The Rise and Fall of Design Within Reach.

Once upon a time, way back in the 1990s, America was a land of design philistines. Dwell and Domino didn’t exist. On TV, people didn’t trade spaces, nor did straight guys have queer eyes to help them remake their post-frat-boy apartments. Many of us still thought Ray Eames was a man.

No company has been more responsible for America’s awareness of modern design than Design Within Reach. Long before I made the decision to attend graduate school for interior design, it was DWR that taught me the difference between Eero Saarinen and Eero Aarnio. But according to Fast Company, DWR is in trouble.

It’s disappointing to see a market-defining company lose the ideals that made them influential in the first place: overextending their brand, focusing on storefronts at the expense of Internet sales, even resorting to design knockoffs—a cardinal sin in an industry where authenticity is currency.

(via Kottke)