Finoak Blog

Design

Cycling culture: chic and critical

Cycling culture

Nowadays, it’s far from unusual to see chicly attired cyclists atop sleek fix-gear bikes casually peddling around town.

This almost fanatical indulgence in biking, which up until just a few years ago exclusively belonged to the shared domain of bicycle couriers, professionals and eccentrics, has now entered the mainstream – and in a big way. Not only do high-street retailers stock aesthetic conceptions of how the bike should be – you can now get your Charge or Fuji 'fixie' from Evans Cycles down the road – but it is becoming easier to find bespoke bike shops that will tailor your cycle's specs to your needs. And while the province of bike knowledge and bike lore – 'fixie culture' – was once dominated by men, women are now claiming their rightful place in its burgeoning world. On my own (rusty-old-banger-of-a) bike, I now encounter seemingly as many tattooed and sharply dressed female cyclists as I do male.

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A Little Chair Design..

Chair design

Chairs can be pretty varied in shape, size and design... The case of 'how would you like your eggs?', which can obviously offer a selection of answers, is a very reduced example of the chair question: 'how do you like your chair?' Okay I'll be honest, I've never really put much thought into my ideal chair shape, but then I came across these extremely simplistic and beautifully designed chairs via the website Pastoe, which not only look a bit like modern art installations but also appear to be extremely comfortable. I was particularly drawn to the pieces by the Dutch designer Cees Braakman (1917-1995), who said: “For me, the challenge lies in finding ways to fuse technical perfection with aesthetic form."…

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