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Industrial Designer / Sustainable Design:
DIANE RUENGSORN

Diane Ruengsorn brings a diverse background of experience that informs her current initiative, the socially and environmentally responsible home furnishings company Domestic Aesthetic.

After graduating from Smith College, she began her career as a writer covering technology and business trends and interviewing political leaders and CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, which gave her great insight into the issues shaping industry and the environment. Later, she enrolled in a Masters program at the Pratt Institute and began apprenticing for a furniture designer/manufacturer where she witnessed the chemicals and materials that workers were exposed to on a daily basis. This led her to believe that products could be produced with people-friendly materials and methods that didn’t harm anyone in the process. She has since guest lectured on design management and publishing and presented her work internationally. Through a culmination of all these things, the idea for Domestic Aesthetic was born.

ABOUT DOMESTIC AESTHETIC

“Live well, live right” is the company’s philosophy. You can have products that enhance your life while taking into account people and our planet. Domestic Aesthetic offers consumers affordable products that adhere to environmentally and socially responsible standards.

Since their launch last year, the company has been in numerous publications such as New York Magazine, Interior Design, and multiple features in the New York Times. The company’s line of eco-luxe housewares can be found in stores across the US, Canada, and Australia including the MoMa Design store.

DIANE’S STORE-Y

Diane discusses her work leading up to the What Women Make ~Women in Design 1st ed.~ exhibit at the London Design Festival showing at Designerblock September 23-26, The Bargehouse, Oxo Tower

THE INTERVIEW

wwm: What are these plates made of?
DR: These plates are made from sugar cane fiber, which is a waste product after juice has been extracted from the stalks. In our work, we have several themes and one of them is using materials that take waste out of the wastestream. It’s an amazing material and gave us the look we wanted to achieve while also being sturdy, durable, heat-resistant and completely biodegradable/compostable.

wwm: Walk us down your path of discovery for creating them?
DR: The inspiration for these came from staircases, as I happen to have a thing for staircases. I liked the idea that they are functional but could also be a metaphor for transition. The first of this line, the dinner plates, remind me of Italian piazzas. The bowls will be modeled after amphitheaters, my favorite one being the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. It’s an interesting challenge to draw on this inspiration, translate it into a potentially commercial product, and make sure it’s consistent with everything else we’re doing.

wwm: How does this new line fit in with your other products?
DR: I love food – I’m an avid cook – and much of my work involves enhancing the dining experience. Our first line was about trying to create meaningful experiences through products that were timeless and long lasting, items that you could potentially pass on to future generations. For this new line, many of the themes are still there but I wanted to have a different approach. This time I wanted to solve a problem, to provide an alternative to the Styrofoam and plastic plates that are commonly used and thrown away.

wwm: What would you serve? Feel free to give us a recipe!
DR: I just made an arugula and watermelon salad with a balsamic glaze. It’s a light, refreshing summer salad and the first dish I made to test out the new plates. Even for a casual gathering, it can be nice to enhance the presentation a bit. In this instance, the plates worked really well because I used the balsamic glaze to dribble along the edges. It looked great against the contrast of pink and green.

Watermelon, Feta, and Arugula Salad with Balsamic Glaze