PURA Chair (@ Totem NYC) / Design : Karim Rashid / 1998
“an eclectic vanguard of Canadian design ..“ Globe & Mail
Pure Design was a manufacturer of contemporary metal home furnishings, founded in 1994 by Daniel Hlus, Randy McCoy and myself.
The Pure Design collection of 75 products was available at over two thousand furniture and design retailers throughout North America, the UK and Japan. Retailers included MoMA, Design Within Reach and The Conran Shop, as well as on the Pure Design online store which went live in 2000.
As Director of Design, I collaborated with over three dozen international freelance designers to develop a diverse and experimental collection. The collection was awarded an ICFF Editors Award for Furniture and was listed in the MoMA Design Encyclopedia.
TARGET Table Series / Design : Douglas Coupland / 1999
This product was a seminal product for our firm. Doug was at the beginning of his visual arts career, this table was fabricated from CNC cut laminate with a simple wire base. Included in the Design Exchange (DX) Collection located at the Royal Ontario Museum.
STARLA Bar Stool / Design : Geof Lilge / 1996
In the early days of the Hothouse Design Co-op and Pure Design, I spent hours bending hot rolled steel rod and became quite proficient at it. We would head to the scrap yard and grab every diameter of big steel pipe we could find to make hand bending prototype jigs, and ultimately production press jigs (pipe is everywhere in our oil town). This stool was an homage to the Spine Chair by André Dubreuil, it is still the most comfortable all-metal backrest I have ever sat in.
TOPO Modular Unit / Design : Procter : Rihl / 1998
K-LOOP Lounge / Design : Karim Rashid / 2001
DUOPLANE Bin / Design : Geof Lilge / 1998
We had just purchased a new corner rad punch tool and the Duoplane collection made full use of it. I wanted to avoid a welded seam or overlap joint, hence the gap detail.
LIM Shelf / Design : Boym Studio / 1998
New York City designers loved working in powdercoated sheet metal, must have been the overpowering Judd legacy in the humid air.
DUMPLING Table Lamp / Design : Lindsey Adelman & David Weeks / 2000
TONG Table Lamp / Design : Lindsey Adelman & David Weeks / 2000
HARVEY Mirror / Design : Douglas Coupland / 2001
JIG Mirror / Design : Christopher Deam / 1999
DJ Kreemy Table / Design : Karim Rashid / 2001
PAB Chair / Design : Paul Baber / 2002
TOPO Modular Unit / Design : Procter : Rihl / 1998
TARGET Table Series / Design : Douglas Coupland / 1999
PURITY / Design : Karim Rashid / 2001
ARP Bar Stool / Design : Karim Rashid / 1997
We launched our bar stool collection at ICFF in 1997 and the Arp stool was an immediate success. A variation of a brilliant collection of chairs Karim designed early on for IDEE Japan. It is an incredibly comfortable sit, exceedingly durable and an iconic example of Karim’s early design work. We sourced the walnut bent ply seat from a small supplier in Muskoka, Ontario - one of two bent ply suppliers in the same small town that sadly no longer exist. Arp helped transition our company from a manufacturer of home accessories into the world of furniture.
LAZ Bar Bench / Design : Geof Lilge / 2001
I have convinced myself that this was the first commercially manufactured bar bench, so I’m going to run with that until I learn otherwise.
BOOKART / Design : Nick DIne / 2000
STAR69 Table / Design : Johnny Lim / 1997
PURA Bar Stool / Design : Karim Rashid / 1998
Elements Storage System / Design : Stephen Burks / 2000
A comprehensive shelving system featuring sheet metal accessories that attached to the bottom of the shelves.
PURA Bar Stool / Design : Karim Rashid / 1998
CSL Table / Design : Andreas Engesvik / 2001
I met Andreas at the London Design Festival in 2001 where he and his Norway Says colleagues were exhibiting their prototypes at St. Pancras Station (quite a musty relic at the time). A tad avant-garde for our North American market at the time perhaps, a familiar story with several items in our collection.
SNAIL Mail / Design : Boym Studio / 1998
I really enjoyed my collaborations with Boym Studio - clever, contemporary and kind folks they are.
RELATIVE Photo Frames / Design : Stephen Burks / 1999
GRIDLOC Table / Design : Chris Baisa / 2000
JIM Bar Stool / Design : Scot Laughton & James Bruer / 1997
GRIDLOC Table / Design : Chris Baisa / 2000
LEFTY Mirror / Design : Geof Lilge / 1998
FLOAT Shelves / Design : Andrew Jones / 2000
KING Coatrack / Design : Karim Rashid / 1996
POP PAD / Design : Peter Stathis / 1999
COATTRUNK / Design : Richard Hutten / 2000
A coatrack with 24 hooks - my favorite object from the Pure Design days. Richard worked within our manufacturing capabilities and developed a brilliant concept that ultimately ended up stocked at the MoMA Design Store. Available in white and dutch orange.
AURA Bar Stool / Design : Niels Bendtsen / 1998
JULIETTE Coatrack / Design : Christopher Arnold & Johnny Lim / 1998
CONTOUR Bowl / Design : Mark Naden / 2000
LAZ Bar Bench / Design : Geof Lilge / 2001
PURA Chair / Design : Karim Rashid / 1998
STAR69 Table / Design : Johnny Lim / 1997
PURA Bar Stool / Design : Karim Rashid / 1998
COATTRUNK / Design : Richard Hutten / 2000
CONTOUR Bowl / Design : Mark Naden / 2000
PURA Chair / Design : Karim Rashid / 1998
TABLESTOOL / Design : Richard Hutten / 2001
BIG WILLIE Mirror / Design : Geof Lilge / 1998
Hockey Night in Canada / Design : Douglas Coupland / 1999
DUOPLANE / Design : Geof Lilge / 1996
no.10 MAILBOX / Design : Mark Naden / 2001
QUEEN Coatrack / Design : Karim Rashid / 1996
MOMO Bench / Design : Kyoko Inoda & Nils Sveje / 2001