Core77 is currently featuring not one but two stories about designs that two UO Product Design Program professors are showing during New York Design Week, starting Friday, May 13, in the exhibition Furnishing Utopia. Both stories feature Studio Gorm, the design firm of Associate Professor John Arndt and Assistant Professor Wonhee Arndt. The first of the stories—written by UO Product Design Program graduate Allison Fonder, BA ’13—notes the revival of Shaker style by contemporary designers. The second story discusses precedents that drive new designers to choose the minimalist Shaker style. Furnishing Utopia is at Sight Unseen in New York through May 13.

Above: The work of Shakers, a spiritual sect who made impeccably crafted objects beginning more than 150 years ago, provides the starting point for a new exhibition taking place during New York Design Week at Sight Unseen's OFFSITE, "Furnishing Utopia"— a collection of Shaker-inspired furniture and objects by 12 design studios from around the world. Photos courtesy John Arndt.

Above: Attendees of the Hancock Shaker Village Workshop include, from left, Chris Specce, Jonah Takagi, Dylan Davis, John Arndt, Wonhee Arndt, Darin Montgomery, and Jean Lee.