MassArt alum William Peebles (BFA, Industrial Design) is the founder, artist and sole employee of the Huntington Base Ball Co., a producer of handmade baseballs, bats, leather wallets, scorebooks and wall art. He’s one of the few − if not the only − small makers of such equipment left in the country, and he does it all out of his Grove Street garage in Norwell, MA.

It takes him, on average, 45 minutes to make a single ball, and that’s after almost 12 years of getting it down to an exact science. Peebles majored in industrial design and worked designing home goods. With the help of a friend at the National Baseball Hall of Fame, he took a chance and launched his company, named for Huntington Avenue in Boston − the street MassArt is on.

Read his story in the Patriot Ledger

“For artists and designers accustomed to considering both form and function, working in miniature affords outsize opportunities for experimentation.”

“To (Gustavo) Barroso, 27, (’18, BFA, Industrial Design) producing scaled-down models of his irreverent limited-edition and one-of-a-kind furniture is a way to reach a wider audience. “I can’t even afford the stuff I make,” says the designer, who graduated from Massachusetts College of Art and Design in 2019. He’s trying to bring the price of his Nickelodeon-inspired Green Slime chair down from $2,500 for the original to $250 for a small 3-D-printed version, and refers to the tiny, oozy chairs as toys or collectibles, hoping the approach will appeal to people who don’t consider themselves furniture buffs. “As soon as something has function, it becomes design, not art,” he says. “This isn’t about design. The chair was already solved. This is about art and acknowledging our own human redundancies and ridiculousness.””

Read full New York Times article

“A women’s-sized release, this 550 gives off almost as many skate shoe vibes as it does hoop shoe vibes due to its new material composition. The pink used is an autumnal hue, dusty and earthy instead of bubblegum-esque, and it’s accented by hits of white and sail. Finishing off the look are familiar branded hits and a 550 graphic on the lateral forefoot overlay, a signature detail from the 1989 sneaker that designer Steven Smith — then a fresh-faced graduate of the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, now the head of Ye’s new Donda Industrial Design imprint — took inspiration from automotive design language for.”

Continue reading

“In sports, rarely is a star player also a journeyman. In the sportswear industry, this isn’t quite the case.

“Over the course of the last five decades, Steven Smith has starred for every big brand, allowing him the leeway to work and play with the likes of Peter Moore and Tinker Hatfield.

“Honing a curiosity to create thanks to his older brothers breaking his toys as a child, Smith studied industrial design at Massachusetts College of Art and Design, leaving with his BFA degree in 1986. That fall, he landed at nearby New Balance, immediately making an impact on running and basketball products.”

Read full article