From their studio in Downtown Manhattan, designers Joe Doucet and Dean Di Simone are creating the heirlooms of the future. OTHR, the design company they founded alongside Evan Clabots, makes a range of stunning homeware exclusively with 3D printing technology, a radical concept many years in the making.
In 2013 Doucet, described by Forbes as the ‘living blueprint for the 21st century designer’, ordered a 3D-printed steel fork. It was an unappealing and overpriced object, but he recognised that the technology was improving so fast it would soon be feasible to make gracefully designed products at achievable prices. When that time came, the three joined forces and together they assembled an all-star cast of the world’s best designers, including Claesson Koivisto Rune, Fort Standard, Everything Elevated, as well as emerging talent, to create homeware that is at once beautiful, useful, and unique.
The result is that everyday items, usually hidden away in drawers, become beautiful objects crying out to be displayed, all while retaining their utility. Joe picks up the extraordinary-looking ICO Bottle Opener, designed by Fort Standard and printed with 3D bronze, to illustrate his point. “It opens a bottle of any size, it’s the easiest you have ever used, and it’s aesthetic in the sense that it has presence and it’s unique.” An instantly iconic piece of design that could not have been made as a casting, it takes 2-3 weeks to produce and looks like no other bottle opener in the world.