The Debut Collection From Studio Hanrahan Melds Ancient Forms and Contemporary Aesthetics

One of the best things about Sight Unseen turning 15 this year is having an archive at our fingertips by which to chart the growth of certain artists who have captured our interest over the years. Take Ryan Hanrahan, an Australian designer whose work we first published more than a decade ago. Hanrahan has been involved in several different ventures since then, including Addition Studios, a ritual-focused wellness brand he sold at the tail end of COVID. But looking at each one — particularly in the context of Text the Sun, the first collection he's releasing under his new studio name, Studio Hanrahan — you see the obvious through lines: the geometric shapes, the love for elemental materials such as marble and metal, the melding of ancient forms and contemporary aesthetics, an abiding interest in waterjet–cut perforations. Hanrahan calls Text the Sun "a playful recalibration" of those interests, and the results are lovely.
More

Bower’s Moody, Mystical Showroom — And Their New Moongate Mirrors — Channel Someplace Far From Brooklyn

When you’re in a mystical frame of mind — cue the winter solstice — mirrors really do start to feel like portals. And the Moongate series, the latest from Bower Studios, seems to offer entry into another realm. Inspired by outdoor passageways originally found in traditional Chinese gardens, these large wall mirrors  would add a sense of mystery and quiet adventure to any interior. And they do just that in Bower’s newly redone showroom, complementing and contrasting with the studio’s classic collections and transporting you somewhere far from Brooklyn.
More

Interni Venosta’s Surprise Debut in a Milanese Plaster Workshop Was One of the Best Design Moments of 2024. The Collection Keeps Getting Better.

Interni Venosta wowed us when their debut collection launched earlier this year in a plaster workshop in Milan — it was one of our favorite collections from 2024 — and the collection's latest additions continue to impress. An independent project from Milan darlings Emiliano Salci and Britt Moran, who founded their architectural and design studio Dimorestudio over twenty years ago, Interni Venosta exudes an Italian — specifically Milanese — refinement that’s at once avant-garde and classic. Striking in its elegant proportions, this is furniture that stands out in an interior but also feels as if it were always at home there.
More

Jermaine Gallacher Helped Pull This Celestial-Themed 1990s Textile Collection From the Archives

As a lover of all things vintage and archival, there are few things that excite me more than a project that plumbs the historical trove of a company or design movement and resurfaces its forgotten gems; it’s the same thrill I get shopping a flea market or antique mall and discovering something incredible that had previously gone unnoticed or been cast aside. Which is why I felt a pang of envy when I saw the launch earlier this month of Torch, for which TON magazine editor and interior designer Jermaine Gallacher got to help pull a collection of rugs and textiles out of a 90s time capsule and reimagine it for contemporary use. Originally titled Elements and Beyond, the celestial-themed series was the work of the seminal textile designer Christine Van Der Hurd, who celebrated 50 years in the business last year, and who spent 18 months working with Gallacher to revisit and refine her original vision.
More

With New Lights and a Serene New Showroom in Downtown Manhattan, Danny Kaplan is Cementing His Studio as a Major Creative Force

Danny Kaplan's Facet series is made of slab-built forms in first-time materials for the studio: perforated brass with a patina finish, stainless steel, or white painted steel (though the studio has stayed true to its ceramic roots, hand-sculpting clay models at the start of the production process). Hard, defined edges and angles paradoxically create a mellow mood, an atmosphere that’s serene and soothing. You could say the same thing about the studio’s new 4,000 square foot showroom, located in a pre-war cast iron warehouse building in NoHo; it's a meditative, calming exhalation that both resets and reinvigorates you.
More

At This Wood-Clad Seaside Retreat, Iconic Scandinavian Lights Pair Perfectly With California Modernism

The Danish company Louis Poulsen is home to some of the world's most instantly recognizable lighting, designed by the greats. While all distinctively Scandinavian — there’s a certain precision and integrity combined with a playful inventiveness that’s somehow simultaneously cool and warm — these lights also work particularly well in the context of a West Coast golden-hour glow, the interplay of sun and soft shadows. Louis Poulsen's sculptural yet clean aesthetic naturally dovetails with the indoor-outdoor architecture of California modernism — both of which have been captured in a new interiors shoot styled and photographed by Lumens.
More

At the New Brooklyn Museum Café, 10 Stools by 10 Designers, Reminding Us of the Borough They Call Home

