San Diego, nbijan.design In little more than a year, Nicholas Bijan Pourfard went from a guy known for making guitars out of skateboards to a designer with a full portfolio of furniture and lighting — including one of our favorite lamps of 2021, the quirky all-clay Mushroom lamp. While he has a stated preference for simple constructions and rigorous forms, his pieces are never lacking in personality. What is American design to you, and what excites you about it? American design can mean many different things. We’re a diverse country with many cultures, which are all reflected in our design. As an Iranian-American designer who grew up in Southern California, I draw inspiration from many different areas of my background. I think this is what sets American designers apart. We grew up in a blended environment with different cultural experiences and resources all around us. What are your plans and highlights for the upcoming year? I hope to design larger pieces that test the boundaries of the materials I use. I’m currently prototyping designs that blend very different elements, which is taking my love for simple design and incorporating an unlikely second material within. So far, I don’t think I’ve reached the limit of what’s possible with glass, wood, or ceramic — and more complex ways of using the materials together. One of my main goals is to create designs that are functional and unique without being over-conceptualized. What inspires or informs your work in general? It inspires me to see people who are really masters of their craft. As a designer, I get to work with immensely talented people who help me prototype my designs as well as produce them. To see them in their own element is very inspiring. What I love about the design community I’m a part of is our ability to assist each other in our work. I greatly value growing relationships with the people I work with, and I think it adds to the outcome of every piece. Evan Lopez is a perfect example. He’s an incredible ceramicist and has been instrumental in the production of my Mushroom lamp. I’m inspired by his skill as well as his designs, and the large ceramic pieces he produces. Moving back to San Diego, which shares a border with Mexico, it was illuminating to see how much was happening here. The longer I’ve been here the more I’ve tapped into this … Continue reading Nicholas Bijan Pourfard

Brooklyn, minjae.kim Born in Seoul but now based in Brooklyn and Queens, Minjae Kim cut his teeth working in the interiors and furniture studio of former ADHL honoree Giancarlo Valle. With Valle, Kim shares a certain sense of poetry, but in Kim’s hands, the meticulous craftsmanship and humorous forms are all infused with strains of his South Korean identity and upbringing. A summer show at Marta Gallery in Los Angeles cemented Kim as a force to be reckoned with. What is American design to you, and what excites you about it? I’m actually quite uncertain if there is a clear definition of what American design is these days but perhaps this uncertainty in its identity is what allows the American design market to be so eclectic, allowing everyone to find their own pockets — which I find extremely comforting. What are your plans and highlights for the upcoming year? I’m planning on having a duo-show at Matter in April with Myoung Ae Lee, a South Korean painter who also happens to be my mother. This will be a nerve-wracking attempt to share a very personal story and also to bring my family into my professional life but concurrently an extremely introspective opportunity as I launch into a full year of solo practice. What inspires or informs your work in general? I think at the core of my work is the desire and need to connect, which applies broadly to the masters and contemporaries that I reference, the material that I use, and also my audience — which is why making work is often the most grounding experience for me. I suppose in that sense I’m always drawn to a certain animistic aspect to material practice and seeing more and more of that in my own work.

Brooklyn, michalcihlardesign.com Michal Cihlar studied architecture and worked for the fashion mecca Opening Ceremony, so it makes sense that his furniture would meld rigorous structures with more loosely draped organic elements. His latest pieces — foam-bodied seats dressed in micro-pleats that have been hardened with resin and spray-painted to obscure their materiality — are among our favorite pieces of 2021. What is American design to you, and what excites you about it? What comes to mind today when I think of American design is the vast amount of diversity and strong sense of individualism it has to offer. You never know what is next and the unpredictability is exciting, it keeps things fresh and interesting. Furthermore there is a growing appreciation for design produced on a small scale where the designer themselves have a hand in the production process. This excites me as it creates a space for something other than large scale traditional production which has been historically prevalent in America. What are your plans and highlights for the upcoming year?  I just started working for Misha Kahn a few weeks ago. Aside from that I would love to explore casting with metal or resin, as well as metal-working in general. What inspires or informs your work in general?  Currently what informs my practice is the characteristics of the materials I am working with. Today I primarily work with resin, foam, textile, and fiberglass. What fascinates me the most about these materials is the shift in material characteristic over time — the transformation from a liquid or malleable state to a solid permanent state. The ease of manipulation and fluid characteristic of these materials appeals to me and inspires the forms, which tend to be fluid and organic in nature. I would love to be able to further explore this phenomenon of transformation through casting with metal or resin. In some instances I also reference historical works of art or fashion in my own work, from Issey Miyake’s Spring 1995 collection in my pleated series or my three legged black armchair in reference to a 13th-century Mycenaean terracotta sculpture — “Female Figure In Three Legged Chair.”  I also like to think about each piece being its own character and through form and process building its identity. Not quite anthropomorphic but maybe slightly animated. 

