It's so nice and pretty to work with aluminum.
Here, a wood backed aluminum sign with acrylic spacer for the floating bits.

This sign is for our ongoing clients over at Clifbar.
Here is some of the other work we have done for them, and some more recent stuff.

We just love how nice and clean this came out, and the font is super cool too!

Soon to come: photos of this whole completed project!

We are renovating a historic building in Southern California to be an office building and machine shop. It is a big fun project! And we are finalizing the design concepts now.

Here is the facade of the building, a cleaned up and renovated version of the current existing historical building. To the right is the building's parking lot and on the left is the enclosed patio and then machine shop.

The machine shop facade echos the office building in shape, but then plays with different materials. We are making the designs here very solar conscious, which is why we have the slats in front of the windows. Due to the intense sun down there, we feel it is necessary to optimize shade with the exterior treatments so the interior cooling of the buildings can be at a minimum.

Here the conference room looks out onto the patio, which is shaded with greenery and stretched fabric shades. We are designing the whole interior, patio and much of the furniture for this project... so stay tuned for more updates on that!

This Friday, join us in downtown San Jose for another ArtCar Fest!

We will be hanging out around the awesome gallery AnnoDomini, and the cool cars will be in the parking lot right next door.

We recently made these giant rolling art kiosks for the gallery, come check em out!

Cool cars like this one from Jon Sarriugarte, Form & Re-Form will be there (yup, that's a car seat in the front).

And definitely this totally awesome one from the artist Philo, co-founder of Envie Interactive.

Here is a good article to read if you need to get inspired to go.

Hopefully we will see you there!
6PM-11PM
Anno Domini Gallery
366 South First Street San Jose, CA 9511

A new-ish interior design magazine called Anthology has run an article on one of our favorite clients Hello!Lucky and the interior design in the homes of the two owners.

There are some great photos in the issue of work that we did for the Hello!Lucky office:

And some cool shots of some work that we did for the interior home of one of the owners:

Pick up an issue! It's a cool new magazine!

We were recently called out by Core 77 for our recent residential Library Loft project.

The post talks about all the space saving efficiencies we created within the structure.
From display storage in the curved stairs, to extra storage in the bench seating

Check out the Core 77 post here.

We did our first in-house metal bending, the other day, to create these 'Blast Screens'!
Carving out a positive form that the corners needed to bend to, then forming them in a press.

The metal has a subtel design etched into them -- using a diamond point etcher in the CNC!!

The screens attach onto these swiveling desks we made.

They can be placed into three different height positions with hardware that is built into the edge of the desk.

It is not clear yet if the blast screens are to protect from blasts coming from or aimed at the desks.... we shall see as things continue to progress...

A custom coffee table creation in a modern interpretation of a Hobnail Chest.

Here it is, in it's conceptual design phase (complete with awesome espresso machine):

We took this old style that was originally used to make safes, with wide metal strapping and big headed nails called "hobnails". They looked like this:

and re-invented it for a coffee table design, with some more modern aesthetic details added.
The doors and pulls for the doors are hidden among the bumps.

The aluminum corners and chrome wheels add a touch of modern hardware to this awesome old style.

We milled out a grid of holes to attach the "hobnails" in a perfect straight grid pattern.

A first coat of finish, then the hobnails were applied.

The waterbased dye and waterborne laquer were then applied to give it's final finish sheen.

A thick slab of polished glass is added to the top, giving a flat surface without having to cover any of the "hobnails". And the modern touches of aluminum corners, chrome wheels and dome headed bolts compliment the rest of the Project.

We have joined up with our friends John and Kyrsten over at Form & Reform to design and build a fun project for Burning Man!

The project has just launched its kickstater page. So please donate to the cause!

John and Kyrsten over at Form and Reform, have created magical pieces out of metal like the Golden Mean Snail Car, and the Zeppelini. Now we are working with them to turn these metal barrels into a Deco Nordic God creature called.... The Serpent Twins.

The front will be powered by these little electric cars...

And the barrels will be filled inside with programable LEDs. One of the serpents will be all dark metal with a "fire" light show on the inside. The other will be white barrels with a more etherial colorful light show.

You can read more about the evolution of the project on the Form and Reform site.
And dont forget to donate!

The latest piece on our loft project is the upstairs railing.
We made the stanchions in-house; cutting the aluminum and wood pieces on frank.

