The design*sponge shop…

Grace Bonney, who has enjoyed quite of bit of success with her blog design*sponge, has taken that project to a new level: the design*sponge shop. She writes: “I’ve always wanted to have a place where I could showcase affordable, limited-edition designs by my favorite independent artists; I feel strongly about supporting the fantastic community of indie designers making their own goods by hand.”

While Bonney and various other bloggers who focus on products or designers might seem quite distant from the “brand underground” that I wrote about over the summer (using T-shirts as my example category), I see them as having fundamental similarities. So I’ve been very interested to follow how she and others have sought ways to convert what started as a hobby into a way of perhaps making a living — turning their “lifestyle into a business,” as A-Ron put in the brand underground piece. This is an interesting approach, and I’ll be keeping an eye on it, for sure….

Anyway, her initial lineup of six products/pieces includes pillows, a salt/pepper/olive set, and hand-printed wood blocks.