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500BC_FinsLamp_2
08.02.19

Up and Coming

Meet the New Mumbai-Based Studio Making Lamps Inspired by Ancient Culture

The work of the new lighting design studio 500 B.C. comes from a fairly unexpected place, in more ways than one — not only is the firm based in Mumbai, India, but founders Anandita Shah and Shiraz Noorani both have backgrounds in disciplines other than product design. Before creating their very first lamp together a year ago, Shah ran a handbag company for 15 years, while Noorani was a civil and structural engineer. Since pivoting, they've been churning out lamp after lamp under the influence of icons like Luis Barragan, Alvar Aalto, and Ettore Sotsass.
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Ryan Belli Haas Brothers
07.23.19

Up and Coming

This Haas Brothers Protégé is the Next Big Designer Out of Los Angeles

When talking about his work to date — wooden pieces with an often rough-hewn, whittled feel, topped by lollipop-like textiles — Ryan Belli describes a reference map in his mind of things he’s seen: the hoodoos in Bryce Canyon, a bristlecone pine forest, the bubble clusters that form when you’re a kid blowing into a glass of milk with a straw. Sometimes these things come together in strange combinations to create an idea, and in recent months they have given rise to a wild collection of seating and light fixtures.
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Objects & Ideas_Aero_LivingRoom_V5_Hres copy_opener
07.11.19

Up and Coming

This Toronto Design Studio Finds Inspiration in the Canadian Wilderness

The Toronto-based design group Objects & Ideas works within a conceptual-meets-functional framework, and they talk about their work as an active excavation of the voice and soul of objects. "What we do is much closer to art than to mass production," says co-founder Bob Dodd. "Like everyone, we have to make money, and we have to make products people want to possess and cherish, but our furniture is definitely a vehicle to express our ideas and concepts. The best products have a soul and a presence."
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EJR Barnes_Moon Reflections Chair + Lamp190412_EJR35033
07.10.19

Up and Coming

A Self-Taught London Designer On How to Make Furniture That’s Poetic But Not Pretentious

EJR Barnes is interested in the ways furniture can become poetic or dreamlike when reframed with unexpected materials, forms, and juxtapositions. His creations engage a wide range of materials and techniques — birch plywood, gilded silver leaf, lacquered oak, powder-coated steel, pressed cane, cork, paper pulp slathered in wheat paste, even faux fur or scruffy suedes. Through all of this experimentation, Barnes seeks a quiet sort of subversion.
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CARGO_Art_ahramkwon_com2
06.10.19

Up and Coming

Four Emerging Artists Whose Work You Should Know Now

With the increasing blurriness of the line between design and art, it's difficult to have a comprehensive conversation about one without maintaining an awareness of the other. And so we make a constant effort to keep up with the art world, and keep an eye out for new talents that appeal to our aesthetic sensibilities. Today, we're sharing four up-and-coming international artists whom we bookmarked in the first half of 2019, and whose names you should know if you don't already — check out their work after the jump!
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OPENER_NEBNIKRO-shoot-17
06.07.19

Up and Coming

The 21-Year-Old Cape Town Ceramicist Making Art Inspired By Gay Love

Under the name Nebnikro, Cape Town-based artist Ben Orkin makes lumpy and unusual ceramic vessels inspired by gay love. “I hope through my work to express the beauty of gay love in a world which mostly sees it as unnatural, destructive, and dangerous,” he says. His organic shapes are often symmetrical to reflect the connecting of two bodies — either physically or emotionally, or both.
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Italian interiors stylist Greta Cevenini
06.03.19

Up and Coming

Meet Greta Cevenini, The Best Italian Interiors Stylist You’ve Never Heard Of

Greta Cevenini has been quietly circling behind the scenes of the Italian design world for the past few years, styling lookbooks for Spotti and cc-tapis and envisioning spreads for Icon Design; she most recently took the helm for Cassina’s new catalogue, which was released during Salone. Her work is quiet — cool and rich with light-touch visual references well before they become ubiquitous, leaning more on texture and subtle color variations rather than dramatic, scene-stealing statements.
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AdrianCruz_Opener2
05.16.19

Up and Coming

Colored Resin Meets Onyx in a Series of Textured Lamps Inspired by Mexico

In Elements, a colorful collection of imaginative light fixtures by Belgian-based architect Adrian Cruz, crystal resin light bulbs float, seemingly suspended, between resin plates, or balance atop slender pillars; some introduce raw materials like marble and onyx. “For me, the juxtaposition of onyx and resin [explores] the contrast between precious nature and modern man’s creations,” says Cruz.
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