Monocrane Book Bag LIVE on Kickstarter | 06.21.2016

We are proud to say our Monocrane Book Bag is now LIVE on Kickstarter!!

Designed and made in The 6ix, the Monocrane Book Bag is a reversible drawstring bag made from high-quality leather and canvas. The canvas has been silk-screened with photochromic ink and reveals a pattern that only comes out in direct sunlight. We’re stoked to share our creation told with the narrative of our neighborhood. Huge thank you to Jayscale and Madison Skye for killing the LookBook shoot.

If you like the project, we would be mad appreciative for your support in sharing the word!

BACK OUR CAMPAIGN HERE

Autodesk Design Innovation Guest Speaker| 06.10.2016

Join us at the MaRS building in Toronto, June 20th, 2017. Our founder Drew Henson is giving a talk titled “From School to Studio: A Designer’s Journey And The Evolution Of His CAD Tools”, discussing his design career and how his computer tools have evolved along the way. There are some other great speakers like Paul Sohi from Autodesk and Dylan Horvath from Cortex Designs in Toronto. Hope to see you there!

https://gems.autodesk.com/c/express/ec1bc84b-bfab-4abd-91e7-4dbbf954c5f6

TECHNOIR/LAB LAUNCHES | 05.23.2017

We are proud to announce joining the team at TECHNOIR/LAB; a Creative Design & Fashion Technology Lab + Advisory initiative run by Femka Van Buurren, Founder, Fashion Designer and Fashion Tech Entrepreneur.  She has brought together a stacked team including Fashion Tech Pioneer and Interactive Light Expert Alison Lewis, Couture Fashion & Tech Designer Clara Daguin, Fashion Tech Pioneer Anina Net, Biohacker Teemu Arina, Robotics Engineer Michael Müller, Software Engineers Suresh Balachandran & Timothy Mclanahan, Augmented Reality & Mixed Reality Expert & Designer Ian Nott, 3D Printing, Additive Designer Stephan Henrich, Industrial Designers Matthew Waldman & Drew Henson, and Innovation Consultant Noémie Balmat who is also the Chief Editor of French Fashion Tech publication Clausette.cc

SPEAKING at WEAR Conference 2017 | 02.28.2017

We are excited to have our founder Drew Henson speaking at the WEAR Conference 2017 in San Francisco.  His talk titled: “Would You Wear That? Bringing Wearable Tech Out of Computers & Into Closets”, will be on Day 3, June 14, 2017 at 12:00PM.

Talk summary:

“Today’s wearable tech has yet to hit the sweet spot where designs are ready-to-wear and integrate technology in a seamless fashion. The industry has progressed beyond sewing microchips inside jean pockets but mainstream adoption remains out of reach. Consumers deserve better, and the technology available to wearable tech designers is finally ready to strut its stuff.

Technology isn’t constrained to wires and can be utilized in fabrics, dye, chemicals and actual circuits that amplify fashion. Photochromism, accessories that transmit data, are all ways in which technology can exist subtly in wearable fashion and be both useful and make the consumer look good.”

Tribute Case Series: London | 12.21.2016

There are places in the world we love, and then there is home. Shoreditch, East London, was a place that changed many things for us. Even though Toronto is now home, London will always and forever also be in our hearts. From late nights scheming by roof top pools, raving all night to smashing bagels and djing on Brick Lane. Many of our first designs were done while living there, learning how to put electron to atom. For the undeniable creative force it has been, and will be, our next tribute case is for the iPhone 6/6S Plus, to celebrate London, UK.

Photos by Christian Cassiel

Tribute Case Series: Hong Kong | 12.20.2016

As designers who manufacture in Asia, we pass through Hong Kong more often than not. On Bridges St. is a casual reminder of the word family. Many years ago we pulled up to Yardbird, re-acquainted with old friends from a home from long ago and since then have made many anew. Hong Kong is a place we love, and a reminder of what happens when families are kind to strangers. Our first tribute case is a thank you for the many years of amazing experiences.  The map in the case is based on a hand drawn map given to us by their crew to always find our way from Yardbird to Ronin.

