New York, giancarlovalle.com When architect Giancarlo Valle first made our Hot List in 2017, we predicted that his furniture collection was going to evolve into greatness, but that may have been an understatement. Not only have we been impressed by the evolution of his objects — which incorporate lush, even baroque upholstery that Valle’s drawn to for its contrast with the stone, wood, and concrete he uses in his architectural practice — he’s become hands-down one of our favorite interior designers, blending old and new in an effortlessly cool way. What is American design to you, and what excites you about it? American design, especially in New York, is really exciting right now because you’re seeing such a concentration of talent. There are a lot of people exploring similar ideas and pushing the conversation forward. There’s still a global thinking, but there’s also a movement toward craftsmanship and seeing the hand. What are your plans and highlights for the upcoming year? We are working on a ground-up pavilion in Mexico City, converting a 22,000 square-foot orphanage in Chicago into a single family home, we have three New York City townhouse projects underway, and we’re working on a new line of ceramic tile furniture. What inspires or informs your work in general? I grew up between several different cities and cultures, and I think it sums up my feeling about how we design. We are always looking at the various points of commonality and overlap between styles and periods, trying to balance seriousness and playfulness. I hate the word eclectic. At the end of the day, you need a point of view.

New York, facturestudio.com RISD grad Quincy Ellis got his start working in the studio of Fernando Mastrangelo. But when he decided to break out on his own, he eschewed the natural materials he’d been working with in favor of resin — a material that might better allow him to explore concepts like opacity, gradients, color, illusion, and depth. What is American design to you, and what excites you about it? I’ve never thought too much about what country a design comes from, unless it’s obvious, which is why I get really excited about a lot of the new design that happens to be from Americans. There’s a strong push for experimentation in forms, materials, and finishes; an outright disregard for functionality; and a smashing together of disparate styles to create new ones. Only what has never been done before truly excites me and that’s what I think American design is to me — not that something is quantifiably good, but that it strives to move the field forward without relying too heavily on tradition. What are your plans and highlights for the upcoming year? A highlight of the coming year is definitely having an incredible amount of custom commissions that will expand and scale the pieces I’ve already experimented with. My plan is to push the materials I work with to their physical limits this year just to explore the outer edges of possible concepts. But like what? Probably an installation as well as an expansion of the techniques available to me. What inspires or informs your work in general? Working with my materials and understanding their possibilities is half of my inspiration. The other half is connecting what I see in the materials with visual phenomena I experience with light and color in everyday life. Anything I see that makes me question how my eyes are perceiving what I’m looking at really gets me to try to figure out why and how that visual feeling can be translated into both a visual language and a physically excitable technique.

Baltimore, crumpandkwash.com At ICFF this year, the Baltimore-based duo made a splash with their Arcade Collection, whose arched forms were inspired by that ancient architectural element. The collection’s standout was an indoor-outdoor lounge with a polished aluminum frame and a vibe that calls to mind Kuramata in the best possible way. What is American design to you, and what excites you about it? There’s a wonderful sense of play and exploration coming from American designers today. It’s encouraging to be part of a community that is perpetually expanding what’s possible. We’re seeing passionate artists designing products, finding their own path to fabrication, and simultaneously building an audience through their social media presence. What are your plans and highlights for the upcoming year? In early 2020, we will be opening our first gallery! The space will feature a revolving collection of our line, custom one-offs, as well as work from other designers we admire. The opening will coincide with the release of a new contract seating collection and, later in the year, our second line of high-end case goods. What inspires or informs your work in general? Problems and practice! In a very real (and probably very boring) way, our work is practice based. As designers, we get a lot of inspiration from tactility working with new materials, exploring forms, and solving the problems that come along with production. We’ve always maintained different interests outside of the shop, bringing unique perspectives on how to best approach a product. Of course this has lead to the metaphorical head butting, but for the most part the combination of our individual perspectives results in an even stronger design. SHOP WORK BY CRUMP & KWASH IN OUR 1STDIBS STOREFRONT!  

