Graypants

By Kurt Butterfield

Sitting in a softly lit cafe in New York or San Francisco, you would probably never guess that the exotic light fixture you’ve been admiring used to be a cardboard box. Repurposing discarded items into something both useful and elegant is what inspires the resourceful designers of Graypants. “We love to use our hands and build stuff,” enthuses Seth Grizzle, one of the founders of the Seattle-based design firm.

Graypants was born in 2008 when Grizzle, 28, and Jonathan Junker, 30, decided to realize a shared dream of creating their own design studio. They first met in the architecture program at Kent State University and have recently added good friend Jon Gentry, to their design team. The three now share a loft space in Seattle’s Capitol Hill, where they live and work together, brainstorming and implementing new ideas. “We believe ideas shouldn’t be treated preciously,” suggests Junker. “Throw them out there and let them evolve. Let the ideas purify themselves.”

After several years working in architecture firms, they all realized they were missing the process of designing, drawing, and using their hands to make useful things. In their off hours, they collected discarded materials and began to experiment with creative ways to repurpose them. Responding to a call for sustainable chairs from a local gallery exhibition, they crafted their entries from old boxes and newspapers. From the leftover chair scraps they created what is now their popular line of scrap lights. Soon to follow were tables made from discarded shipping pallet slip sheets as well as chairs from plywood scraps. Jonathan Junker says, “We never got together and said ‘let’s make a company about recycling.’ You don’t have a choice.”

Both Gentry and Junker work for award-winning Seattle firm Olson, Sundberg, Kundig, Allen Architects, while Grizzle operates the Graypants machine full time. To those young designers lucky enough to have a job in this unpredictable economy, Gentry advises, “Have an outlet for your ideas, so you don’t let things fall by the wayside at work.” Agreeing with him about the pitfalls of day jobs, Junker adds, “Graypants is about inspiring people to do stuff on their own.” Grizzle likes to sum up their collective approach to work with this quote from Persian poet Rumi, “Let the beauty of what you love be what you do.” 

 

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