UM’s Jottable: A Table That Captures Creativity
Jottable. Designed by UM for The Brooklyn Brothers.
Jottable does what its name suggests: offers a place to jot down your ideas and diagram your concepts. These brief (and hurriedly handwritten) notes often end up on napkins, paper, and various other scraps - that often end up lost and forgotten. With Jottable, they’re impossible to misplace. It is a dry-erase table to be used at the office, at home, at school, or pretty much anywhere; for independent work or collaboration. Beyond serving as a functional piece of furniture, Jottable is a tool to capture instants of creativity.
Jottable was developed by Brooklyn-based UM for London-based ad agency The Brooklyn Brothers. In addition to being used in the Brooklyn Brothers offices, they will launch the table as a private label (following similar ventures they have undertaken with products such as Fat Pig chocolate and book publishing) at ICFF this Spring. Sophisticated and smart, Jottable is a clean-lined, modern-take on writeable tables and boards - which often are too cheap and childish in aesthetic to function in environments other than the playroom. The graphic line of dots on its surface serve as the holdes to contain markers; colored end-stretchers add an element of surprise; and the architectonic quality of the joint (connecting the top, stretchers and legs) provides additional aesthetic appeal.
Designer Pages, with the recent office-space expansion, now has a writable wall (the dry-erase board typology): a massive wall whose purpose is collaborative brainstorming, in the coolest way possible. It provides entertainment, reminders, and clarity. Imagine the data Designer Pages programmers (coined Wizards) sprawl over this massive surface. Consider the work we could get done around a surface, where everyone could collaborate and discuss at once. Productivity would reign.
The table is made of a porcelain-enameled steel top (effectively a dry-erase board), color powder-coated aluminum end stretchers, ash legs and apron frame finished with water-based lacquer. The standard size is 72”L x 36”W x 29.5”H, but it can be customized on demand.
Comments
I love this table, great spot to brainstorm or just doodle while working.
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How would you prevent the skectchs from getting messed up from your own elbows or forearms which would rest on the table? Instead, I wouldn`t mind sticking a rough sheet of paper on a flat surface and use it untill its all filled with doodles and eventually store it for future reference..!
Co2Neutral - Thanks for the comment! Smudging could be an issue, but I think that the guy in the first image demos quite well! In my mind, the benefit of this table is that it can be a lot more collaborative than your rough sheets of paper - a larger surface that everyone can sit around and brainstorm at together. Although it may be more of a personal issue, my sheets of paper often don’t end up “stored” in the best way possible.
It’s a great concept but the thing that would frustrate me is the impermanence of the sketches / ideas documented - at least with a napkin it can be scanned or copied or a piece of paper can be stored for later reference.. If I had this table I would probably put a large piece of paper over it to doodle most of the time (really what I do with my white working tables already…)
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