Local designers want to manufacture in Philadelphia—but it’s not always possible. by Justin Klugh An idea is born anywhere: scribbles on the back of a napkin, a daydream during a webinar, panicked fumbling for a bedside notebook in the middle of the night. While cleaning out her mother’s belongings after her passing, Maddie Flanigan found
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As we move further along into a federal administration that is hostile to policies such as the Clean Water Act and efforts such as the Paris climate agreement, the role of states and populous cities becomes ever more important. Last year was, again, the hottest year on record, and climate projections for Philadelphia tell us
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While the country has been recovering from the crash in 2008 and sectors such as renewable energy and technology have been making strides, there is one sector that may not yet have seen the bottom of its losses: print media. All over the country, newspapers have been shuttered and alternative weeklies have either disappeared (we
MoreIllustration by James Heimer Backyard Biogas by Marilyn Anthony Thirteen-year-old Clayton Young, a home-schooled Berks County teen, is working to design a solution that would enable small-scale biodigesters to provide year-round cooking gas in Syrian refugee camps. But when he first brought the lofty idea to his mother, Jennifer, she was adamantly opposed. “We’re not
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Photo by Erick Sternberg Mood Indigo by Emily Teel Elizabeth McTear of Honest Alchemy spends her days dipping into pools of color: salmon red from madder root, mustard yellow from fustic wood, and rich cranberry from brazilwood. The deep blue from indigo—and a desire to get away from commercial toxic dyes—was what started her down
MoreNo Sweat by William Beisley Jess Edelstein, CEO and co-founder of PiperWai, has a rote but enthusiastic way of discussing her all-natural cream deodorant, which is understandable considering their recent bombardment of interviews. Edelstein, along with co-founder and CFO Sarah Ribner, had four interviews the day before their meetup with Grid, not to mention an
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Photo by Mark Likosky The Right Fit by William Beisley On a beech-lined street in South Philly’s Girard Estate sits the bungalow-style home and workspace of Kristy Carabello, 37, co-owner of Orgotton. It’s here that she and her sister, Stef Emery, 32, design the organic cotton cardigans, dresses, skirts and shirts that make up their
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Company is stocking vending machines with products that are locale, nutritional and well-priced.
MoreA Stitch in Time by William Beisley With garment manufacturing in Philadelphia at an all-time low, a brand like Norman Porter Co. appears like a denim-clad apparition from the past. The company’s jeans and other products have all been designed and produced with an almost bygone craftsman approach. Michael and David Stampler, brothers and co-owners
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Regeneration Nation interview by Heather Shayne Blakeslee Long before the triple bottom line, which takes people, planet and profit into a business’s accounting ledger, and biomimicry, which looks to nature to solve challenging design problems, there was permaculture. The word, first coined in 1978, was used to describe methods of farming that would feed the
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