Brooklyn, husband-wife.us Partners in work and in life (the name isn’t ironic), Justin Capuco and Brittney Hart had worked for a who’s who of interior design firms (Rafael de Cardenas, Peter Marino) before joining forces in 2015. They’ve been simmering for a while, creating incredible work for Roll & Hill at the company’s New York showroom and show-stopping Salone booths. This year, though, they bolted out of the gate, debuting two residences that showcase the depth of their ambition and their impeccable, ‘50s Italian–inspired aesthetic. What is American design to you, and what excites you about it? It’s hard to wrap our heads around “America” at the moment. That being said, the spirit of operating from necessity — making the best of what you’ve got — is an optimistic ethos that we value and feel still permeates American Design. In lieu of tradition, American Design adopts from a patchwork of cultural influences.  From this seems to come a freedom to remix and reinterpret, to experiment. American Design is a wild ecosystem. Generally, if you look at French design, Italian Design, Japanese design, you can see certain codes that speak to the country of origin. There is a reasonably evident cultural throughline, often rooted in historical reference. In American Design, these traditional codes feel much less evident, sometimes replaced by more apparent generational shifts. We love this constant reinvention. There is something beautiful in the ignorance that exists when historical reference isn’t as present — there is so much excitement and freedom in discovery. We are excited to see how a current emphasis on natural, crafted materials is incorporated into broader ideas about the future. What are your plans and highlights for the upcoming year?  From a life perspective, we hope to travel for the first time in forever. So much of our inspiration is derived from exploration and the pandemic has really impacted that. Professionally, we feel super fortunate to be working with incredible clients on a number of projects with significant scale shifts. We’re just wrapping up a really great large-scale office space in the financial district of Manhattan. The client has been wonderful — very design interested, unafraid of challenging ideas surrounding office programming. And just across the street we are working on a boutique workplace concept in a historical building with a great local client. We are making progress on a large home in Ohio that is part historical home and part ground-up … Continue reading Husband Wife

Brooklyn, ellenjpong.com Ellen Pong never went to art school and began making ceramic furniture only last year. But, as she told Curbed earlier this spring, “there’s so much possibility in being naïve.” A nubby French blue massage stool, a vase fashioned after a Wilson tennis racket, a tissue box that resembles a slightly grotesque charcuterie board — if this is what naïveté looks like, consider us all in.  What is American design to you, and what excites you about it? I honestly have no idea what American design is. I have a vague idea of what an academic answer might sound like, but I’ll spare myself the embarrassment. I’m relatively new to design. I don’t even know if what I’m doing is design. My hunch is that there’s no American design now, there’s just Instagram. But that’s not to say design isn’t exciting anymore. There’s a lot of bad stuff out there, but it makes it all the more exciting when you come across something really great. It just happens on a smaller scale. They say it gets really bad before it gets good, and there’s something kind of exciting about that, too — about not knowing where we are or where it’s going.  What are your plans and highlights for the upcoming year?  I keep telling myself that I’m going to explore materials outside of ceramics, but I never get around to it because I’m lazy and my brain only knows how to make things out of dirt. But next year, I swear, I’m going to do it! I work out of a communal studio building in Ridgewood called Permanent Maintenance, and everyone there is working on different things, in different materials, so I’m just going to bug the shit out of all of them until I know how to use a table saw.  I’ve also been thinking more about making collections of objects rather than just singular works. I’d like to spend more time thinking about the relationships between pieces and how they could come together to create larger installations. I’m looking forward to pursuing that and seeing where it leads. Also, for most of this past year and the year before, I was working at a desk in the communal ceramics studio in my building. I recently moved into a private studio space, and now have much more room to make a huge mess and collect lots of junk, so I plan … Continue reading Ellen Pong

