Mag Rack is a minimal magazine stand designed by New York-based studio Birnam Wood Studio. For the Mag Rack Solo, the 2” bend radius pushes artificial stone to the absolute limit. A 2” diameter metal tube rests in the inner swoop, which wraps upwards at the sides – as though the tube were the die around which it had been pressed. In this way the form expresses the process of the making. Besides emphasizing the production process the tube also serves as a divider for separating magazines and keeping newspapers unfolded.
The Mag Rack Duo uses the same thermoforming process as the Mag Rack Solo. Simplicity of construction and fabrication drive the design. In the age of digital media, designs dedicated to analog technologies might seem to be anachronistic – they reflect a maker’s attachment to the material world and also shift attention from their performative usage to their formal composition. The manner by which they fulfill their functional duties becomes as much a focus as their actual functionality.