These are the aluminum side pieces. Just off the CNC and ready to be sanded, finished and assembled:

The wood centers. Glued up and ready to be dyed dark brown with our water based dying system:

And the aluminum top piece that will hold the rail itself:

All together, the final railing looks great.

Jeffrey and Sissily discuss their handy work.

A close up of the railing top.

A view from across the room.

The final addition will be a railing on the curved staircase.
More progress shots on that coming soon!

For a family with small children, we designed these window guards to go along the windows of their 8th floor flat.
Similar to the wooden window guards we made at another residence, except these are made of clear acrylic.

Made of clear acrylic, so we did not disrupt their amazing view of the city below. The acrylic is thick and sturdy and creates a wonderful subtle design.

The Window screens in the bedrooms are frosted acrylic, that catch the light beautifully and give more privacy.

The holes on either side of the window allow pegs to slot though to keep the windows up.

See our other window guard designs. And our Child and pet door designs too help round-out a baby-safe but good looking home.

So with our recent press, a common comment came up that goes something like this:

"Business shouldn't waste money on their offices".

To which we couldn't agree more. Businesses need spaces that work. More than that, they also need spaces that support their vision and agenda.

But at the same time, businesses need to keep things reasonable, and not spend money they don't really need to.

Now, you may think that some of our more creative offices we've done for companies are more folly than functional. However, let's take a closer look at one of our past projects: the offices of Three Rings.

Three Rings is a small creative game design studio. They live (and die) off of how good their people are. Unlike a big game company like EA, with armies of people, Three Rings is tiny, tight, and very talented. So one of the primary concerns with their office was to make it a place where their talent would love to work, and to make it a place other talented people would love to work at. This not only draws in talented people, but it makes them perform at their best.

Three Rings also really wanted to create a real place. Instead of an office people dreaded to be at, they wanted a place where everyone was happy to be. Since the new office was completed, it's not uncommon for everyone to spend a lot more time at the office, even if it's just playing games into the evening. Better teams, better relationships, and better communicate all come from happier people spending time together.

Another big concern was expression of vision. Instead of looking like every other game company with their seas of Ikea desks and dismal offices, Three Rings wanted to wear their hearts on their sleeves; to say loudly that they are a creative company like no other. Many talk about being innovative, yet few really follow through with that. Clearly communicating that is a key part of their marketing.

Finally, Three Rings wanted a clear way to express their vision of being a small yet terribly creative company to other companies and investors. They knew that any potential employee or VC that walked in the door and was scared off at how over-the-top the office is would very likely be someone that they wouldn't want to work with. By clearly showing their vision it's much easier for them to find other people who may share that vision and want to help make it bigger and better.

Study after study shows that a better office makes for more productive and happier people. And having an office that matches your company's vision is a vital part of marketing and communicating what your company is all about.

More productive people + happy workers + clear communication + vision = more money being made.

Or, you could look at it this way too:

Inefficient people + unhappy people + muddled marketing + no vision = bad business.

When you add into the fact that due to our special process and talented people here at Because We Can the cost of the Three Rings office was totally reasonable.

We were able to design and build the whole Three Rings office for less than it would have cost of nice-but-depressing office cubes.

Sure, it costs more than just parking everyone at an Ikea desk, but just think: that boring-but-normal office that's not much more than cubes, a break room, and maybe a ping-pong table could instead be a vibrant expression of your company's core. While also making everyone there more productive and happier. And making everyone more money!

So we agree: businesses shouldn't waste their money. Which is something a boring, poorly designed office actually does.

The Office we created for Three Rings Design was recently used in a SF Chronicle article to showcase how great office spaces retain employees. Here is an excerpt from the article:

Startup executives recognize that a nice office can also help keep employees. Daniel James, CEO of online game company Three Rings, said his unique office in the South of Market district contributes to the company's healthy retention rate.

After all, who would want to leave an office that looks like the Nautilus, the submarine from Jules Verne's "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea"? Complete with wood-carved workstations, dividers that look like giant portholes, a game room with 20-foot-long tentacle cushions, a bike-storage room that resembles a ship's engine room and a secret meeting area hidden behind a swinging bookshelf, Three Rings' office is one of the most creative in the city.

"The fact that we have a fantastical office is an expression of what we do as a company, which is making fantastical worlds," James said. "I think employees appreciate that we're willing to spend effort and money on giving them a creative work environment. We certainly have a good record - people tend to stick around in a very competitive market for talented people."

