This article originally appeared in CityHome 2014.

By PATRICK LANGSTON

Designers too often over-complicate products by piling on features, says Ian Murchison, co-founder, with Rohan Thakar, of the start-up industrial design firm The Federal Inc. Hence the sleek functionality and buoyant good looks of the colourful Loop, The Federal’s rubber-based bike stand (it was a chance to use materials in a new way, says Thakar) that’s coming soon, we hope, to a street near you. Ditto the Xero Golf Towel with its waterproof smartphone pocket, absorbent towel for wiping sweaty hands or brows, and scrub pad for cleaning golf-club heads and balls. (more…)