Los Angeles, studiosamklemick.com A former fashion designer, Klemick transitioned to furniture two years ago after falling in love with wood-working and realizing she could use her new passion to address some of the more wasteful practices of her former industry. Many of Klemick’s works combine salvaged construction materials and deadstock or vintage textiles; her standout Bell chair, whose pillowy upholstery was inspired by Margiela’s famed 1999 Duvet coat, uses bleached lumber and factory seconds fabric, while her Quilted Side Table makes use of reclaimed Douglas fir. A newer body of work pairs fashion and furniture even more conceptually, with stools sporting giant carved ribbons. After showings in London, Milan, Miami, and a wonderfully sensitive recent joint exhibition with Canadian designer Jeff Martin for Objective Gallery, we’re excited to see where she goes next.  What is American design to you, and what excites you about it? The first thought that came to mind was, I don’t know! I hope American design is something that can be inclusive and free of definition, allowing room for everyone to have their own point of view. Maybe American design is then individualistic? There are trends that ebb and flow, but at the same time I feel like at any moment, depending on what city you are in or what designer’s studio, you could see something you have never seen before. What are your plans and highlights for the upcoming year? My first plan is to take a minute! The past year has been an incredible whirlwind. I was constantly producing new work, and I think this year I need to take a minute to pause and reflect a bit, but I also already have plans for my next large body of work, so we will see how much pausing I really do. I will also be part of Haworths second Design Lab, I’m super excited for this. The theme this year is sustainability, which ties in directly to my practice. I work with almost exclusively recycled materials, this is something very important to me. Haworth is opening their doors to us to utilize their resources for sustainable material exploration and research. Having never formally gone to school for this I am beyond pumped to have this opportunity to learn from their team and specifically Patricia Urquiola who heads the design lab. Potentially there is also a fashion collaboration in my future that I’m trying to put … Continue reading Sam Klemick

Los Angeles, reathdesign.com Nobody does wallpaper — and its associated color- and pattern-mixing — quite like Frances Merrill of Reath Design. Would you like a custom sofa upholstered in seven different shades of chenille? How about a living room featuring four different florals? Or a kitchen with lavender cabinets, checkerboard floors, cabana-stripe skirting, and a terracotta stove? Somehow, in Merrill’s hands, it all works.  What is American design to you, and what excites you about it? What I love about American design is similar to why I love working in LA. With the history of Hollywood, there is such a sense of possibility, in that you can really create anything you want from scratch, and there are fewer rules. The architecture is so eclectic, which also allows for experimentation, and an opportunity to pick and choose references in a fun, casual way. What are your plans and highlights for the upcoming year? We have been slowly settling into our new studio space, which has been a fun and collaborative project. I also moved into a new house this year, so will spend the next many years transforming it. What inspires or informs your work in general?   I find I am most inspired by an interesting house and an interesting person, and trying to figure out how they go together, and how the design can inform their lives. I also love to support designers, artists and artisans who are making interesting, unusual things, and finding ways to incorporate their work into our work. And I am continually inspired by old craft traditions that I get to rediscover, and re-introduce into people’s homes, and lives.

New York, piscinapiscina.com Piscina is the wide-ranging project of Natalie Shook, a Cuban-American artist who originally came to New York to study painting but soon discovered her love for carpentry and furniture-making. Shook runs a studio and storefront out of Red Hook in Brooklyn, where she works alongside and showcases the talents of her wood-working, ceramic-firing, and metal-smithing friends. At last year’s ICFF, she won Best New Designer and Best in Show on the merits of a ceramic side table and a modular shelving unit built around a grooved spine. But to our mind, her most interesting work to date is a collection of ceramic and wood sconces, whose decorative wood tenons can be daisy-chained to form an endlessly inventive wall-mounted unit.  What is American design to you, and what excites you about it? Thinking about what defines the American design community — and specifically our practice — the word accessibility comes to mind. In our outer orbit, there’s all of NYC, which gives us access to some of the greatest art, design, and talent in the world. Focusing in, I consider what it means to have our studio in Brooklyn, where we have access to almost any material or service, at almost any time, delivered to our doorstep. Piscina occupies half of a 10,000 sq.ft. building, and my husband runs his architecture practice, Camber Studio, out of the other half. I share Piscina’s studio with quite a few other artists and designers, so we’re fortunate to have access to a community of exceptionally talented individuals who I also happen to love working alongside. We built a caretaker apartment in the back where we live with our two kids and easily transition between studio life and home life. To me, the duality of this experience feels a little wild west and very uniquely American, with accessibility as a strong defining quality. What are your plans and highlights for the upcoming year? We have a small showroom directly around the corner from our studio, and I’ve been working on curating a few shows for this coming spring. I’m looking forward to working closely with the artists on those exhibitions and working on some collaborations for Piscina as well. We’ll be getting our e-commerce site up and running in the early part of next year, so my work and the work of the 20 or so other artists we work with will … Continue reading Piscina

