How to Keep a Fresh and Tidy Home, According to a Trailblazing Vacuum Designer

Joseph Guerra, founder of Airsign and Guerra Office, offers his tips and tricks for cleaning house.
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Joseph Guerra is no stranger to award-winning design. The industrial designer and founder of Guerra Office has produced highly lauded work with clients around the world—from Fortune 100 companies to heritage furniture, lighting, and electronics brands. As the founder of the newly launched start-up, Airsign, Guerra is setting his sights on the next generation of home appliances—and his first offering, a HEPA vacuum cleaner, aims to be the most sustainable product of its kind on the market.

"For a clean house, I highly recommend a vacuum cleaner that purifies and filters your floors, as well as your air," he says. "A vacuum cleaner that looks great is a bonus, too." We recently chatted with Guerra about this pioneering product—and the others he counts on at home.

Joseph Guerra is an industrial designer and the founder of Airsign and Guerra Office.

Joseph Guerra is an industrial designer and the founder of Airsign and Guerra Office.

"For organization, I recommend Bent boxes, which my team and I designed for Normann Copenhagen. Featuring soft colors, they are simple and charming and perfect catchalls for everyday use. Made of bentwood like the name implies, the boxes feature clever stackability for optimal organization."

Normann Copenhagen Bent Box
Normann Copenhagen Bent Box
Bent is a collection of small geometric boxes in molded Birch Veneer. Inspired by Japanese bento boxes, Bent can be used to store anything from jewelry and make-up to spices in the kitchen. The small boxes can be stacked, allowing you to create a personal storage system. 

"I’m a big collector of magazines, and I found that most magazine racks didn’t really do it for me. The Kartell magazine rack has an amazing character and energy to it, brimming with Italian postmodern optimism. Plus, it also holds a lot of large-format mags."

Kartell Magazine Rack
Kartell Magazine Rack
This classic of Italian design is a 4-pocket Magazine Rack featuring a central handle for ease of lifting. The shape is essential and decidedly practical. It is a beautiful object which can be slotted into any setting.

"I organize our bath products in these Japanese buckets. They keep things tidy and slightly concealed, because I’m not a huge fan of seeing product labels. Wood in the bathroom is always a nice touch. Also, these buckets are traditionally used to actually hold water and bathe with—I’d recommend that too!"


Hinoki Stainless Steel Bath Bucket
Hinoki Stainless Steel Bath Bucket
I am a Hinoki Stainless Steel Bath Bucket. What they say about taking a bath to relax rings true. On days when you feel that you don't have nerves of steel, I will work to help calm and soothe.

"The Dims Barbican trolley is another product we designed. It’s a multifunctional bar cart and storage system. It helps keep my items neat and well organized with its two storage tiers, and its tapered shape suits objects of different heights. The wheels make it easy to move around the room when I switch tables and work surfaces, and the handle makes it simple to tuck it under a desk and pull it out when needed."

Dims. Barbican Trolley II
Dims. Barbican Trolley II
An architectural riff on the bar cart. Though it’s suave enough to anchor a happy hour, Barbican doubles as a storage cart or extra prep space in the kitchen.       

"We use wooden magnetic knife racks to hold our knives and other steel cooking utensils. They mount to the kitchen wall seamlessly, and nicely display our Japanese knives (and more). They’re super useful while cooking, and they help us store these tools conveniently."


The Hairpin Leg Company Magnetic Wooden Knife Rack
The Hairpin Leg Company Magnetic Wooden Knife Rack
Crafted from solif hardwood in either Walnut, Cherry, Maple or Oak for a durable surface that will stand the test of time while bringing the warmth of high quality timber.

"We designed the Cleancult container system to be a modular, scalable set of refillable cleaning items. The jars are shatterproof glass with silicone lids. You can put laundry/dishwasher tablets inside, or store whatever else suits you. The pump and sprayer designs are great for Cleancult soaps and surface cleaners, but can also be filled with any other cleaning liquid, such as vinegar and water solutions. Also, its triangular shapes allow for easy nesting once stacked together, as well as seamless alignment with the back of your countertop."

Cleancult Refillable Tablet Jar
Cleancult Refillable Tablet Jar
Store up to 32 of our dishwasher tablets in this stylish, refillable jar.

"The best organizational system I could ever recommend is the Vitsoe 606 Universal shelving system designed by Dieter Rams. Simple, modular, and incredibly customizable, the system clads an entire wall in our studio. I use the shelves to hold our product models, prototypes, and books. We’ve also used the shelves to create a mini closet, a kitchenette, and a desk."

How to Keep a Fresh and Tidy Home, According to a Trailblazing Vacuum Designer - Photo 2 of 2 -

"For a clean house, I highly recommend a vacuum cleaner that purifies and filters your floors, as well as your air. A vacuum cleaner that looks great is an additional bonus, too. My company, Airsign, represents the next new generation of aesthetically pleasing and well-designed home appliances built with user experience in mind. We just launched a HEPA filter vacuum cleaner made of 20% recycled plastic, and its biodegradable bags mean it leaves no waste behind."

Airsign HEPA Vacuum
Airsign HEPA Vacuum
The powerful future of clean has arrived. Our high-performance, well-designed and sustainably-crafted vacuum will reinvent your clean and help you love where you live.

"I found a very special rug that’s super soft and has a large woven wool texture. Wool is the most forgiving and easiest fiber to clean and maintain. I find it helps mute sound in my apartment, and—of course—vacuum it often to keep it white. Wool doesn’t attract lint, so vacuum cleaning is easier on this rug."

Design Within Reach Graham Rug, Smoke
Design Within Reach Graham Rug, Smoke
The Graham Rug (2016) was designed by Anu Gupta, chief creative officer for Obeetee, one of the largest rug manufacturers in India. It’s meticulously woven from heathered wool yarns for depth and natural texture, with a basket weave in a neutral tone suitable for most any space.

"I also love the Min table from Design Within Reach, which we use as a dining table. It’s a centerpiece in our home where we love to entertain—and sometimes a desk when I work from home. Its multifunctionality helps keep me organized while serving as an anchor in our house."

Design Within Reach Min Table
Design Within Reach Min Table
In 1972, the work of Luciano Bertoncini was included alongside fellow Italian designers in a landmark exhibition at MoMA, which launched his career.

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