Natalie Chanin is the founder and creative director of Alabama Chanin. Her work has been featured in Vogue, Time, the New York Times, and Town & Country, as well as CBS news. She is the author of Alabama Stitch Book (STC Craft, 2007), Alabama Studio Style (STC Craft, 2007), and Alabama Studio Sewing + Design (STC Craft, 2012). Natalie is a member of the Council of Fashion Designers of America, and her work was selected for the 2010 Global Triennial exhibition, “Why Design Now?” by the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum. She works from her hometown of Florence, Alabama, as an entrepreneur, designer, writer, collector of stories, filmmaker, mother, gardener, and cook.

In 2003, together with her husband, Robin Petravic, Catherine purchased Heath Ceramics at the end of a quest to build a more satisfying and tangible design life that brought back together the aspects of designing and making. Since that time, Catherine has led the company to become recognized as a design leader and model for bringing together manufacturing, design, and responsible business practices as a combination leading to long-term business viability.

Today she works to steer Heathʼs concepts, product and brand direction while honoring the history and craft of Edith Heath. In addition to overseeing all design, PR, and guiding Heathʼs exposure, she also shares responsibility for setting the overall company direction and vision. Under her direction, Heath Ceramics has received the Henry award from the California Museum of Design in 2007; Bon Appetitʼs Designer of the Year award in 2008; and has been a finalist for the Cooper-Hewitt National Design award in corporate achievement in 2011 and 2009.

Prior to her work at Heath, Catherine founded a product design consultancy – One & Co. (1995) and grew the company into an industrial design consultancy with new focus that looked at products from a lifestyle perspective while providing engineering to back up their innovations. She became known for her ability to provide solutions that connected products to culture and made them desirable to customers. Her clients ranged from Microsoft and Palm to Burton Snowboards and Apple. Prior to founding One and Co., Catherine was a footwear designer at Nike in Portland Oregon.

Catherine holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Industrial Design from Syracuse University, and also has studied environmental design and fine arts.

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Krrb was created by AREA 17, an interactive agency in New York City and Paris, France. Krrb is an online venue made exclusively for local and in-person commerce. Krrb’s mission is to create a fun, friendly, and safe online venue to buy, sell, trade, and give to your neighbors – both locally and in-person. It is like an online garage sale, block sale, flea market and local classifieds where second-handers, crafters, collectors, designers, artisanal local food-makers and common folks can easily connect – taking advantage of all that the internet has to offer – while retaining a personal and face-to-face relationship. Krrb puts you at the center of your stomping ground and displays all that your neighbors have to offer. 

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