New York, crosby-studios.com Russian-born designer Harry Nuriev has had a swift rise to the top since his launch in 2016 — creating dreamy, pastel-fueled interiors, making brightly colored furniture, and collaborating with everyone from Opening Ceremony to Liam Gillick. At Design Miami this year, Nuriev teamed up with Balenciaga to create a transparent vinyl sofa filled with damaged or deadstock clothing from the brand, in a move that nodded to Nuriev’s interest in sustainability and announced his seat at the forefront of American design. What is American design to you, and what excites you about it? American design for me is a combination of technology and modern art. I look at companies like Apple, Tesla, and even Nike and observe how they cross-communicate with Donald Judd’s clean lines and a Shaker house’s sharp spaces. Also I am fascinated by endless American craft design. American design is so diverse. What are your plans and highlights for the upcoming year? I have many collaborations in the works for this year that I cannot wait to share with everyone merging fashion, art, and design. 2020 is the start of a new stage in my design language and in my life life. I will be developing more of my career as an artist and will continue to do beautiful interiors. What inspires or informs your work in general? My inspiration comes from my Russian Soviet childhood and heritage. I use colors and materials in my projects that I grew up around and that are nostalgic for me. I love to rethink “ugly” furniture and give it a second life.

Los Angeles, casey-mccafferty.com Casey McCafferty’s furniture has that of-the-moment lumpy vibe, but is infinitely more impressive for having been carved entirely from wood using hand tools, rather than made from ceramic or plaster. His work only took a turn for the sculptural about a year ago, but we hope he keeps it up; we like to think of him as carrying the torch of Wendell Castle into the next generation. What is American design to you, and what excites you about it? Cowboys. For some reason, whenever I ask myself what American design means to me, a picture of a cowboy comes to mind. I might be reading too many Louis L’Amour novels! In all seriousness, I imagine it as a blank slate. We each add in our family, local culture, history, schooling, and experience. We learn about traditional styles and craft, and some of us study them. But it doesn’t end there — American designers aren’t looking to emulate their influencers. We’re looking to find our own voice. We push past traditional styles, not bound by the walls set up elsewhere. We thrive on being different. What are your plans and highlights for the upcoming year?  2020 will be the year of stone for me. I’ve begun experimenting with multi-medium pieces recently, and stone and wood seems to be the most challenging combination, yet the most worthwhile. It’s really important for these two earthy materials to flow naturally and it’s quite technically difficult to get it right. I usually go into all of my sculptures with a very free-flowing concept and let the process develop as I go on. Inviting in another material makes things a little uncomfortable, but that’s when great things happen. What inspires or informs your work in general?  Most of my process and design seems to come from the subconscious mind. I think we all unknowingly absorb our surroundings, hold on to the worthy elements, and project out what we deem is beautiful. Our brains are way more magical than anything I can explain in words, but if I had to say what has helped me recently, I could pinpoint a few things. Long walks and hikes, where I find interesting rocks and sticks with organic shapes and textures that stop me in my tracks. I’ll collect these pieces and place them on my desk, and they live there for a while. I’ve also been really into reading early 1900s science fiction — one book in particular, … Continue reading Casey McCafferty