Los Angeles, @theperfectnothingcatalog We first featured Frank Traynor of The Perfect Nothing Catalog almost exactly a decade ago, when he was selling commissioned works by Chen & Kai, Jessica Hans, Cody Hoyt, and more from a shack installed on a subway platform in Williamsburg — already a master of the high/low. His latest project, an exhibition at The Future Perfect called Can Opener of Myself — presumably a Whitman reference — features found objects like flashlights, trash cans, pizza wheels, switch plates, cherry pitters, tongs, and napkin dispensers, all of which have been plated in tin and encrusted with shells or jewels, turning each item into an intoxicating, joy-inducing object. It’s perhaps the most unlikely project to make this list, but what else is the point of design than to make the everyday extraordinary? What is American design to you, and what excites you about it? Other than drone bombs and robotic military dogs, I want to think about the Shakers and Sacred Harp and Prairie School and the hippies and our “folk” arts and craftspeople. I’m always rooting for the people figuring out how to live close to nature and how to offer beautiful things to each other — the kelp weavers and mud silkscreeners and coral castle builders and basement eel-pit keepers. What are your plans and highlights for the upcoming year? It’s really not in my nature to plan too far ahead. I’m looking forward to spending the winter in LA, letting work and projects and ideas unfold as they go. I want to try to get in to glassblowing, and I want to try to get on The Price is Right. What inspires or informs your work in general?  Thrift stores and hardware stores and dollar stores and restaurant supply stores and rock collectors and shell collectors; the Met’s American Wing visible storage; Johnathan Katz’s cabinet at The People’s Store in Lambertville, New Jersey; the worlds of ideas of Sid and Marty Krofft and William Morris and Lloyd Kahn.

New York, natalieweinberger.com As much as we love tableware and vessels, we remember how excited we were when Weinberger first began making ceramic lamps back in 2017 — one of which, an all-terracotta beauty, we put on the cover of our book — and then tiled tables, with Giancarlo Valle, two years later. She’s since expanded her practice into the realm of glass, both blown by her collaborator Kenny Pieper and cast herself in the same kilns she fires her ceramics in, the latter for a series of sconces with Jacqueline Sullivan Gallery that we’re hoping to see more of in 2024. What is American design to you, and what excites you about it? American design at this moment feels very open and expansive. There seems to be both a market and an audience for every expression and every style, especially for designers with an emphasis on experimentation and innovation. The growing appreciation for craft has been a true joy to witness in my own past decade in this line of work, and it’s exciting to think of all the new talents that will be rising up in the coming years. What are your plans and highlights for the upcoming year? 2024 is all about wrapping big projects that have been in progress for the better part of a year: a number of new tiled coffee tables, a series of new cast glass wall lighting, my biggest dinnerware commission to date, and an expansion of my glassware line made with glassblower Kenny Pieper. I’ll also be continuing my design work for CB2 dreaming up new dinnerware, barware, and stemware collections. What inspires or informs your work in general? Lately I’ve been inspired by the simple notion of “beautiful comfort.” Comfort can take on many forms. There’s visual comfort — that certain harmony of proportions, materials, shape, and texture that can quickly put your nerves at ease. And there’s of course physical comfort: how an object fits into your hand, your home, and your life at large — its ease of use. And lastly there’s sentimental comfort: the familiarity of a traditional shape, an object used and worn over time, or something intriguing that piques your curiosity. I’m currently traveling in Sri Lanka where I’ve been visiting various properties designed by the late architect Geoffrey Bawa, who was a clear master of incorporating comfort into his spaces at every level. That … Continue reading Natalie Weinberger

