post on this design, but I am enjoying it right now. And just so you know PANTONE Inc. trademarks and copyrights are the property of Pantone, Inc.

busting some angles