Little Wing Lee

New York, studioandprojects.co Lee first came onto our radar in her role as the design director at Atelier Ace — we still daydream about the sunlit, plant-filled, Rodolfo Dordoni-chairfied sitting room at New York’s now-defunct Sister City hotel — but what really made us sit up and take notice was Lee’s foundation in 2017 of the Black Folks in Design collective, for whom she’s curated two blockbuster exhibitions, most recently at Verso in Tribeca. An international network that spans disciplines, each BFiD exhibition spotlights members of the Black design community but also means to promote the idea that design and aesthetics aren’t simply a luxury but part of everyday life and therefore play a role in social, economic, and racial justice efforts. In her projects arm as Studio & Projects, Lee’s recently wowed us with colorful graphic rugs produced by Odabashian, and she’s currently at work on a large-scale community project in Harlem, alongside Frida Escobedo and Handel Architects. We can’t wait to see what she does next. What is American design to you, and what excites you about it? In some ways, the shadow of mid-century design continues to loom long in American design. So much of what is produced is in keeping with or in reaction to it. But I’m most excited about what inspirations can be found before that period. Native American design, the works of enslaved Africans, overlooked Asian Americans, and more. We have such a rich history to draw from. I’m beginning to believe that we may be seeing the envelope opening and that more voices of women, Black folks, and people of color are being recognized as part of the conversations across design disciplines. There is still a lot of work to be done around this, but I do find reason to hope that the American design canon is expanding. What are your plans and highlights for the upcoming year? I’m really excited about the scope of things Studio & Projects has to look forward to this year. On the product side, we just launched our light fixture, Cape, which is the first release from our lighting collection in collaboration with RBW. This has been in the works for the past couple of years with additional designs launching in 2024. We are also continuing to expand our rug collection with Odabashian. On the project side, highlights include a just kicked-off exhibit design project, a … Continue reading Little Wing Lee
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Kim Mupangilaï

New York, @pangilai From the moment we stepped into Mupangilaï’s Brooklyn brownstone to photograph it for our book, How to Live With Objects, we knew we were working with a next-level talent. Mupangilaï’s sensitivity to texture, material, and the weight of her own cultural upbringing — she was born in Belgium to European and African parents — were already palpable in her living space. Our hunch was confirmed when she released her first-ever furniture collection with Superhouse earlier this year: seven pieces made from traditional Congolese materials like teak, rattan, and banana fiber — our favorite being an armoire whose door resembles an African shield and whose limb-like appendage calls to mind a stiletto — whose delicate, feminine aesthetic couldn’t belong to anyone else.  What is American design to you, and what excites you about it? America is a diverse nation, influenced by an influx of people from all corners of the world, and the design scene here is absolutely reflective of that. Different cultural influences and aesthetics have prevailed over the years, so it’s tough to say what’s characteristically American. However, what really excites me about the time we are living in as designers and creatives is that we can merge complex design with practicality even though design can often have the appearance of being non-functional. It’s this playful duality that reiterates the concept of art/design being subjective and allows design to be interpreted however the viewer or user sees fit. What are your plans and highlights for the upcoming year? I still find myself in explorative territory when it comes to this new phase in my career, and I definitely feel as though my work has opened a Pandora’s box. I am excited to continue pursuing and evolving. I’ve also been playing with the idea of a book, combining the aesthetic and educational. A dream would be to work on a commission for a museum with a focus on cultural landscape and the notion of cultural appropriation. I believe there is a much larger conversation to be held on both topics within the design context and industry. The educational aspect of design has also been something that has always interested me and I would like to explore that more. Another dream would be to work on commissions for fashion houses that I admire. What inspires or informs your work in general? The main inspiration for my work is … Continue reading Kim Mupangilaï
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Darren Jett

