Ioan Butiu

Balsam is a dynamic office workstation that emphasizes functionality and collaboration. Variety and choice are essential for employee satisfaction and productivity, a fact that has lead to increasingly adaptive workplaces. This is where Balsam fits it. The table is highly mobile and allows for impromptu meetings around a whiteboard or pin-up board. Designed in collaboration with Hightower, a local furniture company, Balsam incorporates the firm's playful Scandinavian style.

How might an object respond to its surroundings in a way that tells a meaningful story? This is the question guiding the design of Shrine; the story it tells is one about our relationship with technology. Shrine is a speculative object that interrogates our dependence on smartphones. Situated in the home, it demands we relinquish our devices to its charging ports when it detects movement; it is only when all four slots are full that Shrine goes silent, mollified by the sacrifice. The object's name, physical form, and materiality convey images of sacred temples and vengeful gods. This embodiment and the agency it lends our smart devices questions our addiction to technology and the sacrifices we make in exchange for superficial digital connections.

The Pilchuck 45 is a modular pack system that gives hikers the freedom to interchange their packs to fit every adventure. The frame is the central component of the Pilchuck pack. The trampoline style frame provides optimal ventilation while the swiveling hip belt gives hikers unhindered movement. Since the frame is removable, adventurers can swap out the type of pack they use depending on their activity. The Pilchuck 45 pack is just one pack within the Pilchuck family. It is a medium sized pack for short backpacking trips. Features include daisy loop chains, compression straps, and a roll-top closure. The roll top allows hikers the freedom to expand or compress the pack as they need.