Movers and Shapers

Peter Bressler and Michael Flanagan, Bresslergroup
2400 Market Street, 215-561-5100, bresslergroup.com

Peter Bressler and his team make things. Not things on paper, or on the Web, or on canvas. They make sturdy, useable, physical objects finely designed to work — and to be lovely, like his table saw that’s as carefully honed as an industrial sculpture. In 30-plus years in Philadelphia, Bresslergroup has seen the city’s industrial sector all but disappear and its design community grow — though perhaps a bit more quietly than Flanagan, for one, would like. “The city is underappreciated as a creative center,” he says. In past years, Bresslergroup has opened its studio during DesignPhiladelphia, exhibiting sketches and other examples of its process as well as prototypes of some medical devices, tools and instruments the company has created.

Best known for: Tools for Black & Decker and DeWalt, including a table saw that won two industrial design awards, and an award-winning vocal smoke detector that allows parents to record their voices into the alarm.

What they’re doing this year: As members of the Designers Accord, an international consortium of designers working to lessen their clients’ impact on the environment, Bressler and Flanagan are hosting Designers Accord founder Valerie Casey, from industrial-design giant Ideo, to talk about ways to push sustainability in design. October 21st, 6 p.m. cocktail reception and studio tour, 7 p.m. lecture. Bresslergroup, 2400 Market Street.