Photos by Christopher Lim, with JAYEMKAYEM.  Full photoshoot on our FB page here.

twenty2b XMAS Pop Up Store | 12.16.2016

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!!!!!

We are proud to announce we are taking over Milk Glass in Toronto, Canada, for a full week to have first ever twenty2b retail experience (1247 Dundas Street W).

Our core business of designing consumer electronics and wearable technology has not changed, but we have added a layer of lifestyle products that center somewhere between art, design and technology.  We love creating, and that is the only common thread among our products from our NFC embedded Monocrane Pendant, to our Reversible Book Bags with Photochromic Monocrane print, we are excited to show off our new goods.

We are having a private friends/family event that we have extended some invites to people we have met on December 19, 2016 and we will be open to the public Dec 20 – 24th, and on Dec 26th from 11am until 7pm.  We will be playing records all day so come and hang with us!

DH

Pursuit of Happiness | 08.24.2016

Lately we have abandoned care in creating purely for others and moved into creating more things with meaning to us and hopefully the world.

Our Monocrane Pendants have soft launched, thank you for the love, always appreciated.  We wrapped up our official shoot yesterday with the mad talented Jayscale and our forever hommie and crush Jayemkayem and we are fucking stoked to share that shit soon.  We’ll probably drop a couple behind the scenes shots across our social channels.  We hit some dope spots, with our freshly Monocrane’d bat…special delivery.

IF you don’t know, our Monocrane Pendant is our signature.  Its our piece and where we wanted to start our product line of tech infused design and art.  Beyond the sterling silver crane, and laser cut wooden insert we have hidden and tuned an NFC chip and its antennae to function with our metal base and shape.  Which was oddly a lot harder than expected, thanks for the support….those that know, know.

Red Dot Winning Drift Compass Release | 05.16.2016

We are proud to have the Foream/Drift Compass now fully released globally, and also the recipient of the 2016 Red Dot Product Design Award!

Originally listed in China on JD.com with manufacturer Foream, the Compass smashed their crowd funding campaign with 7523 backers over 31 days for a total of 2134183 RMB, a margin of 2134% over the requested 1000000 RMB.  More details on this here: http://z.jd.com/project/details/31671.html. Now globally released with partners Drift Innovation and available for sale, check their website for more details www.driftinnovation.com.

Photo by Jayscale

The Portrait Project: Creator Series | 04.27.16

We are happy to announce a new Portrait Project, this time profiling 10 creatives from around the world in a series of videos shot on the twenty2b-designed Drift Compass. Check out the trailer and stay tuned for a new video dropping once a week.

Project sponsored by Drift Innovation.

Josh Warner — May 4
Beryl Chung — May 11
Richard Sung— May 18
Cheng Jiang — May 25
Adriano Mudrio — June 1
Bebe Zhang— June 8
Violaine D’Harcourt — June 15
Jedi Zhou — June 22
Jeff Forrest — June 29
Mike Loh — July 6

Edited by: Davin Henson
Music by: Sergio Levels

Hello World 2.0 | 02.23.16

Welcome to the new digs.

Interestingly enough, the further you proceed in our industry generally the less you get to speak about publicly.  Making for some secretive and unintentionally lonely development cycles.  With our new space we aim to keep you informed of new collaborations, release some of our thoughts via the shop and host our portraits in one accessible platform.

We are fresh off the release of the Foream Compass in China, smashing JD.com fund raising, winning a 2016 Red Dot Product Design Award for the design of the Compass camera and looking forward to a western launch with Drift Innovation.

The Portrait Project is getting fresh life with 10 designers from around the world, 5 from China itself.  May 4th you can peek into the  inspirational lives of amazing creators from Car and Jewelry design, to Art Direction and Event Promoters in Shanghai living lit.

Plenty to come in 2016, new R&D under way.  We are learning to merge our love for technology and art with our lust for racing ;).

Peace

DH