The office was designed by Oakland studio Because We Can, which specializes in custom projects.

"Companies who come to us have pride in what they do, so they want to encourage employees to get excited about where they work," said the studio's co-owner, Jillian Northrup."

We did that office over three years ago, and it still gets great press!

Read the whole article here

We are in the process of finishing up a library loft for a residential client.
They have very tall ceilings, so we've created a 2nd level with a cool spiral staircase.
A railing goes in next.

The lower level has a fold down desk with rolling storage bench.

The spiral stairs are made for display and storage (complete with a hidden secret panel!)

And the large closet to the right holds even yet more storage.

The railing that goes in next will be made of aluminum and dark stained Maple.
Check in again soon for final photos!
But for now.. here's a progress shot:

We recently finished up some additions to this little room in San Francisco.
Shelves to the ceiling with a built in desk, and now with a built in baby door!

This baby door has a shelf on top and an adorable little door, for the little tike.

Serving it's purpose to keep your little one in the room, and doing it in a stylish manner.

No end of fun with peek-a-boo games!

The little door opens up a grand adventure!

For dining time and crafts, we made this table with a sturdy butcher block top and decorative legs. The fun chairs have a lincoln head and a dear head carved in the backs.

We also helped reconfigure this stage backer we made for their wedding to work on the wall...

But the little door seems to be the biggest hit with the smallest man of the house!

For their 10th Anniversary, Wikipedia help meet-up parties all over the world.
We were lucky enough to go to the one in San Francisco, where they had this:

A cake modeled off of the wall logo we made for their office!

Except when you remove the pieces of the cake, they dont come back...

Happy Anniversary Wikipedia!

Perfect little blocks of hardwood act as a coffee table in this meeting space.

The Copenhagen chairs from Restoration Hardware and the Chelsea Sofa from Fashion4Home we picked for this room, turning it into a comfortable and functional meeting space.

The wood blocks were designed in house by us. Made of sustainably harvested Teak hardwood with a natural finish.

For a pair of young boys that will grow to love and enjoy this room.
Two desks, and two shelves. Design direction given by the boys, ages 5 and 9, our toughest clients yet! ;-).

With shelves to fit into the sloped ceiling of the room.

The desks have cord management holes and built in pencil trays.

The large drawers are made of a stacked rib construction, for extra durability.

With lots of storage room inside.

And, most importantly, there is a secret compartment behind each drawer.

That is, of course, the most important part of any kid's room!

One wonderful thing about having a robot that makes things is that it's pretty effortless to create for just the shear joy of it, and share that ability with others! A sign for a friend's wedding. A small detail in this beautifully picturesque landscape. A quote picked by the bride & groom welcomes the wedding guests and sets the tone. Sometimes it's the little things...

One of the best things about working for Because We Can is that we get to meet great people at great companies all the time. Most recently, we have been introduced to the wonderful company Bookrenter, who rents books to college students, saving them tons of money. What a great idea! Their website has a Tiki / tropical paradise / Polynesian Pop theme to it. So in helping them out with their office, we thought we should carry that theme through. Thus, the birth of the Tiki white board.... A staple in every Tiki themed office! A white board on one side, and a pin board and sound wall on the other. Covered in a fun decorative thatch, on red and white locking swivel wheels. The base of the Rolling white board is at an angle such that one can arrange these in any number of configurations up to a 90 degree turn. And the tray for markers and erasers is functional, and filled with cool wood joinery details. The thatch on either side is sprayed with a on-toxic fire retardant, to help prevent the wrath of the Fire Marshall gods... These can be used as partitions between desks, or just as rolling white boards within the office. This is the first round of Tiki-themed elements, there is much more to come!

A pair of brothers share this play room. As they get older, the play room requires a pair of desks. That is where we come in.... Meeting with the boys, we discussed what their perfect desk would look like, and then we made them. A desk for one side of the room, that cantilevers off the wall: And a desk for the other side with post legs: The edges made of layered, high end Europly (a sustainably harvested, no-formaldehyde added wood) There are secret compartments in the desks, of course we cannot tell you where. And more elements will be added to this room. So more on this one soon!

