Do you knoll?

The order and reason behind expertly displayed things

Friday! Thanks for reading another free story here at J ROBERT CLARK - Makes. ~JRC

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Knolling is half the battle.

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A few days ago, I watched a video where someone dismantled a laptop computer and then arranged the parts for display. You've undoubtedly seen similar efforts. It turns out the technique is frequently used in advertising, design, and engineering. I always knew it as an "exploded" view, akin to technical parts drawings in equipment manuals. But this process, when applied to real objects in the real world, can be more than an arranged view. It's also a practical maker philosophy known as "knolling."

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Knolling, at its simplest, is the act of laying out objects in a geometric pattern, often at right angles (sometimes called “flat lay”). It's popular these days on Instagram, Pinterest, and other image-sharing sites. While aesthetically pleasing, it also can have a purpose. That purpose is to find and use whatever is laid out.

Andrew Kromelow first executed and described the technique in the 1980s while working as a janitor in furniture designer Frank Gehry's shop. Each evening, he would tidy up the space, leaving any left-out tools arranged. Kromelow's arrangements were far from random; he had an eye for symmetry and painstakingly set the tools to make them convenient. The process helped designers pick up where they left off. And it soon became a trend.

The name? That came about because Kromelow was there when Gehry was making chairs for Knoll Furniture, known for Florence Knoll's iconic geometric designs. Kromelow thought his layout method looked similar to Knoll's furniture, and thus named the process "knolling." It was later popularized by artist Tom Sacks who also worked in Gehry's shop around this time.

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Knolling, convoluted origin story aside, is an excellent way to get a handle on complex environments. A shop is one such place, as Kromelow devised; the plethora of tools and materials here requires a system to manage it. Sure, putting stuff away is helpful. But if you need to leave things out, at least systematically leave them out. Knolling is thus a management system, rendering a space accessible in all its parts.

Inside computer housings and car engine bays are two other examples where knolling is vital. Suppose you've disassembled something in either, only to lose a screw or forget where a small part goes. In such cases, knolling could have saved you; placing pieces in geometric ways when disassembled aids in putting them all back together.

As such, knolling is not only about what we use to work, but it's also about what we work on. A knolled workflow is like a set of Russian dolls. Each layer of organization - from space to tools to parts - encapsulates the next and is always accessible from within the former.

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I've been knolling for years but for the longest time never knew it was called this. Maybe someone suggested it, but not by name. Or perhaps it finally occurred to me on my own but I never connected it as knolling. Either way, after having too many screws come up lost, I figured out that arranging parts outside my projects helped me keep track of what’s going on inside. Knolling, I was.

This is the genius of knolling - it's intuitive. A well-knolled set of things makes sense. Knolling makes sense. And so long as we adhere to the system, knolling is knowing.

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Give knolling a try with your next project. It's fun to lay things out and see them on display. Better still, it's functional. So take a pic or two, and if you’re so inclined, post these on a favorite site. I’d love to see them. But most importantly, enjoy whatever you are making as you knoll. It will go a lot more smoothly, without a doubt.

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Until next time.

JRC