New York, blacktablestudio.com Colombian-born, Pratt-educated architect Carlos Meza founded Blacktable in 2013, partly as a fabrication studio and partly as an outlet for his furniture practice, which marries digital manufacturing technologies with handicraft to create wooden tables and cabinets with impossibly smooth curves. What is American design to you, and what excites you about it? American design is dynamic, adventurous, and always ready to explore and incorporate emergent technologies, materials, and fabrication processes. I’m excited about the advancements in 3-D printing, industrial robots, and bio materials, just to name a few. I like how designers here usually borrow from other leading industries like the aerospace, auto, and film industries. This generates trends that constantly call for new languages and mediums. What are your plans and highlights for the upcoming year? I’m looking forward to opening a new shop in the summer. I’ll be incorporating new robotic technologies and expanding the tools that allow me to further my exploration of fabrication techniques and processing materials, deepening my design practice. You’ll see more work from me in concrete tangled with wood, and other composite materials. What inspires or informs your work in general? As an architect, my work is mostly influenced by building techniques like wooden frame houses, brick construction, and concrete used in Brutalist architecture. Usually my design process is driven by my understanding of all the material’s qualities and constraints, and how these can be transformed, incorporating digital and analog technologies like design software and CNC machines. My design work is always centered around the expression of materials in response to functionality and an instinctual expression of shapes, proportions, symmetry, textures, and color. A great example of this is the Villanueva Public library, located in Colombia and built in 2009. SHOP BLACKTABLE’S WORK IN OUR 1STDIBS STORE!

Los Angeles, bentetro.com L.A. newcomer Ben Tetro says that his biggest inspiration is making objects by hand out of traditional natural materials, much like the boat builders of his native Maine. But there’s nothing traditional about his inventive organic forms, which appear throughout his kinetic mirrors, wall sculptures, and room dividers — plus a sine-wave table in aluminum and cement. What is American design to you, and what excites you about it? Design is an openness to diversity of all forms — from the materials we source and the design process to the people we connect with along the way. I see a movement, particularly in California, of self-representation and a shift to direct-to-client relationships, and that offers a lot of potential for individual growth. I see this in the prevalence of design galleries and in the push for designers to be truly invested in their craft and to possess the broad knowledge that good design requires. We now have the ability to tap into a community that shares and supports individuality, and this inevitably allows artists and designers to design with purpose. For me, American design is about creating sustainability by way of permanence; I see a rebirth in the passion for materiality and a distancing from the disposable. What are your plans and highlights for the upcoming year? I’m working on a new series in tandem with existing works that combine contrasting materials, allowing for a bit of playful interaction. I’m also collaborating with my partner, the artist Kenesha Sneed, on a limited-edition collection for a New York–based company set to be released this spring. What inspires or informs your work in general? As a problem solver at heart, I’m inspired by research. Learning about materials and how they interact, and finding unique solutions, is part of my process. I grew up in southern Maine and was inspired by being in close proximity to traditional craftspeople. My family included boat builders, fishermen, and a great uncle who spent much of his life hand-carving duck decoys, and this informed my views of what a solid work ethic looked like — and inevitably translates through much of my work today. I’m always interested in the balance between permanence and fragility, connection systems, and how dissimilar materials can live together, balancing one another. Ultimately, I’m inspired by the ideation process, which I find just as transformative as the final form.  

New York, aspacestudio.com Founded in 2016 by Anna Aristova and Roza Gazarian, the Brooklyn-based studio mines natural materials like marble and stone to create geometric monoliths. In one favorite project, they created 14 one-of-a-kind objects from a single 10-inch slab.  What is American design to you, and what excites you about it? RG: Having moved to the United States in 2004, and having actually discovered design here, for me American design is all about the creative freedom that comes from having all of these amazing cultures and backgrounds together in one place. It’s about fearless exploration and experimentation, resulting in creation of the most unexpected work. AA: What excites me the most about American design is the mid-century modern movement, which I find is still very influential among many designers today. For me personally, this period is special because of the new connection and collaboration between United States and Japan – Isamu Noguchi and George Nakashima being two great examples. I am also happy to see that there’s a wave of young designers who are willing to work with materials by hand in the studio rather than outsourcing production elsewhere. What are your plans and highlights for the upcoming year? As we plan to continue traveling, our goal is to keep exploring the old craftsmanship, techniques, and materials from all around the world in order to give them new life and meaning. We find the effort of preserving and bringing attention to the traditional craftsmanship to be very important. We currently have two new collections in the works, and we’re excited to release them during Design Week in May. We are also planning our first solo show in New York this March, where we’ll try to recreate the feeling of the place where the collection was created, making it more about the environment and experience rather than showcasing separate pieces. The collection was created in Alanya, a small town in the south of Turkey, right by the Mediterranean sea. During one of our visits a few years ago, we accidentally came across a family-owned marble quarry that we fell in love with, and have been working with them since. All pieces from the collection were created from one single massive piece of stone, where we leave one side of each piece untouched, unpolished — to remind us of the mountains the stone came from. The marble pieces will also be accompanied by a few … Continue reading A Space

