Pippa Drummond’s “Above (Series 1)”

The Auckland-born, New York City–based photographer Pippa Drummond is Sight Unseen's newest soon-to-be contributor, but when we were first introduced to her photography, it was the low-key but lovely portraits and coolly moody interiors that caught our eye. We had no idea at the time that she had this hiding in her portfolio. Above (Series 1) is a collaboration with prop stylist Rebecca Bartoshesky, and it reminds us a bit of Carl Kleiner’s Ikea cookbook photographs (which is interesting, considering Drummond’s other passion is food — she's got a cookbook of own in the works, and she assisted on the Amagansett-based shoot for Gwynnie’s latest. Yes, we ARE jealous). But the organized clutter here isn’t pantry staples but rather cheapo salon items that Drummond and Bartoshesky have turned into something almost beautiful.
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The 2023 American Design Hot List, Part I

This week we announced our 11th annual American Design Hot List, Sight Unseen’s editorial award for the names to know now in American design. We’re devoting an entire week to interviews with this year’s honorees — get to know the first group of Hot List designers here (including Charlap Hyman & Herrero, whose baby blue Brooklyn bedroom is pictured above).
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Caroline Chao Uses Glass, Mirror, Lucite, and Light Itself to Create Optical Illusions in Her Furniture Debut

The nature of furniture is participatory — chairs invite us to sit, tables to gather round — but this holds especially true for the work of New York–based designer Caroline Chao. Her pieces engage our powers of interaction and perception — perhaps because in addition to the glass and Lucite she uses, light itself is a kind of material for her. We recently spoke with her about interiors vs furniture, how to re-contextualize ordinary materials, and her work towards changing the concept of a “good view.”
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Simone Bodmer-Turner ceramics

Simone Bodmer-Turner’s New Brooklyn Studio is Like a Ceramic Sculpture Come to Life

Simone Bodmer-Turner's most recent project, a build-out of her Brooklyn studio, explodes the scale of her ceramic forms. Taking over the doorway and an entire wall adjacent to the former factory’s bright loft windows, she installed a bench, desk, and shelving in textured white gypsum — what she describes as an homage to the Mediterranean-influenced organic architects that have shaped her ceramics practice thus far.
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At a Pop-Up Featuring Three In-Demand Interior Designers, Almost Everything — Vintage or New — Is For Sale

A Viso pop-up in Tribeca features a trio of set designs by interiors gurus Andre Mellone, Giancarlo Valle, and Michael Bargo, highlightiung exclusive designs, vintage finds, and personal items that provide context to each designer's favorite Viso items. We visited the space last week and can confirm it's one of the coolest things we've seen during New York Design Week Month this year.
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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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Brett Miller

Leeds, New York, jackrabbit.studio With the launch of his debut collection of chairs and tables this year, Brett Miller put an intriguingly rustic spin on the craze for chubby, tubular furniture — one befitting a hipster woodworker living in the wilds of upstate New York. So far, his work is carried at Relationships in Brooklyn, but we’re predicting that his reputation is about to grow. (Photos: Pippa Drummond) What is American design to you, and what excites you about it? To me, it’s about making what feels good, not necessarily what’s most efficient. Making unapologetic, beautiful contradictions. There’s that cheesy notion about “going west,” but I really think that same mentality comes out in design and the sense of endless opportunities to make whatever your mind can imagine. What are your plans and highlights for the upcoming year? My plan is to just keep making work. I’m very excited about the future and don’t want to just sit on this first collection, but to keep moving forward. Good things are happening. What inspires or informs your work in general? I have this compulsive thing with textures where I have to touch things. For instance, I was on an airplane once and the guy sitting next to me had on Nikes with the little gel bubble in the heel, and I could not resist touching it! So I bent over like I was getting something from my bag and poked the little gel bubble, and it was very satisfying. I don’t think he noticed, or if he did, he didn’t say anything. How that relates to my furniture is in the feeling good, both physically and emotionally. I love how round things feel, I don’t like hard edges, and I try to avoid straight lines except where necessary. Also the tools and machines I use have really helped determine the shapes that I make. One of my first tools was a lathe, which is what I use to make the legs of my chairs and stools. Thus the round aesthetic was born and I just kind of ran with it. I’m also very inspired by indigenous woodworkers, primarily wood carvers, and specifically from Africa. Not so much for their aesthetic, which I love, but more for their technique and tools. Many things are made from a single chunk and are carved out with a “sa sa,” or what we call an adze. … Continue reading Brett Miller
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Our 10 Most Popular Stories of 2018

It’s now a Sight Unseen tradition to spend the final week of December reflecting back on the prior year, so we’ve taken time out to do just that. First we're reviewing Sight Unseen’s greatest hits of 2018, which — no huge surprise here — are mostly interiors, from a wicker-filled studio in Marrakech to a peach-walled house in upstate New York to a London flat filled with colorful concrete tiles.
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Pink Plexiglas and Blue Vinyl — At Home With Crosby Studio’s Harry Nuriev

Color is a recurring theme in Harry Nuriev’s work. His Williamsburg apartment is famously blue; prior to that, he had what he calls “a long pink period,” best seen in the debut collection the formerly Moscow-based designer launched at Sight Unseen OFFSITE in 2016. His way with color replaces old ways of viewing space and encourages new ones; it is divisive by nature and cinematic in scope.
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Hawkins New York 01_© Pippa Drummond

See How Hawkins New York’s Founders Transformed a 1750s Farmhouse Into a Colorful, Modern Home

Hawkins started out primarily producing work for other designers, including Workstead, Alyson Fox, MINNA, and Slowood Studio, but the brand now specializes in simple, elevated basics designed in-house — think enameled bowls, recycled glassware, insanely chic dustpans (it's a thing), and super-saturated waffle towels. But most of the pieces have evolved from a need in Denoly and Blaine's own home, which they bought in seriously dilapidated fashion almost five years ago and have been working on ever since.
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Hudson home tour with Elise McMahon of LikeMindedObjects © Pippa Drummond

At Home in Hudson, With A Designer Embracing the DIY Culture of Upstate New York

Over the past few years, as designers from Bushwick to Red Hook have begun moving farther and farther up the Hudson River, we've begun to wonder: Is upstate New York the new Brooklyn? Five years ago, one of those such designers was Elise McMahon of LikeMindedObjects, a RISD grad who works within a kind of freeform, collaborative, ad hoc aesthetic. We visited her art-filled home in Hudson, New York late last summer to find out more.
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Shop the Obsessive Collections of 10 New York Creatives, Starting Today

After the umpteenth time I found myself typing "Blenko ice glass" into a search bar, I started to wonder what it would be like to give my object obsessions a purpose, rather than just accumulating more things I can't fit into my apartment. Thus OCC Market was born. Opening today at the Lower East Side boutique Coming Soon, it's a shoppable exhibition of obsessive compulsive collections by 10 object enthusiasts in design, food, and fashion.
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