Interview about Santorini Convertible Crib, winner of the A' Baby, Kids and Children's Products Design Award 2025
Inspired by the beautiful landscapes surrounding him, Storkcraft’s own Justin L. Segal sketched the idea of the Santorini crib while vacationing with his pregnant wife. Today, Justin's first-born child, Rafaela Juliana, sleeps in this very crib that was designed specially for her. With the Santorini, Justin hopes to pass on the love that went into bringing this bespoke nursery heirloom to life. Embodying the curves of the Aegean coastline and evoking airiness and tranquility, the Santorini was born to serve as a calming presence in the nursery.
View detailed images, specifications, and award details on A' Design Award & Competition website.
View Design DetailsDashiell Corvin-Brittin: While developing the Santorini crib, we explored the subtle proportions of different-sized materials and considered how it would impact the crib's form and function. Good fortune met even better aesthetics when we landed on the final dimensions of Santorini’s bold lines. The size of the posts and rails—coupled with the Santorini's iconic curved joints—carried both visual and structural strength. However, even then, refinement was still needed. Early concepts of the Santorini had the rounded corner joints as individual components. While this celebrated the joining, it provided too great of stress during our rigorous product safety testing processes. By eliminating one of the seams, we were able to accomplished greater strength in the crib, while also being able to emphasize a more elegant flow in the design.
Justin L. Segal: Like the late design legend Virgil Abloh said, “Whenever I’m doing a collection, I’m inspired by the world around us.” The Santorini crib's curved base and two-tone colourways were my way of paying tribute to the island of Santorini's iconic blue-domed, white houses. It was important to me that the Santorini crib would remain open on all sides, to evoke feelings of lightness and airiness. With the island of Santorini being strongly associated with romance, I wanted the crib to capture the emotions of love and harmony where the crib's curved body and curved base meet. In the words of my hero, Pharrell Williams, "The element of harmony is super important." If I had to sum up the Santorini in one word, it would be "harmony".
Justin L. Segal: At Storkcraft, we have committed to achieving GREENGUARD Gold Certified status for our entire line of baby cribs. Lately, we have placed more of a focus on design but safety is—and will always be—paramount in Storkcraft's design ethos. With the Santorini being GREENGUARD Gold Certified, it means that it has been screened for more than 10,000 chemicals and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that are known to pollute indoor air. Storkcraft is committed to ensuring that families not only love what the Santorini will bring to their nursery from an aesthetic perspective, but also know that the Santorini has been rigorously tested for safety. From a sustainability perspective, it's all about longevity — multi-stage use throughout the many stages of childhood. The Santorini will continue to serve families well beyond the crib years, as it seamlessly transforms into a toddler bed (premium, longer-length toddler safety guardrail included), daybed, and full bed. It's our way of ensuring the Santorini is not a piece of disposable, one-time-use furniture, and our promise of longevity to the family that has chosen the Santorini.
Justin L. Segal: The Santorini is such a unique crib within our extensive portfolio of baby cribs. It truly stands out from from a design perspective, an engineering perspective, and also from the perspective of how it came to be. It is a crib with a soul — a "father-daughter love story". As the Santorini represented a departure from Storkcraft's past designs—a major step forward for the company in terms of boundary-pushing design—I felt that the Santorini should provide families with more in terms of value. The Santorini is intended to be a calming presence within the nursery, so I wanted to provide families with all of the pieces they would need in order to transform the Santorini into a toddler bed. Including the guardrail was my way of encouraging families to utilize the Santorini's convertibility, as opposed to just saying goodbye to it after the child outgrew the crib. To quote the great Ralph Lauren, “I’m interested in longevity, timelessness, style – not fashion.” The Santorini embodies longevity and timelessness with its convertibility and included toddler guardrail, as well its trend-proof style that will last the test of time.
