I wanted this back in the 60s when it first came out. It was reissued a couple years ago and I finally bought it. I never had the right place for it in Eau Claire but am enjoying it a lot in my Madison office.

uten.silo
Designed by Dorothee Becker, 1969

Uten.Silo is one of the best-known plastic designs of the late 1960s. Today, this colorful wall tidy is a veritable design icon and a true-to-the-original version of the product has now been reissued by Vitra Design Museum.

At the end of the 1960s plastic was on its way to becoming one of the dominant design materials. In Italy designers such as Joe Colombo and Vico Magistretti designed bright and cheerful furniture, luminaires and consumer goods for innovative manufacturers such as Artemide and Kartell. With Bofinger Chair and Panton Chair the first seats made entirely of plastic appeared. At the same time in Munich Ingo Maurer, who had already attracted attention with his "Bulb" luminaire, launched a plastic wall tidy which created quite a stir --Uten.Silo.

Uten.Silo was designed by Maurer's wife, Dorothee Becker. With its differently-shaped and sized pockets, its metal hooks and clips Uten.Silo organizes offices, kitchens, bathrooms and children's rooms. The tension between industrial precision and playful variety, between logical organization and humorous design makes Uten.Silo a highly functional design which also allows plastic to be put to a sensible use.

It is kind of weird but I will always take plastic over wood. And John and I joke that I never saw a piece of wood that I didn't want to paint. Uten.silo also comes in black and white. And it comes in a smaller size too. Buy why go small when you can go big. Andy why go black or white when you can go red.