Los Angeles, wallforapricots.com Before they founded the interiors firm Wall for Apricots in 2017, Brady Cunningham was a co-founder of the fashion boutique Tenoversix and Katy Burgess was commissioning public art in London. But thanks to the magical alchemy also known as great taste, the childhood friends have since designed gems like the pastel piano we showed at OFFSITE this year and a growing roster of hip commercial spaces in L.A. What is American design to you, and what excites you about it? In L.A. specifically we see a lot of hybrids – designers with overlapping disciplines. No one feels confined by expectations, and it creates a lot of space for collaboration. We love how informal and accessible American design is at the moment. As new designers, we’re amazed at how open others are to sharing their expertise. Nothing feels too precious or safe. What are your plans and highlights for the upcoming year? All of our clients to date have been female entrepreneurs, and two of our favorites have spaces opening in early 2019. For The Things We Do, a beauty concept bar at ROW DTLA, we wanted to inject the space with as much confidence as the owner herself has. Using her heritage as a focal point, we referenced traditional Filipino textiles, architecture, materials, and craftsmanship through a very California lens. In addition to her branding, we created all of the waiting room furniture and retail displays, as well as featuring our first foray into lighting design. We’re also working with one of LA’s most iconic female-led brands, Moon Juice. In February we’re renovating two of their locations, inspired by the stone facade of the Venice shop and the ingredients used in their signature dusts. As we continue to create custom furniture and fixtures for our commercial products, this year we’re excited to start producing some of our quirkier pieces for a wider market and making them available for residential projects. What inspires or informs your work in general? The piano we conceived for OFFSITE was a big moment for us. Designing a musical instrument was the culmination of so many things that inspire us – collaboration, nostalgia, unconventional furniture. We used that piece (and the reaction to it) to inform the way we’ve tackled subsequent projects. How can we present a functional object in an unconventional way? How can a space feel as good as it looks after the inevitable addition of an Instagram filter? But … Continue reading Wall for Apricots

New York and Mexico City, vidivixi.com VIDIVIXI designer Mark Grattan graduated from Pratt and came up in the New York design scene alongside fellow studios like Vonnegut/Kraft and Calico Wallpaper. But a recent move to Mexico City, and with it a new business partner, has seen Grattan’s work expand and resolve in ways we never saw coming. What is American design to you, and what excites you about it? I’ve always aspired to be an artist, though I don’t think I’m anywhere close to that yet. The line between designer and artist in America is often blurry. In America, designers are given the chance to be swept up in the romanticism of being an artist; design is allowed to sit on a pedestal with fine art and bridge that gap. This has meant that young designers there are often pushed by disciplines outside their immediate field. When VIDIVIXI moved south of the border to Mexico City we discovered just good we had it back in New York. We quickly realized the distinction between artist and designer here is much more apparent. The United States can be a trying place at times but there are things about which American designers should be really proud. American design is dynamic and ever-changing at its core, with a steady flow of new ideas constantly redefining and reshaping what design means. For me, that’s what excites me most. What are your plans and highlights for the upcoming year?  We have a busy few months at the start of the year. I’ll be in the middle of final development on several pieces set to launch before spring, including VIDIVIXI’s first lighting fixture and some cozy seating. Our early winter calendar also includes an opening at our new showroom in Mexico City. Expanding our reach globally will remain a priority and continues to be on the agenda. Adam and I are extremely ambitious and, more times than not, in way over our heads. But we are eager to experience more and try new things. For us, this is really the only way to grow. What inspires or informs your work in general? I must certainly thank Mexico for VIDIVIXI’s healthy catalog of inspiration. Timelessness is a major factor in everything we create. It guides and informs everything that leaves the studio. VIDIVIXI’s motto is “I saw and I’ve lived,” and was originally lifted from a poem by Victor … Continue reading VIDIVIXI