New York, jettprojects.com An interior designer who worked for ASH NYC and Rafael de Cárdenas before striking out on his own in 2020, Jett grew up in rural Tennessee and was an Architectural Digest subscriber by the tender age of 8. Little did he know he’d end up two decades later as host of a breakout YouTube series for that same magazine, in which he dispenses home makeover advice with a mix of practicality and theater, advising one client to douse her bedroom nook in Gucci pink, or encouraging a studio apartment dweller to combine her sofa and bed into one. The thread running through Jett’s work is a sense of high drama — he’s partial to bedroom walls fully covered in velvet drapery, wall-to-wall silk carpeting, beds perched on leather platforms, mirrored backsplashes, murals, and more. What is American design to you, and what excites you about it? American design is a feeling of being free and untethered. What that looks like from an aesthetic point of view is entirely up to the creator. To envision your own world, blank slate, is the most exciting thing imaginable. What’s better than being untethered to a history and being able to pick and choose references so freely? Key point is doing your research. What are your plans and highlights for the upcoming year? Loads more videos with Architectural Digest. More than anything, I love sharing creative and researched design with a wider audience that perhaps isn’t used to being challenged. The audience loves these videos and glimpses into process, and I believe it’s a result of the void in the market for something provocative and fun. It brings me so much joy. For projects, we are crossing from one design world into another. Although all of my projects are tied together by seduction and storytelling, the look that is coming up is vastly different than what anyone has seen from me. We are releasing two projects in the first half of the year that are in keeping with what you’ve seen — both are of a sexy, minimal, bachelor pad aesthetic that is achingly pure. Think stainless steel, carpeting, mirrors, and unabashed sex appeal. It is sort of funny because then the following projects will be like whiplash, a sort of reinvention which excites me terribly. One is an ode to swinging 1960s London through an Art Nouveau lens for a … Continue reading Darren Jett
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Dan John Anderson

Yucca Valley, California; danjohnanderson.com Having spent most of his life in the Pacific Northwest, Anderson relocated to the desert in 2012, moving to Joshua Tree, California, where he apprenticed in the studios of artists Andrea Zittel and Alma Allen. In his solo practice, he combines the best of those artists — Zittel’s expansiveness with Allen’s sense of proportion and scale — making monolithic, hand-turned sculptures and objects from native woods like pine, cedar, and oak, often patched with butterfly joints like some kind of High Desert Nakashima. It’s trendy right now to make rough-hewn sculptures using tools like a chain saw, lathe, grinders, and chisels, but Anderson was one of the first — and best — of this generation to do so.  What is American design to you, and what excites you about it? American design is a lot of things, I suppose that’s what excites me about it — kind of anything goes in the proverbial melting pot. My work mostly stems from a more folk/craft, material-based tradition, but I love to see things get mixed up — raw and refined, industrial and primitive, neutral and colorful, old, new, etc. Variety makes for a more engaging conversation; new combinations and different contexts spark new feelings which go back into the pot and around we go. What are your plans and highlights for the upcoming year? I’m working towards another experiential installation out here in the desert as a kind of continuation of a couple similar projects that I did here over the last few years. The first was High Desert Dinner in 2020, an installation of sculptures, furniture, and tablewares made with help from friends in this community to facilitate a small series of dinners that we hosted in a remote desert wash adjacent to A-Z West in Joshua Tree. This event marked the 10-year anniversary of my first visit to the desert, and for me, it was a way to celebrate, express gratitude for, and pay respect to this place and my experience of it since. The second such installation was Pink Moon Ruins in 2022. This took place at an historical or maybe legendary location out here that had been left in ruin since a large earthquake struck in 1992.  Here, I installed a series of sculptures which in this context were intended to further evoke a spirit of place. This space was additionally activated by performers … Continue reading Dan John Anderson
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Charlap Hyman & Herrero

New York and Los Angeles, ch-herrero.com After first honoring them in our 2016 Hot List, we’re awarding the bicoastal interiors and architecture firm of Adam Charlap Hyman and Andre Herrero for a second time in order to acknowledge how far they’ve come since then, adding everything from private homes to exhibition designs to tableware to fashion campaigns to their portfolio. They have the lofty tastes of the likes of Giancarlo Valle or Dimorestudio, but mixed with a little bit of weirdness that gives their work its signature edge — nods to Surrealism and the baroque, and a willingness to push everything a little bit too far, but in the absolute best way.  What is American design to you, and what excites you about it? Something that we appreciate about American design is that it’s never overly slick — we like that there’s sometimes this roughness and rawness, and that you can feel the experimentation and trial and error that went into the creation. What are your plans and highlights for the upcoming year? We’re especially excited about the opening of a deli that we’ve renovated on the Upper East Side, the installation of a special project in Miami, and starting construction on a few residences in Joshua Tree. We recently released our first line of dinnerware and glassware, and in the next year we’ll be releasing some more products we’re especially excited about, as well as continuing to curate exhibitions. What inspires or informs your work in general? We’ve tended to go through phases of inspiration, and right now, we’re really inspired by the idea of “soft architecture” — the way that a curtain or drape can become architecture, and the idea of softness in architecture in general.
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Caroline Chao

