Etymology: In 1987, in the quiet after-hours at Frank Gehry’s furniture shop, a janitor named Andrew Kromelow invented what has become one of the most ubiquitous aesthetics on Instagram today. As Kromelow cleaned Gehry’s shop, he would gather stray tools and experiment with arranging them in a grid-like pattern. He called the practice “knolling, ” after the hard angles of Knoll furniture, a popular brand that Gehry was designing for at the time. Today, knolling more often refers to the This story is from Kinfolk Issue Forty-Three Buy Now Related Stories Arts & Culture Issue 51 WORD: CRINGE A foray into the awkward. Arts & Culture Issue 50 Word: Dupe On the next best thing. Arts & Culture Issue 49 Word: Zeitgeber A new treatise on time. Arts & Culture Issue 48 Word: Kaloprosopia A word that celebrates the masks we wear. Arts & Culture Issue 47 Word: Döstädning A Swedish solution to the mess of death. Arts & Culture Issue 46 Word: Wintering When to withdraw from the world.
