Contexture's Nathan Lee kindly answered a few questions about the duo and their projects among which the New York Times anointed "Coffee Cup".

How did Contexture come to be?

Trevor and I have been friends for a while. We met in high school, and eventually both ended up in the Landscape Architecture program at the University of British Columbia. We worked together on a couple of summer projects while finishing our degrees, and ended up moonlighting as designers while we held down non-design related day-jobs. Our creative interests broadened and we applied our design skills to new projects in different media. We both ended up quitting our desk jobs days shy of our 30th birthdays to officially start a career in design and we haven't looked back.

Why repurposed material? What's the message behind?

With our background in Landscape Architecture, the concept of sustainability has always come second nature to us. We approach design with that in mind, but for us the materials themselves have always proved to be an important source of inspiration, particularly if they have historic, cultural or environmental significance. The message of upcycling is always there, but we think of it more in terms of waste and unused potential than "green design". Like in the dustbowl of the Great Depression people found uses for the things around them, not because it was sustainable, but because every object had potential and if it couldn't be used for it's designed purpose, it could be used for something else. Throwing things away wasn't really an option and waste was a dirty word.

What has been your most rewarding moment so far?

Having our Coffee Cuff featured in the New York Times Style Magazine was a pretty rewarding. We didn't want to jinx it, so we hadn't told a lot of people that it was coming out. My dad had recently gotten a subscription to the Times and had taken up the hobby of flipping through the design section looking for stuff to show me so he could say "you should make something like that!" It was his way of being supportive. I remember getting a phone call from him when he came across our work. That was a pretty great moment.

Among your projects, do you have a favourite, one that has special significance to you?

This is a tough one, I like them all for different reasons.

"As the Crow Flies" hanging mobile is our newest product so we're still in the honeymoon phase of our relationship. I like this project for its simplicity; at the same time it conveys a complex idea. Crows create a surprisingly emotional family portrait. They mate for life, live in family groups, and even though their offspring may travel the country and live in other cities, they often return to visit. We used maps from across the continent as a building material to reflect the universality of this phenomenon and the distances these birds travel.

The Coffee Cuff has been very good to us. It's a cheeky product, I guess that's what I like about it. It's great seeing someone pick up this sculptural item and watch the pieces fall together as they try to figure out what it's for. Is it a handmade coffee sleeve? Is it jewelry? You can actually see it on their faces when they realize it's both.

I'm a fan of 45 iPod cases because the materials are so appropriate. There is an obvious connection between 7-inch records, cassette tapes, and iPods as music media, but they are also very similar in proportion. For example, the clickwheel of an iPod is exactly the same diameter of the hole in a 7-inch record. The similarities don't end there.

What is the most challenging aspect of your work?

Reclaimed materials are a source of inspiration, but they can also be a source of frustration. It's always challenging finding a reliable source of materials that are available on the scale that gives a project longevity. It takes a much more hands-on approach to manufacturing because everything has to be hand-picked and there are often inconsistencies in materials. Not all cassette tapes for instance are made of the same type of plastic, and all plastics behave differently. It's challenges like this that can keep our production scale modest. That being said, the materials are where all the ideas come from, so it's a bit of a trade off.

What are your plans for the next few months?

We're always working on new stuff. We've got a few projects under development that we'd love to see released in the next year, but in the meantime we're looking forward to a busy holiday season.

Why did you put your shoe size on the site? Are you on the market for shoes?

One of our first projects was "hockey's". We were taking a Canadian icon, old leather hockey skates, and rebuilding them into street boots. They never made it into production, but when it came time to post our bios we figured our boots were a good place to start. They said as much about us as anything else so we thought some stats might flesh things out a bit. Thankfully, the stats ended there.

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Check his speech...

Hi Edoardo, what's up??
Hi, what can I say... its been quite curious when Matteo asked me If I wanted to be photographed for Uneeto; I never did such things and I don't even like that much being in pictures. Anyway, as usually happens during this unusual occasions I had fun, that's it.

Lets speak about you and Telestar
I met Marco and Remo at the secondary school, Francesco joined us few years later but since then the circle is closed. At that time we were just kids, but I clearly remember me singing, or better to say "shouting" -what's the story morning glory- and dreaming with a Bob Marley bangle around my neck and -champagne supernova- in my mind ....then Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, these bands were our parents, we knew every single word of their lyrics...even if we couldn't pronounce properly "hello" in English... There were no MP3 and I used to go to school with my CD player and that giant headphones always on my head... It all started from there! Then the music passion turned into real stuff and we all started to study an instrument...
I put on the guitar, Marco sit at the drum and Remo at the piano. He learned from his dad, a musician too; legends say that he played with Chet Baker, and also that he found the Paul McCartney's bass outside The Fab Four's concert in Rome... Quite a interesting character to learn from, ah?!

As a band, what about your first performances and free time together?!
Live concerts, small clubs, many hours sharing dreams and beers, writing songs, and trying to find our identity...our sound; many compliments and tons of criticisms.
We have always been strong, never give up!

Ive heard a story where you almost record an album, tell us more!
Yes that's true, we have been really close to have our 1st album produced ...but at the end didn't work out; same classic Italian story... after 4years spent recording, we couldn't mix our artistic ideas with our old record label's ones... Now its quite fun how everything can change in a beat...

that's?!
Few days ago we have received a cool new... we have won a music contest for new bands, the well known "Cornetto free music festival"
On 15th December we will open as support band the Zucchero Fornaciari's concert!!! acting at the Mandela forum in Florence.
We will face this stage as Telestar usually do, without expectation and without fear.
It could be definitively "a morning glory"... about 10.000 people will be there, will you be there?!?!

opening up the 25th of october

11-14

Renmarkstorget 10

UMEÅ sweden

well actually we've already started with the first color, now we are spinning it and the color is Pantone 19-4027 TCX, check it here...

when we need a break we just step outside the factory and watching the sky we notice that, our two china-italy flags embracing as lovers and we proudly say: <<my gosh what we have done>>