What’s Happening: Sustainable pet products brand Earth Rated enlists Layer to refresh their line of compostable waste bags and conceive five toys with modern-day owners in mind.

The Download: It’s easy to assume that dogs are content with life’s bare necessities, but that never quite sufficed for Abby Gnanendran. In 2009, he co-founded the pet products brand Earth Rated to provide biodegradable, plastic waste bags to service the burgeoning $55 billion pet industry. That, and give peace of mind to doting pet owners who treat their four-legged friends like family and are aware of the environmental implications of responsible dog waste disposal. The market matured over the past decade as pollution concerns deepened and primped-up pooches started doing numbers online, so Earth Rated sought another rebrand.

That’s where Layer, the London industrial design firm founded by Benjamin Hubert, came in to freshen up Earth Rated’s branding and add five new toys to its repertoire. “The new products are all highly durable, cost-effective, and mindful of the planet,” Hubert says. “They need to be, because effectively dogs are aiming to destroy them.” The doggy bags didn’t need major upgrades—they still employ post-consumer recycled plastic but now act as a “billboard” for Earth Rated’s crisp, sans-serif logo as the bag unrolls from a ribbed green holder.

The toys are where Layer’s intervention truly shines. Each dishwasher-safe natural rubber toy deftly combines fun and function while showcasing Layer’s signature minimalism. “We made a conscious effort to avoid clichéd-shape languages that are overused in the pet-toy market,” Hubert says, referring to bones and hydrants. The Chew Toy mimics a bone’s general shape while adding compartments to stuff treats inside; ribbed textures are easily gripped by paws and teeth. The Fetch Toy’s two intersecting volumes yield unpredictable bounces when thrown. Along with the Fly Toy, it comes in a bright yellow shade—one of the few colors visible to dogs, and one that can help humans easily locate it in grass or brush.

In Their Own Words: “When designing for dogs, you also consider the parent purchasing the toys and initiating the play,” Katie Lim, a designer for Bark, tells Creative Boom. “We also think about where the toys are played with. How would this perform inside a house? We also focus a lot on the variety we can offer to dogs. As you get to know them more, you realize that every dog is different in behavior and play styles.”

Surface Says: High-end design is still going to the dogs, and still in a good way.

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Independent, an invite-only art fair that prioritizes quality over sheer scale, is returning on September 7. The fair has cultivated a reputation for showcasing works by anyone from early-career local talents to museum-caliber names. Having earned its reputation as a true insider’s event, this year is no exception, offering attendees the opportunity to get up close and personal with megawatt talents like Andy Warhol and Pablo Picasso along with the underknown: Marie Laurencin, one of the few women artists associated with Cubism, and self-taught Winfred Rembert, who turned harrowing memories of the Jim Crow South into deeply affecting carved leather tableaux.

Another surefire highlight comes from James Fuentes Gallery, which will be presenting selections from the estate of Ed Baynard. The midcentury painter, who died in 2016, enjoyed past lives as a graphic designer for the Beatles and a costume designer for Jimi Hendrix before making a career painting abstracted flowers and ceramics reminiscent of Japanese woodblock prints. Baynard’s predilection for delicate lines and sparse, monochromatic backgrounds offers a glimpse into the duality of the vivacious man-about-Downtown and the harmony he found in aesthetic restraint.

Liverpool’s Milanese-style San Carlo restaurant has been reborn through a masterful refurbishment by design studio Fettle, which drew inspiration from northern Italy’s coastline. The color palette, a blend of greens, blues, and pinks, is softened by contrasting materials like timber, brass, and marble, and patterned upholstery crafted from mohair and leather. Custom lighting casts an intimate glow, while colorful terrazzo flooring and high-gloss timber paneling add touches of charm. The furniture, mirroring the grandeur of Milanese villas, and abstract murals by Los Angeles–based artist Jessalyn Brooks, complete the transformation. The former onsite bank vault has been converted into the glimmering Rosa Room. The tagliolini lobster? The regular-favorite dish is back along with a slew of new delights.

An annual bellwether of creative talent, the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum’s National Design Awards program is in its 24th year of giving recognition to the myriad ways in which design betters everyday life. Each year, innovators in the fields of architecture, fashion, climate action, and more are recognized for their contributions to their respective fields. This year’s jury evaluated each contender with climate and social responsibility in mind.

This year’s winners include the illustrator and graphic designer Seymour Chwast (Design Visionary); materials firm Biomason’s carbon-harnessing, bacteria-grown biocement (Climate Action); typographer and AR designer Beatriz Lozano (Emerging Talent); civic-minded firm nARCHITECTS (Architecture); creative director Arem Duplessis (Communication Design), Clement Mok (Digital Design), a graphic designer and part of the launch team for Apple’s first Macintosh; Naeem Khan (Fashion Design), whose dresses have been worn by the likes of former First Lady Michelle Obama; arts-minded studio The Archers (Interior Design); pioneering ecologist Kongjian Yu (Landscape Architecture), and Atlason, the studio behind some of the internet’s most beloved furniture and homewares (Product Design).

When Mary MacGill was a teenager, she would drink tea with her mentor, the late stone jewelry designer Kazuko Oshima, an experience that solidified a lifelong desire to follow in her footsteps. That led to an early stint at David Yurman before returning to her hometown in Rhode Island, where she truly discovered her artistic voice and began hammering gold and weaving wire with semi-precious stones. She now spearheads her own lifestyle brand out of Germantown that both acts as an atelier for her handmade jewelry and showcases the objects, clothing, and artworks that inspire them.

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Suite NY is a midcentury modern and contemporary furniture showroom open to the trade and the public. The brand’s 8,000-square-foot showroom in New York City’s NoMAD district displays a meticulously curated collection of iconic European designs alongside pieces from up-and-coming international designers.

Surface Says: Bringing together international designers across all disciplines, Suite NY’s curated showroom puts forth the very best of the best in midcentury modern and contemporary design.

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