New York, fromc.co With a Masters in architecture from Harvard in hand, Chao began her working life at large firms that built skyscrapers. But once she moved to New York last year, she scaled down to smaller, more personal level and began a furniture practice, launching with two collections in lucite, glass, mirror, and upholstery that experiment with light and perspective. Her works reflect our favorite qualities: they’re simple and understated, but always with a subtly unique form or approach that makes them covetable at the same time. What is American design to you, and what excites you about it? The first word that comes to mind is multitudes. In many ways, American design feels free and unconstrained, and there isn’t necessarily any one dominant theme. There’s a celebration of diversity and novelty, and I see that in my own work too. My identity is caught between realms and cultures. I also operate between the disciplines of furniture, interior space, and architecture. The result feels like a freedom of expression between scales and disciplines, cultures and worlds. What are your plans and highlights for the upcoming year? I’ll be launching several new pieces in the spring, furthering my explorations of light and optics first presented in the View Collection (last two photos above). I’m very excited about following this thread and continuing to develop concepts in reflection, light, and spatial awareness through objects. I’m also working on an exciting collaboration for Milan Design Week in 2024, which I hope to share more about soon. Lastly, a couple interior projects I’ve been working on for several years are close to completion, which I’m thrilled about. What inspires or informs your work in general? I have many influences, among them psychology and perception, light and optics, and Surrealism. For my most recent launch, the View Collection, the primary interest was light and optical perception. I’ve always been drawn to the effects of light and space on how we perceive our surroundings. This sparked an interest in spatial perception. Architectural ideas of views, light, and space are perhaps less commonly discussed in furniture, but are very present themes in my pieces. The most powerful element of design is its affect, which sometimes has an immediate impact, but for the best pieces the affect becomes richer and clearer as you live with them. Works like the I-Beam Light, Coffee & Tea Tables, and Orb … Continue reading Caroline Chao
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Ben Willett

Los Angeles, willettspace.com Early this year, we discovered through Instagram and the Los Angeles grapevine that a former creative director and spatial designer for Nike and The North Face was noodling on his own furniture, after designing a bunch of it for the very stylish house he’d moved into with his wife, the chef and cookbook author Molly Baz. The work — inspired by the playful designs coming out of Europe in the ’60s and ’70s — was so nice we immediately invited Willett into our Collection, and are eagerly awaiting the launch of his first proper line in the coming months. What is American design to you, and what excites you about it? To me, American design is made up of the people participating in the industry. People’s varying backgrounds, where they live, and what they surround themselves with all make up the vast landscape of American design. I think what’s especially exciting about American design is that it’s forever evolving and changing. It’s not stuck in or beholden to a historical past that influences its aesthetic. It can and will evolve and change depending on what the American people are experiencing in their own lives and are gravitating towards culturally at any given moment. What are your plans and highlights for the upcoming year? My plans are to launch a furniture company! I’m working hard on finding new ways to bring prices down so that my pieces are more accessible to a wider audience. My shorter-term plan is to show my pieces in public settings a bit more (not just in private settings) so that more people can experience my design principles in real life. What inspires or informs your work in general? My work is inspired by warmth, sculpture, and human connection. My goal is to create pieces that fill spaces and to simultaneously create the very spaces they occupy. I want people to be able to connect through their proximity to one another within these spaces, and in doing so, experience the impact of intentional design.
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Alexis & Ginger

