Who Needs a Designer When You Have Common Sense?

Gotta love Luigi's Pizza, a Pratt student favorite. The city put a big planter/bollard in front of their shop. So what did they do? They put a sheet of plastic on top and called it a table. It ain't pretty but it works!

The nice guys from Calexico let me "install" a Fire Hydrantable next to both of their food carts in Soho. This one was up for only 1 hour before it was whisked away by a man in a sailor's hat. I will take it as a compliment and let me know if you see it around!

POP UP LUNCH #4: Caught On Tape

POP UP #4

Pop Up #4: the biggest pop up lunch event yet. We staged it on the sidewalk outside of the LentSpace park on Canal & Varick, which seemed appropriate as it is a "pop up" place itself. (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/17/arts/design/17lent.html?_r=1)

About 15 of us gathered to enjoy pizza on the lovely streets of lower manhattan. The fire hydrantables, lunch ledges, and a new arrival - a trash can table - were out in full force. It was a great showing unfortunately, the weather turned crap really quickly and it was COLD! On the bright side, we got some good footage, thanks to Kevin Chapados. Can't thank him enough. I will upload as soon as I can...

WHAT'S IN A SEAT?

I am developing a portable street seat as part of my thesis, so I took note when I saw this couple sitting on the sidewalk on Broadway. They were pretty cool - told it to me straight out: no, they don't really need a seat, or at least they wouldn't carry one around with them.

Granted, not everyone is comfortable sitting on the bare NYC asphalt but it is times like this when I question what I am doing...

POP UP #3: Reporting Back

So, I went to 6th ave and 12th to meet my friend Lys for Pop Up Lunch #3, involving the aforementioned fire hydrantable. The purpose of the event was to get people's reactions to the fire hydrantable, and to see if they wouldn't be willing to try eating a tasty sandwich at it.

In preparation for the event, I made 9 peanut butter and fluff sandwiches on Wonder Bread, cut into the shape of pentagons (in going with the Pop Up Lunch schematic) to lure in hungry pedestrians. I made business cards linking to the website. I even bought a flower to create some atmosphere.

To be honest - I think we turned people off a little bit with the tasty sandwiches. The upside is that it was clear that people were taken with the fire hydrantable. People were doing double and triple takes as they passed us, smiling, and several said "that's a good idea". So, in the spirit of turning lemons into limoncello - the experience was a success in part.

After getting the bad juju vibe from 6th Avenue, we continued south and west in search of coffee and perhaps a few firemen to try out our new fire hydrantable. No such luck with the firemen, but we did meet a fellow classmate and then a group of New Yorkers who really loved the concept of a fire hydrantable. I happened to have a lunch ledge on hand, so I pulled that out too and I swear to you, they nearly applauded.

Takeaways: pop up street ware is a great concept. Continue to develop prototypes and try them out with people who are actually trying to eat on the street or are at points of food. Lastly, leave the free sandwiches at home, even if they are adorable, delicious and pentagon-shaped.

POP UP #3: Fire Hydrantable

Ok folks, the time has come to test out the fire hydrantable idea. Now remember, this is just a rough prototype, just like the lunch ledge, I just want to see how people like the idea of being able to easily transform a fire hydrant into a table. To Manhattan I go....

PS - for all of you design buffs out there, that classy cup you see was designed by Marc Newson for Qantas airlines.