for your littlest eaters - Radish Magazine

handmade
Office to den
Re:form turns e-waste into hip living room decor
14
Submitted
By Jane VanVooran Rogers
What do you get when you combine two old
Mac towers, two cranks, a pane of reclaimed
glass and a coil spring from a pickup truck? A smooth
coffee table from a new company called re:form that
blends material reuse with contemporary style.
The goal of re:form is to create a stylish second
life for commonly discarded technology, such as
computers, satellite dishes, plasma screens and more.
The company fuses material reuse and environmental
responsibility with artistic design and function.
“I’m visually minded,” says re:form creator Ryan
Orr of Davenport. “I want to develop things that
make people’s eyes get big or their jaws drop. And
they say, ‘I want that’ or ‘Wow, I never knew you
could do this with that.’ That makes me feel good as
a designer because people enjoy it.”
Launched in 2011, re:form arose from Orr’s tinkering
mind-set combined with the volume of computers
Orr cycled through in his work as a video editor.
“When a computer died at work, we’d think,
‘What are we going to do with it? Make it a cappuccino
machine? A fish tank? Add to the junk
upstairs?’ ” Orr says. “There has to be something
more inventive and useful.”
By day, Orr is a senior editor at dphilms, a video
production company in Rock Island, producing
commercials, corporate promos and short films for
clients. By night, he works in his basement, experimenting
by hand with discarded electronic materials
and exploring ideas bouncing around in his head.
“This is a different way to be creative. It’s an
extension of what I do, but I get to step away from the
computer and work with physical products,” he says.
“It’s neat to play with things that already have a sleek
style and that would otherwise be thrown away.”
Working with a computer rather than on a computer
poses its own challenges. “One thing I can do
at work is hit the ‘undo’ button. I can’t do that here,”
Orr says. “If I misdrill a hole or mispaint something,
then I have to start over.
“I also discovered that the plastic computer cases
are very sensitive to certain chemicals! The limitations
of the materials mean that whatever I do I have to get
absolutely right on the first shot.”
In trying to get things right, Orr went through
about six machines to develop the coffee tables,
known as Crunching Numbers G3 and G4.
While finding a creative way to use reclaimed
materials, Orr tries not to create more waste, using
reused or reclaimed materials from junkyards,
landfills or recycling centers. The glass he uses is
reclaimed and reused. He also recycles the unused
parts of the computers as well.
He avoids overusing typical fasteners, like nails
or adhesives, which is challenging but “good because it
helps you think outside of the box to make something
work.” His coffee tables are held together by tension;
the cranks, which Orr found online, act as clamps.
“Construction is easier in one sense,” Orr
explains. “And fewer adhesives make the products
more environmentally friendly.”
Although Orr has created two coffee tables with
re:form, he’s not limiting himself to furniture. His
next piece may be wall art, outdoor sculptures, or
something else.
For example, heat sinks that keep PCs cool have
porcupine- or skyline-like jagged shapes and a variety
of colors that seem well-suited for sculptures.
Orr waits to hear from people who have defunct
PCs or other technology, and he acts fast to snap
them up. He’d like to establish relationships with
individuals and organizations that could supply him
with more e-waste materials.
“When the TV goes bad or the Xbox quits
working, people usually just put it at the curb. And
once it’s gone, it’s gone,” Orr says. “I want to keep
it in the loop and transform it into something new,
something that they’ll never want to get rid of.”
To learn more, visit reform-designs.com. To donate
technology items for the one-of-a-kind pieces, email Orr
at reformdesigns@yahoo.com.