For as long as I toil in the trenches of design, I'll never tire of the design brief that goes: "Everyone please take this same basic thing and mold it in your image." The results of such an assignment are nearly always uniformly delightful, so I was happy to see the debut of this latest project, commissioned by the bicoastal studio Office of Tangible Space, run by Michael Yarinsky and Kelley Perumbuti. As part of the Brooklyn Museum’s 200th anniversary, Office of Tangible Space was asked to redesign the museum's cafe, and they called upon their Brooklyn design friends to each take a basic wooden stool, and from it, create a one-of-a-kind work of art with which to decorate the space.
More

Hauvette & Madani’s Second Furniture Collection Channels 1930s Art Deco and the Strict Geometries of a Visionary Architect

When the French design duo Hauvette & Madani released their debut furniture collection in 2021, they called it Amuse-Bouche, after the small canapés served prior to a meal. Their newest collection, which launched during Paris's design week last month, has a slightly more esoteric name — following with the dining theme, they called it Entremets, dubbed for the decorative after-dinner or between-course treats popular in French cuisine — but it's a clear and logical evolution from their previous releases. Here, oak, lacquer, and Art Deco accents are the primary ingredients, resulting in a mélange of pieces with a distinctly 1930s feel. This means hard lines, essential geometries, and lots of layered materials, which have been cropping up a lot in new collections recently. Deco is seemingly the design era du jour.
More

Step Into the World of a Beloved Australian Furniture Brand at Its New Space in Sydney

There’s no denying that Instagram has been a source of inspiration and connection — especially in the design world — but it’s also impossible to escape the flattening quality of the social media scroll. Australia’s Ellison Studios, whose furniture takes the best of the '70s and makes it refreshingly modern, had long been envisioning a move, or an extension, from the digital realm to a physical one, but a traditional showroom didn’t feel quite right. So when an apartment in an iconic Sydney landmark became available, an idea took shape: The Rental. For the next six months, the studio is bringing their atmospheric point of view and the imaginative world-building of a mood board to life, creating a tangible, tactile space you can step into and even inhabit for a time.
More

Audo, Our Go-To for Cozy Danish Furniture, Just Dropped a Whole Slate of Products Perfect for Small-Space Living

By now, we’ve established that Copenhagen’s 3 Days of Design is a staple on the annual design-fair circuit, particularly as many Danish brands forgo Milan in favor of their own city, where their work can be exhibited both in context and in a more sustainable fashion. For Audo Copenhagen, this summer's 3 Days offered the opportunity to celebrate the brand's Nordic roots — and newly released products — at the revitalized Audo House in the Nordhavn district. Launched in 2019 as a combination monobrand store, restaurant, and residence, Audo House got a glow-up this year in collaboration with Stockholm’s Note Design Studio to showcase updated favorites. But perhaps it's ironic that Audo's refreshed collection launched in summer, as so many of Audo's products are designed for maximum indoor coziness. As such, many of the products this season arrive in new, more petite sizes.
More

With Its Designer Collective, CB2 is Bringing a Global Design Perspective to the Masses

Big-box furniture stores doing high-profile collabs has long been one of the surest bets for those who yearn for a collection of beautiful things by internationally renowned designers — but who can't necessarily afford the luxury price tags that typically accompany such items. CB2 has long been at the top of our list when it comes to products with a point of view, hand-picking many designers we know and love — from Kara Mann to Luam Melake to Studio Anansi and Farrah Sit — to offer collections at accessible price points, bringing the designers' varied global design perspectives within reach of a much broader audience. Now, CB2 has introduced its 2024 Designer Collective, a showcase of nearly two dozen designers and independent studios, through whom the brand is able to introduce multiple design styles from around the world— giving design fans more options to find pieces that align with their aesthetic and creating a variety in perspectives that enables the range as a whole to feel fresh and current. We spoke to three members of the Designer Collective — interior designer Kara Mann, lighting designer Farrah Sit, and the Barcelona-based Mermelada Estudio — about what this collaboration means to their practice, and how their individual approaches to design each bring something unique to the brand. 
More

This Parisian Studio’s New Collection Turns Grandmotherly Flourishes, Like Tassels and Cords, Into Something Decidedly Modern

Imagine a place in the Mediterranean — where North Africa meets Europe meets the Middle East — and a time that can’t quite be determined, and you’ll get a feel for the latest collection from the Parisian architecture and design studio Ebur. Racha Guttierez and Dahila Hojeij Deleuze, who founded Ebur in 2020, conjure their respective cultures and histories in their designs: The two of them grew up in Côte D’Ivoire — Ebur means ivory in Latin ­— and the childhood friends spent their summers in Lebanon before going on to study architecture in Paris. Ebur’s first release of furnishings, last year, drew inspiration from their early memories of the seaside. This second act builds on that and continues an elegant exploration of form and material.
More