NAMES: Alex Lin, Anisa Suthayalai | Default Office
LATIN NAME: lorem ipsum
AGE: 29 & 31

Default Office is a partnership between Anisa Suthayalai, who attended Chulalongkorn University in Thailand and the Savannah College of Art and Design, and Alex Lin, who studied at the University of the Arts and then Yale. The two became friends at the design firm 2x4, where they sat next to each other for four years. “We would ask each other for comments on our work, look at what we each did, and we felt comfortable with the continuity,” Suthayalai says. The designers struck out on their own in the spring of 2006 and, shortly thereafter, moved into a space on Canal Street in New York City that they share with 2x4-alum Eddie Opara’s MAP Office and Potion. There’s definitely comfort in familiarity: “One night we all had to stay until 2 o’clock in the morning. Eddie was here, and we were here, and it was like—this is family.”

In the few short months since they launched their studio, Lin and Suthayalai have completed a wide range of projects in various media, but a recurrent theme for them is giving fresh takes on the idea of identity. A website they designed for Chicago-based architects Studio Gang represents the studio through photographs of employees doing everyday things, giving the user a feeling of who the architects are as people, rather than presenting their practice as a faceless entity. Their identity for Marc Bouwer’s new luxury fashion line Glamit! is centered around a logotype made with modified Avant Garde and small starbursts and incorporates “more gold foil stamping than either of us have ever used before,” Lin says.

Feeling alienated by design organizations like AIGA, which they believe are too focused on established designers and expanding membership base, Lin and Suthayalai took it upon themselves to start their own organization. The Grand Design Club is comprised of designers who are around the same age and are all in the process of starting their own businesses. Members are able to share resources, ideas, good and bad experiences with printers, and to gossip freely. For the time being, they plan on keeping membership limited. “We like to have little work critiques, and we think that people won’t feel comfortable presenting to strangers,” explains Suthayalai. As it is, the group members all know each other well enough that they can be completely honest.

When creating identity guidelines for Grand Design Club, instead of using dummy copy in the letterhead samples, they used letters they had written to deceased designers like the Eameses and Le Corbusier, asking for advice. Lin was reading a lot of Le Corbusier at the time. “It’s interesting that he was always trying to find that decade’s look and how he could help shape that. I don’t see anyone doing that these days.” Isaac Gertman

(TOP) FROM LEFT TO RIGHT: MATA is a natural aloe vera gel product which has a variety of medicinal uses. NEW VISION is a company which produces laser technology for ophthalmic and cosmetic applications. A poster designed to celebrate the 30th anniversary of HELLO KITTY. The theme of the exhibition was “Hide & Seek.” The logo for the GRAND DESIGN CLUB takes the familiar symbol of the waving lucky cat and parodies it with a likeness of Lin’s dog. Grand Design Club is an online resource and physical entity promoting the sharing of knowledge, ideas, resources, inspiration and constructive criticism for the benefit of its members.