We've talked about the HelloLucky wedding (of Daniel and Eunice) here before, but we are going to spend a few blog posts going into detail on a few items we made for them. First off, The Stage! We had a few design challenges to solve with this particular stage design. The actual platform that everyone would be standing on was rented. So we did not want to attach our stage to it, not wanting to put any damaging holes in the rented part, and also not knowing exactly what this rented part was going to look like until we showed up on site, the day before the wedding. The second challenge was location. The ceremony was out in the middle of a field in Northern California, so everything had to be brought out there in parts, and then assembled. We wanted to make the assembly as fool proof and easy as possible. Finally, the middle of a field in Northern California can get a bit windy. The stage assembly had to be set up the day before the wedding, staying out in the field over night. We needed to make sure everything would still be standing the next morning, no matter the weather. And so the construction began. We basically made the stage out of big sturdy boxes that bolted together. Two people easily assembled and lifted the stage backer into place. And our sturdy back stage structure was created. The sides of the stage were then staked into the ground, so it would stay standing through the windy night. The decorative elements then clipped to the front. Hiding the back structure. A few screws were put in to make sure nothing moved. And the stage was up in no time. A beautiful backdrop for a fairy tale wedding!

The Three Rings office space in downtown San Francisco is a Jules Verne inspired space complete with portholes to the sea, a secret door and a lounge area made of giant attacking cephalopod arms. We created this space in 2006, and not only does it still look great, it is still getting press. Recently picked up by SuperEco, I think this is the first time this space has been called out for it's eco-friendly fabrication! All the walls and the interior decorative elements at Three Rings were painted with an Ultra-Low VOC paint. The wood finished were all water based dyes and water borne sealers. And no actual cephalopods were harmed in the creation of this office.

We recently worked on a San Francisco bar design, helping them with interior design consultation and furniture design and fabrication. And it is now open! Check out ShowDown Saloon on 6th and Market. When we first saw the bar it looked like this: Now it is open for business again... and looks like this! It is much brighter and more inviting now with the addition of some paint and mirrors. Sections of the walls were given a fun wall paper, and in this back corner we added some long upholstered bench seats and cocktail tables. The seats have a decorative pattern along the bottom... And the tables have a multi colored resin float top, showing off designs and text... We made a few other elements for the bar, such as table tops, drawer fronts and decorative molding. It's a cute little bar, and was a fun project!

That's right! We've made the Wikipedia puzzle globe in 3D! No glasses required.

We started out with a 3D model, manipulating the globe in Blender to be flattened so it could hang against a wall.

After creating a satisfactory version, we "sliced" the model in our CAM software, and set up the job to be cut on our CNC machine, Frank.

Using Trupan, a certified sustainably harvested fiber board that is very soft and mills well, we first made a prototype. Always, always first make a prototype.

Here at BWC, we only use certified sustainably harvested woods, as we want to ensure there will be those far in the future making wonderful things like this. As you can see from the prototype, the globe was milled on the machine in horizontal slices, then built up into it's final shape. We created the globe to have two removable puzzle pieces. You can see one here in the final large version...

At this point the globe has been glued up and sanded down. Next, many repetitions of primer, sealing and sanding occurred, which eventually gave us this:

A smooth surface, with the letters and the puzzle piece lines well formed. A full day and a half of hand painting was next up. We wanted the globe to have a very rich, tactile look to it. Hand painting is the only way.

The letters and puzzle lines were painted in with meticulous care. The final globe has two removable puzzle pieces, and is coated with a waterborne lacquer to protect it from greasy finger prints. (We only use water based and water borne finishes here at Because We Can)

And now for a quick demonstration:

The Wikipedia Globe in 3D, brought to you by Because We Can!

Huzzah! We just finished up a conference table for Penny Arcade, and we're totally jazzed about how it came out. Excelsior!

To make it even better, it costs the same as a normal boring 'mid-level' large (it's 16' long) conference table from an office furniture store. Take that, Ikea and DWR.com!

Heck, honestly we were really excited to do something for Penny Arcade. We love their online comic, and we're hoping to make it to PAX someday, but what we really love is the Child's Play charity. Class act all around. We pitched several ideas for their table, and in the end they choose to go with a 'Twisp & Catsby' theme.

We simply loved the two part comic they did with the moon, so we used that dream-like aesthetic as the basis for our table. The table is maple, the inlay of the characters is teak, and the rest is done in colored resin, which really brings the table to life. And in more ways than one, for the moon glows in the dark!

We didn't tell them we were gonna do that. They knew that the moon would be blue, but we also made it glow in the dark (and glow it does, it's pretty bright!) and then just shipped it to them as a surprise! You can see the glow at the end of this 'making of' video we did. Enjoy!