New York, alexis-and-ginger.com Alexis Tingey and Ginger Gordon’s studio benches happened to be positioned next to each other during their furniture design Master’s program at RISD, and after two years of sharing ideas and inspirations, the pair decided to set up a business together after graduating last year. 2023 saw the prolific pair launch not one but two impressive debut series — one of them part of The Sight Unseen Collection — whose wide-ranging materials and forms take inspiration from the designers’ extensive archive of architectural and cultural imagery. What is American design to you, and what excites you about it? American design is reflective — a collage of experiences and histories. Stories emerge from a breadth of voices, and there is nothing succinct about it. There is an unwillingness to be tethered and a yearning for a new morning. American design feels both fast and slow; it is innovative but just waking up, working hard now and hopeful for what’s ahead. What are your plans and highlights for the upcoming year? This April will mark our studio’s first full year. In 2024, we’ll launch our third collection. For this next series we’re inviting in a few new materials and processes. We’re looking towards light as a medium and working with materials of transparency, including stained glass and textiles, while continuing to bring in aspects of metalwork and carved wood. These objects are a continuation of storytelling through layered materiality and form. What inspires or informs your work in general? There’s a wall in our studio that’s in constant motion — an assemblage of inspirations like photographs, pencil sketches, tacked-up fragments of textiles, and material samples. The images we arrange and the collages we create are a visual poetry, a means of sketching and finding meeting points in our thinking. Our inspirations are often connected by a common thread of tactility and storytelling. We’re fascinated by the stories an object holds, written through its processes of making and the various hands it passes through. Handcraft traditionally associated with female makers — such as embroidery, quilting, and lacemaking — are a continuous touchstone for our work. This inspiration stems from the women in our lives and early memories of their craft. Our observations of these women creating were some of our first experiences viewing and learning how things were made, designed, and collected. These influences inspire the forms, materiality, and stories … Continue reading Alexis & Ginger
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Studio Herron

Chicago, studioherron.com We’ve been following Dee Clements of Studio Herron’s career for a long time — from her gorgeous woven textiles to the rug she designed for Land of Nod (RIP) to her baby steps into basketry. But her work truly blossomed when she began working with The Future Perfect during the pandemic. Her baskets grew in size and scope, mirroring both her personal and professional growth, and they began incorporating not only hand-dyed reeds but also painterly brushstrokes that hearken back to how Clements began her career: as a painter. When we were discussing Clements’s inclusion in this list, we said, “Bet she’s working on lighting next” — turns out we were right, and we can’t wait to see the results.  What is American design to you, and what excites you about it? I’m seeing in American design right now a sweet spot between art, craft, and design that elevates the quotidian into something dramatic, or magical, or exuberant. Namely, furniture and objects that mix typologies and/or materials to bring out fresh perspectives on the designed and built world. I am also seeing work by more women and people of color and that truly excites me! I want marginalized voices to have a seat at the table and a place in the spotlight. What are your plans and highlights for the upcoming year? This year I am really thrilled to have a solo exhibition of my work in Miami at Nina Johnson Gallery and a solo exhibition in my hometown of Chicago at 65 Grand, I really want to push myself to get big, wild, bold with the work. I also have several interior design projects in the works for 2023 in which I will be designing and making ambitious large scale sculptural lighting pieces. Lighting is something I have been timidly dabbling in and these projects will be an exciting challenge and opportunity to grow. My work recently became represented by The Future Perfect and I will continue to be making new pieces for them as well. What inspires or informs your work in general? I am inspired by The Carrier Bag Theory of Human Evolution, object ethnography, and feminism. The lineage of craft throughout human history is really interesting to me. It’s often something that is profoundly connected to economics and evolution, depending on the era. For the last three years I have been hyper-focused on researching the … Continue reading Studio Herron
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Taidgh O’Neill

Los Angeles, taidghoneilldesign.com O’Neill spent time working in construction, carpentry, and historic restoration before turning to furniture design a decade ago. (Fun fact: O’Neill designed a jaunty wooden chandelier for our 2012 Hotel California show!) In the years since, he’s shown his geometric works in wood with galleries like JF Chen and had them licensed by companies like Classicon, but his new work represents a departure into more … well, actually just more. More color, bigger proportions, a looser feel — we once referred to the chair at the top of this post as a Postmodern Pee-Wee chair. He’s also been growing his collection of rugs, which begin by rendering an architectural structure in 3D, casting simulated sunlight onto the structure to produce shadows, and then flattening the whole thing into a two-dimensional product. What is American design to you, and what excites you about it? I believe that a difference in mode of production from other world regions creates distinction in American design. In other continents, there exist countless design houses that license and produce contemporary design fitting with their visual arc. There are very few equivalents to this in the US. Instead, designers must take on the responsibility of producing their vision. As a result of this lack of consolidation and curation, there exists such a wide range of design forms and materials. It can be burdensome for individuals to simultaneously visualize, execute, and distribute their objects, but the results are fantastical. The US has, of course, a world reputation of being hyper-individualistic, so it ought to come as no surprise that the designs to emerge would be bold, exuding clear and unique authorship from individuals. In many instances around the world, one can look at a design and have a strong sense of the region in which it is generated. I believe that isn’t as true in the US because of this eclecticism. What are your plans and highlights for the upcoming year? For the last couple of years, I’ve been mindful of designing textiles, lighting, and furniture that would fit into our 1965 post-and-beam home in the El Sereno neighborhood of Los Angeles. I’m looking forward to wrapping up that slow-moving renovation. Other than that — continuing to carve out time and resources to keep making one-of-a-kind studio pieces. I have a few designs licensed by European manufacturers but I honestly get a lot more satisfaction from building unique commissions for local … Continue reading Taidgh O’Neill
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Willo Perron

