The irresistible design site TrustMeDesigner.com is a strange and delightful thing. Every day the site features photos of fun, functional and sometimes utterly frivolous objects–and invites you to share them. It’s an archetypal fan page–and stays true to the mission, stating that “the main purpose of the page is to share content that is interesting and inspiring to designers and those who enjoy design.” Often, you won’t even find links to where you can buy the stuff. Occasionally the site doesn’t even credit a design’s creator! It’s mostly just here, look at this. Cool and decidedly uncommercial, it’s been enormously effective in spreading the word–or the pictures anyway. (Nearly 700,000 Facebook Likes means the cool designs pass in front of many a covetous eye.) Where else do you consistently find eccentric rubber-necking inventions like a pair of black dinner shoes lined with dentures instead of typical soles? But if you think after seeing it you just can’t live without, say, a fold-able couch/sleeping bag nicknamed the Taco Sleeper, you’re on your own trying to track one down. Of course, some of the designers get the eyeballs and the credit–cool chairs called ‘J Family’ by E&J Design Studio stand out. But the main thing here is just look, love and pass it on.
The man behind Trust Me, I’m a Designer is Ondrej Chudy. A trained architect from Prague, Chudy is not only enthusiastic about design, he is also a social media maverick. His network of URLs includes: Trust Me, I’m a…Foodie, Traveler, Web Designer, Real Man, and more. Needless to say, he knows what people like. It’s just what he does.