New York, trueing.co Trueing, the eye-catching practice of Josh Metersky and Aiden Bowen, is our favorite kind of ADHL winner: The young, burgeoning design studio with a strong first collection whose second, even-better collection — which includes the two lamps shown just above — comes along *just* in time for us to break the news as we’re announcing their award. (Lamp photos: Lauren Coleman) What is American design to you, and what excites you about it? It embodies both good and bad all at once, a reflection of the country at large. Without slipping too far into cliché, it can read as patchwork of borrowed references, vernacular iterations, and ingenious new ideas packed into an aesthetic that would be impossible to sum up in brief, which is in turn what makes it so exciting. With no alliance to one national style, and with inspiration from every culture on earth, the opportunities for designers are kind of endless. We’re free to mix, play, and create as we please – knowing that somewhere in this large, complicated country we’ll find a sympathetic audience who sees some truth in our version of ‘Americana.’ What are your plans and highlights for the upcoming year? We’re launching a big new lighting collection, our first full line that’s been in the works for over a year. We’ve also just moved to a lovely, sunny studio space which is giving us the opportunity to experiment with some larger-scale pieces. Otherwise, we have another collection planned for May that pushes the capabilities of our favorite material of the moment: colored glass. What inspires or informs your work in general? Our work is really a product of our relationship. We mix art-historical, architectural, and (sometimes obtuse) cultural references with an engineer’s eye for mechanical connections and systems thinking; the pieces are reflections of our lifelong idiosyncrasies and passions. In the end it creates a synthesis of pragmatic mechanics and superfluous detail — a body of work that’s informed by the past but firmly rooted in contemporary culture, designed with precision and perfection in mind.

New York, salon94design.com The way Thomas Barger entered the furniture world sounds almost apocryphal — while working as a dog walker, he began to collect paper from the recycling bins outside an NYC police station, then would pulp the paper it in his food processor and affix it with resin to used chairs off Craigslist or his own foam creations. The resulting work, though, is as authentic as it gets — puffy chairs and other furnishings, often with cookie-like holes, painted in brights or pastels. You might recognize the pink ones from Glossier’s NYC flagship, where they’re photographed so often they ought to have their own Instagram. What is American design to you, and what excites you about it? Americans haven’t heard enough of the slogan “less is more.” I think design and our designed environment is a reflection of our culture, and it can be kind of disappointing and cheap. On the surface, it’s cute and Kmart but behind it all is a lot of excess and waste. I’ve been helping my friend walk some dogs the past month and have been going into a bunch of West Village apartments each day. Even though many of the pieces inside aren’t collectible design it’s a reflection of how much is produced that will be replaced and remodeled on a whim. That is why I think art and design have a responsibility to achieve more. I think Americans believe we can have it all and should have it all. Eggs and bacon for breakfast, ham sandwich for lunch, and chicken for dinner. All this excess manifests in more ways than just design and we are silly enough to not anticipate consequences. But what excites me is the people I have met who also question life and structure systems in place. What are your plans and highlights for the upcoming year? I’m really excited about practicing discipline. Telling myself to not be in the studio all the time is valuable advice. Telling myself to work less and take care of myself more. Talking with other artists, I feel like this is something many struggle with. Besides a New Year’s resolution of practicing better self-care, I’m excited about what is happening in the studio and upcoming shows. What inspires or informs your work in general? I’m very inspired by relationships and structure systems in my life. These include relationships with my family and boyfriends as well as religion and my farming background. When I came out to … Continue reading Thomas Barger