Denver, monicacuriel.art This may be the American Design Hot List, but our nomination of Curiel arose just as much from her functional objects, which we first spotted in Milan last year, as it did from the monochrome draped-plaster artworks we fell for in the collection of South Loop Loft — before we even realized, with delight, that they were made by the same person. Curiel’s practice is based around elevating simple materials like plaster, house paint, and grouting tools in part as an homage to her parents, who immigrated to Texas from Mexico and took her along as a child while they cleaned homes and worked on construction sites. What is American design to you, and what excites you about it? As a Mexican-American, I still believe in the American Dream — it fuels me, and I find a lot of hope in it. To me, American design reflects a unique fusion of dualities and embodies individualism. You can be a designer anywhere, but the opportunity to build something regardless of your background is unique here. This excites me because it removes creative boundaries and makes it possible to dedicate a career path to refining one’s creative vision. It grants me the freedom to celebrate both of my cultures while using my work as a vehicle to dive into diverse material and conceptual explorations. And as a woman, I’m excited to witness (and be a part of!) the more inclusive chapter of American design that’s being written. What are your plans and highlights for the upcoming year? A big goal of mine for this year is to continue exploring how my art and design practices intersect and prioritizing studio time and exhibition opportunities. I’m looking forward to a five-week residency at Anderson Ranch in the spring, where I’ll expand my work with plaster and integrate other mediums as well. I’m also collaborating with Boyd Lighting, a company with a 102-year legacy, to unveil a collection of lighting set to launch in late 2024. While I can’t reveal too much about that work yet, I can confirm that plaster is very much involved. What inspires or informs your work in general? My culture is my driving force and a constant source of inspiration. I visit Mexico annually to connect with my family and observe the familiar in new ways. Mundane structures like the “lavadero” (an outdoor sink made of stone or … Continue reading Monica Curiel

New York, markgrattan.com We first named Grattan to our Hot List back in 2018, when he was helping lead the studio VIDIVIXI in Mexico City. Since then, much has changed: he went solo, appeared in our book, moved back to New York, won Ellen’s Design Challenge, began working with Cristina Grajales gallery and Solange, and recently, nabbed the cover of Elle Decor with an interior he designed for Megan Rapinoe. Which is to say, he’s had a big two years, enough to demand a revisit — and an acknowledgement of his successes under his own name. What is American design to you, and what excites you about it? That’s a tough question. For a country that hates me so much, I’m amazed at how far I’ve gotten. If and when I get to the top, I’m excited to blast this shit wide open. What are your plans and highlights for the upcoming year? I need to get to know myself next year (for the first time?). I turn 40 at the end of this year. 2023 pushed me into corners I had no business being in. I was in places I thought I needed to be, but they turned out to be the wrong places. I learned a lot this year and wasted a lot of money doing it. The world I’m creating and have wanted for so long isn’t slowing down; I can see it behind me haunting me, ha. How do I find peace in the superficial necessity of it all? What I do creatively is fulfilling, but those things on the other side deserve scrutiny. My dreams at night are telling me I need to start giving back and how to do that has been the big question for me lately. What inspires or informs your work in general? I’ve been inhaling MDF dust for months, and painting it super glossy. High-gloss piano lacquer has been an internal trend for my practice. New pieces and old pieces are now taking on candy-like finishes. (Look for a huge oversized Hermanx in high-gloss cafe con leche). It’s not very common for my body of work, but I’ve been very satisfied. It’s a different type of retro glamour, and pairing the durable finish with metal finishes like polished stainless steel help keep my demons happy. I’ve made (another) sick bed for my apartment in Brooklyn in high-gloss black lacquer and … Continue reading Mark Grattan

New York, lukemalaney.com We first met Brooklyn woodworker Luke Malaney when we adopted his wavy hand-carved nightstand into our Collection, but this year he made his practice a little more interesting with the addition of hammered, patinated, torched, and waxed copper elements to his pieces, alongside his use of organic forms, paints, and dyes. We love a solo woodworker and Malaney — who studied traditional techniques with an old-school artisan in Rome — has the skills, but we do appreciate a twist on the genre. What is American design to you, and what excites you about it? It’s up in the air, really — a pretty vast spectrum. Technology has been on my mind lately when thinking of American design. Trying to understand what these new robotic ways of designing mean for my work, if anything. I don’t own a computer and I’m comfortable with that. I enjoy making my pieces from start to finish by hand, with old and modern machinery and hand tools. And learning how these materials react with the tools and machines, which took a long time. I enjoy mistakes and imperfections; sometimes mistakes turn into the design, sometimes the wood wants to do something else. Maybe that’s why some of these robotics make me feel a lack of intimacy with materials. A lack of connection with the work being created. But no matter the approach, the common thread remains. There are no real rules. You can hop on a cruise ship or kayak down a river, but it’s really about navigating the same body of water together, no matter the vessel. What are your plans and highlights for the upcoming year? I have some exciting commissions in the works. I’m looking forward to continued exploration into the materials I’m working with and seeing what doors they open, and close. I’d like to do some residencies this year — the idea of getting out of New York to make some new work in a different setting sounds refreshing. A couch, too. I definitely want to make a couch this year. What inspires or informs your work in general? Every time I go back to my mom’s house I get inspired. She’s always up to something — an artist in her own right, eclectic, has a good eye, and has a way of making the ridiculous work. I remember coming home as a kid one day and … Continue reading Luke Malaney

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

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

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

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