Dashiell Corvin-Brittin: We are fortunate to work within a space that has such rigorous and well-defined safety parameters. From concept of product to delivering the final product into the family's home, we work tirelessly to meet, and exceed, those important safety parameters. With the Santorini's unique design, we had to carefully consider every step, necessitating that a customized, Santorini-specific toddler safety guardrail was included with every Santorini crib. This extra-long, premium guardrail brought even more functionality and added safety to the product.
Justin L. Segal: Firstly, thank you for this question — because that's exactly it. "Sophisticated aesthetics while maintaining accessibility for mainstream markets" — that was exactly the vision with the Santorini, and something that now guides our product development mission at Storkcraft. When preparing for parenthood, there are so many investments that a family must make. I would see all of these beautiful cribs in the market with price tags that were unrealistic for most families to be able to afford. The thought of a family having to sacrifice other important purchases just to get the crib they loved just didn't sit right with me. The nursery is so important from an energy perspective — I wanted the intimate moments of parent-child bonding to be surrounded by positive vibes, and for parents to take pride in the nursery they put together. I mean, the most important thing in the world—your newborn—is asleep in the crib. The crib is the heart of the nursery, and I wanted parents to be filled with pride and awe when admiring their crib. The purpose of the Santorini was to democratize high-end nursery furniture.
Justin L. Segal: In its own unique way, the Santorini somehow manages to blend lightness with sturdiness. It was important to me that the Santorini would remain open on all sides — not just to evoke feelings of airiness, but also to provide parents a clearer glimpse into the crib from all angles. As a father, I love being able to peek into my daughter's nursery and see her from the doorway. The Santorini's open sides allow for that, no matter how the crib is positioned in the nursery.
Justin L. Segal: In the words of Lenny Kravitz, “Love, creativity, and opportunity is in the air. Take it in and do your thing.” That's how the Santorini came to be: it was born out of soaking in the beauty around me, and sketched on a napkin while I was in a complete state of love, relaxation, and calmness — three emotions I feel should ideally fill a nursery. I am grateful to work with such talented professionals—Dashiell Corvin-Brittin and Chris Wyman—whom I was able to trust with bringing my sketch to life.Dashiell Corvin-Brittin: From that sketch the iteration process began with an as-drawn recreation of the sketch — trying to capture the original spirit of Justin's concept. From there, refinements were made within the realms of safety, materials, manufacturability, and design aesthetics. With close collaboration between Justin, Chris (Vice President of Sourcing, Testing & Compliance), and myself, the options and opportunities were carefully weighed. The final choice that was presented to our manufacturing partners honoured the original sketch, while meeting all requirements for a safe, time-tested children's product. Passion shaped each step.
Justin L. Segal: The fact that I designed the Santorini while my wife was pregnant—while I was preparing to become a first-time father—made me approach the design process in an even more intimate way. I knew I wanted the Santorini to be open on all sides, so I could see Rafaela from any angle when peaking into her nursery. I knew I wanted hidden hardware, so the Santorini would embody that key element of calmness. And, lastly, I wanted to include a toddler guardrail — because becoming a parent is stressful enough, and I wanted parents to have everything they needed right out of the box with the Santorini.
Justin L. Segal: I'm sorry for constantly quoting Pharrell Williams, but I always feel the need to pay tribute to his brilliance, as he has inspired me in so many ways — all the way back to when I was in Grade 7. One of his quotes is, "You are one of one. None before and none to come. That what makes you different, makes you beautiful." By focusing on the beauty of the world around us, and by having incredible partners in design like Dash and Chris, Storkcraft is able to bring to life one-of-one concepts — designed with purpose, vision, and passion. The baby and children's furniture industry is such a rewarding one to be a creator in, because we're tasked with bringing beauty into the most important spaces for families, during life's most exciting and love-filled time: parenthood. The Santorini has been followed up by the recently-launched Casablanca, which I designed for my future second child, and the upcoming Sicily and Amalfi cribs. On behalf of Storkcraft's entire product development team, we cannot wait to continue to bring love, happiness, and positive energy to families across North America through our "one of one" nursery and kids' furniture designs.
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