2B Studio Inc

2B embraces this notion visually on their website (the homepage’s split screen announces “who we are” on the left and “what we do” on the right), but, more importantly, in their design-build philosophy: “combining cool design and clever engineering, we create products that add value to the user’s experience… that are intuitive and engineered to be manufactured efficiently.” Designer Will Oltman also readily embraces this wise mantra as well. Familiar to 3rings readers as the author of the exotic, futuresque, and unabashedly hip Tolima Chair, Oltman’s eye for the versatility of plywood has caught the collective eyes of the principal’s at 2B. The result is the intriguing synthesis of material and form on display in his Isaac Chair. One part Eames, one part Gehry, and all Oltman, the piece is a timely test case for 2B’s ideas about the intersection between intuition and efficient manufacture. The chair is an excellent example of comprehensive sustainability. Featuring soy-based foam, high-recycle content/compostable fabric (from Interface‘s Terratex line), a water-based finish, die cast aluminum, and high-yield veneer-core plywood (from reforested resources), Isaac is eco-savvy at every level of its manufacture.

It’s refreshing to see this degree of ecological awareness. In an age when terms like “green” and “sustainable” are fast evolving from meaningful concepts into marketing buzzwords, designers who embrace 2B’s brand of big-picture environmentalism do so at a certain degree of financial peril. But the design world craves this kind of risk, and the exciting synergy on display in Oltman’s new chair suggests there just might be a niche for such soaring ambitions after all.