Los Angeles, willoperron.com Perron might have the most unexpected resumé on this list. After getting his start in the early 2000s as a graphic designer and record label owner (and a brief stint designing for Rawkus Records), he was the force behind the High-Tech minimalism of American Apparel stores, earned a Grammy for his work with St. Vincent, designed sets for Drake and Rihanna, and designed Stüssy stores the world over. An exhibition of furniture at Matter last summer put Perron on our radar. Called “No Coasters,” it featured beanbag–inspired sofas, beds surrounded by a thicc velvet frame, and papasan-like chairs — basically our dream scenario. What is American design to you, and what excites you about it? Something about the new world and modernism and this very practical idea. The new world isn’t burdened with such a deep history, and gives you the opportunity to not be so fragile. If you compare European fashion, it’s very much focused on beauty and romanticism, versus American fashion, which has always been way more about function and innovation. It’s about technology, Silicon Valley, and strapping a rock to your car and sending it to space. What are your plans and highlights for the upcoming year? I’m currently working on the Super Bowl with Rihanna. We’re going to keep working on some furniture and interiors projects including a handful of stores for Stüssy, and a couple of shows and concert tours. What inspires or informs your work in general? I think a lot of it’s pretty visceral. It’s things that I like, or memories of my childhood. I find my environment and my friends the most interesting and inspiring people, but most of the time I put a pile of information in my brain and it matrixes itself and then I wake up and I’m like, “I got it!”
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Tiffany Howell of Night Palm

Los Angeles, nightpalm.com Before launching her interior design studio, Howell started out as a music video director and head of fashion photographer Herb Ritts’ music video agency. Music — and, perhaps, Ritts’ glamorous photographic eye — still informs everything she does. Howell’s interiors are lush, moody, filled with both iconic and obscure pieces of vintage — often European — and with a special eye for art. She’ll often say things to clients like “I want your house to feel like David Bowie,” or “I want the house to feel like a Stan Getz song.” And you know what? Every time it works, from the Hancock Park project she recently landed on the cover of Elle Décor to the hammam-inspired partnership she debuted with Studio Kohler at Design Miami.  What is American design to you, and what excites you about it? There is no one single design aesthetic standard here. It’s a melting pot of global influences where we extract various cultural ideas and implement them with a fresh perspective, and I feel there is a real freedom because of that. I also have always felt that American design acts as a marker for what is going on socially/politically and it feels quite reflective and storytelling in that way. These narratives inspire me personally as I romance the idea of the story. What are your plans and highlights for the upcoming year? 2023 is shaping up to be very busy year for us with multiple residential projects on both the West and East coasts (let’s just say there might be a skating rink involved) and several other commercial projects. We are also working on design collaborations with some very cool and creative brands — for example, a Night Palm tile and flooring line with Concrete Collaborative. And finally, we’ve been busy dreaming up on our own furniture and lighting lines that I hope to debut in late 2023 plus an art show experience which I’m hoping will launch in the late summer. What inspires or informs your work in general? The mystery and romance of things drive me. I always try to sit in the unknown when I am conceptualizing and before I enter the flow of any project. Next, I dive into the questions and motivation behind the space. I am so deeply interested in the depth of our emotional landscapes and how to bring that alive through the aesthetic. I often … Continue reading Tiffany Howell of Night Palm
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