GRID CITY
A Pen Organizer Inspired by Manhattan
Grid City is a sculptural pen organizer that reimagines the Manhattan street grid as a vessel for creativity. Designed by Berk Ilhan, the piece transforms New York’s iconic layout into a tactile object, functional, architectural, and quietly emotional.
What began as a simple sketch during a souvenir concept exploration became something more. Ilhan found himself returning to the map of Manhattan, drawn again and again, until the grid shifted in meaning. The streets became structure, the blocks became pockets, and the city turned into something that could hold ideas. Pens stood where buildings would rise, forming a small desktop skyline shaped by memory.
Refined through 3D-printed iterations and finished using waterjet-cut techniques, each piece balances precision and warmth. Grid City was selected for the 2025 NYCxDESIGN Souvenir Exhibition and shown during New York Design Week as a celebration of both place and process.
For Ilhan, who has lived in New York for over a decade, Grid City carries personal meaning. It holds the rhythms of late nights walking home from school, weekends designing at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, and the moment he rode the subway in wedding clothes with his partner, cheered on by strangers. It is, at once, an object of use and a vessel of memory—a small monument to the city that shaped him.
