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01.07.19

American Design Hot List

The 2018 American Design Hot List, Part I

Today, get to know the first group of honorees in our sixth annual American Design Hot List, an unapologetically subjective editorial award for the 20 names to know now in American design. The list acts as Sight Unseen’s guide to those influencing the design landscape in any given year — whether through standout launches, must-see exhibitions, or just our innate sense that they’re ones to watch — and in exciting news, it's now shoppable on Moda Operandi!
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09.13.18

Excerpt: Exhibition

14 Up-and-Coming American Designers, In a Show Curated By One of Their Own

As people whose job it is to track emerging designers — particularly those on the American scene — it's rare that we walk into a show to find incredible work by a roster of relative unknowns. And yet that's exactly what happened when I rolled up to Fernando Mastrangelo's studio in deep (deep) Brooklyn last Friday night for the opening party of In Good Company: Material Culture. It's the second exhibition Mastrangelo has curated in his space — this time alongside Architectural Digest's senior design writer Hannah Martin.
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Bower by photographer Charlie Schuck
03.27.18

Sighted

In New Photos by Charlie Schuck, Bower’s Work Has Never Looked Better

There's a definitive look to Charlie Schuck's photography — sumptuous curtains, graphic shadows, perfectly brushed carpets, mirrored surfaces, and richly painted walls — and perhaps no studio's work is better suited to that look than Bower. So when we heard Bower's brand-new website was up and running — with brand-new imagery taken by Schuck — we immediately reached out to publish the incredible results.
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Eny Lee Parker
01.22.18

Excerpt: Exhibition

Eny Lee Parker’s New Ceramic Chainmail Has a Secret Message Encoded in Its Links

Where do you go after you've been named this year's "breakout American design star" AND one of the best fashion brands of 2017? If you're Eny Lee Parker, you just keep churning out incredible new work, even if you're in the throes of an upcoming cross-country move. The triple-threat ceramicist/furniture designer/jewelry maker debuted a new collection this weekend, and while the new work covers some familiar ground (thick ceramic legs as table bases), Parker also dug deep into a new obsession: ceramic chainmail.
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Bauhaus-inspired housewares by Orphan Work
11.08.17

Up and Coming

Brutalist- and Bauhaus-Inspired Housewares and Lighting From the Duo Behind Material Lust

Christian Swafford and Lauren Larson, the creative couple behind Material Lust, introduced their sister brand Orphan Work humbly enough, with a soft launch last year that had us wondering what, exactly, the brand even was. But since its debut, the label has evolved beyond its origins as “an exploration of orphaned material” and developed into a full-fledged brand: lighting, accessories, and what they call “monuments for your tabletop,” inspired at turns by Bauhaus and Brutalism, but mainly by the Vienna Secession.
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Exhibit Columbus Washington Street Installations
09.01.17

Excerpt: Exhibition

See How 5 Design Galleries Are Transforming This Tiny Midwestern City

The seed for Exhibit Columbus began back in 2014, when designer Jonathan Nesci created an installation of reflecting tables, called 100 Variations, in the sunken courtyard of Columbus's First Christian Church, built by Finnish architect Eliel Saarinen in 1942. "It was essentially to show proof of concept that a designer could make an installation in dialogue with the city," says Nesci. Three years later, the resulting design festival, which runs through November, boasts 18 separate installations.
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contemporary furniture editorial Pippa Drummond Urbis Magazine
08.15.17

Eye Candy

A Contemporary Furniture Editorial Inspired by Baldessari, Moholy-Nagy, and More

As you might have guessed from yesterday's story, there's nothing we love more than turning the lens on our own contributors — if only because to interview someone is to get to know them in an intimate way that casual conversation often can't approximate. Case in point: an Q&A and photo essay from earlier this year with one of our favorite SU photographers, Pippa Drummond. Called Gravity's Rainbow, it's a joyful, color-filled editorial that features contemporary and vintage furniture from the likes of Bower, Anna Karlin, Apparatus, Gino Sarfatti and more.
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London Design Fair US Pavilion - Sight Unseen
08.08.17

Sight Unseen Presents

We’re Bringing 13 American Designers to This Year’s London Design Fair

Next month, Sight Unseen will be exhibiting internationally for the very first time with a curated presentation of 13 of our favorite American designers. Called Assembly, the show will represent the United States as the guest country at the Old Truman Brewery from September 21-24, with new and existing work by Bower, Chen Chen & Kai Williams, Christopher Stuart, DAMM, Earnest Studio, Eric Trine, Iacoli & McAllister, John Hogan, Ladies & Gentlemen, Pat Kim, Steven Haulenbeek, Studio Proba, and Slash Objects.
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Good Thing furniture
05.01.17

Eye Candy

A Favorite Housewares Brand Makes the Move to Furniture

Today marks the start of a month of design in New York, so perhaps it's fitting that we kick things off with a brand that's been working for years to revitalize the American design scene from the ground up. Good Thing, the Brooklyn-based housewares and accessories label founded by RISD grad Jamie Wolfond in 2014, has always sought to not only engage local manufacturing and producers but also to work with as wide a swath of designers as possible.
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New Apparatus collection
04.06.17

Sighted

The Best Thing We Saw in Milan Today, Day 3

We don't mean to be biased towards our American compatriots for the third day in a row, but the new Apparatus collection is, in a word, stunning — translucent, cast-resin tables topped by ash slabs lacquered in a high-gloss, rust-colored hue; patinated brass lamps with bases sheathed in a buttery calf suede; and slip-cast porcelain pendants punctuated by dangling brass spheres.
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