New York, bluegreenworks.com After logging time at Apparatus and The Future Perfect, designer Peter B. Staples struck out on his own this year, forming a new company with friend James McAvey and releasing two collections of sophisticated lighting — one with thick, flared-glass profiles, the other in soft, amber-hued fiberglass — that draw from influences as disparate as stained glass, ’60s Fire Island Brutalism, and New York City skate parks. What is American design to you, and what excites you about it? Asphalt, bubble gum, Chicago dogs, Howlin’ Wolf, Marlboros, muscle cars, plywood, gay rights, New York City. What are your plans and highlights for the upcoming year? We are working on the next collection and also diving into some collaborations with other artists. The best part of this is the opportunity to work with people I love and admire. I want to show people what I think Blue Green is and what I want it can be. I’m excited to be here. What inspires or informs your work in general? What inspires me most is an energy or an attitude. When I see it in physical form, it’s a combination of the singular and the ubiquitous. It’s like there’s a clear hum between things that I’m looking for. I like objects that communicate across boundaries — things that translate to many spaces and aesthetics and still feel perfectly in place. I think it’s about a certain directness of form and honest storytelling — not some towering narrative —just a bold reflection of the things that inspired it and the people who created it. I am always looking for these objects and learning from them.

Los Angeles, bennetschlesinger.com Bennet Schlesinger’s lights tend to follow the same formula — a roughly textured ceramic base paired with a delicate but rigid shade, made from a latticework of bamboo strips and a hardened archival paper shell. But within that framework, Schlesinger experiments endlessly, using different clays, glazes, patterns in the bamboo, and forms, from a base that’s more like a small catchall to a bulging monolith. His new amber lights are being shown at Stanley’s in Los Angeles this month.  What is American design to you, and what excites you about it? I’m not entirely sure how to pin down or describe American design as a whole. I imagine design in its most pervasive cultural force would be in product and packaging design. These can be subtle and unilaterally experienced by all Americans, and I find this type of democratic visual output the most interesting. When looking through a grocery store it can be easily seen that there is a cultural language at play. This can be exciting to notice and hone into. What are your plans and highlights for the upcoming year? I’m excited to work on some major large-scale pendant lights and to keep pushing present ideas I’m working through. Because of the time consuming nature of my work, its visual narrative will take a few more years to congeal. My main commitment is to maintaining a natural feel and subtle quiet expression. What inspires or informs your work in general? My work is most influenced by the nature of the material used: clay and its chemical geological transformation, paper and wood reed and its nuanced shift based on daily/hourly atmosphere changes. I find these shifts to be really interesting. Additionally I try to spend time with nature: in the ocean, looking out the window, noticing its pace, and hoping to align myself closer and closer to it over time.

New York, arathorose.com Cranbrook grad Ara Thorose channels notions of queer identity through design in a thoroughly novel way — via the bent cylinder, a form he returns to over and over in his work, be it a chair, a glass-topped side table, or simply a sculpture. A bending cylinder, he explains, “veers into the margin, a space both unprotected and unencumbered by the boundaries signified by lines. By making standard things like chairs from bending cylinders, I flow the margin into the line, so as to engulf and embrace it.” What is American design to you, and what excites you about it? From a background of being Armenian, Iranian, and American, what’s distinctive about the American element comes down to individuality. Anywhere else in the world, who you are is always tied to where you come from. Here, it’s about where you’re headed. Within that is an incredible sense of optimism — the unique American opportunity to self-invent. What excites me about American design is that sense of permission. Anywhere else, it looks like you’re breaking rules. Here, we’re just building our own. What are your plans and highlights for the upcoming year? I’m currently working on my first solo show. It’s a limited-edition collection for Love House, due in the new year. [Love House founders] Jared and Arik approached me this past summer with a proposition: “Have you ever thought about making a sofa?” As it turned out, the thought had only just crossed my mind, so it’s kismet. There’s also a unique collection exclusively for Twentieth. Growing up in LA, I’ve always been enamored by what they represent, so to work with them now feels very special. More soon. On the home front, I just moved from Brooklyn to a new live/work space on the Upper East Side. It’s an exciting change and I’m looking forward to exploring my new neighborhood. What inspires or informs your work in general? I’m inspired by the notion of queer ingenuity. I think it comes down to turning a flaw into an essential part of something new. It’s ad hoc and gritty, pulled together with limited means. Out of necessity, you naturally optimize the potential of everything available – materials, space, even your own body. The genderedness of materials, and the classism of them — the normal order to those things get turned upside-down, with a sense of humor. Queer club culture plays … Continue reading Ara Thorose

Brooklyn, thewhitearrow.com Using their own beautifully gut-renovated Brooklyn home as a calling card, married couple Keren and Thomas Richter have built up a full-fledged interior design firm over the past few years, with a knack for bridging traditional Old World aesthetics with a highly playful contemporary vibe. We’re such big fans that Jill even chose the firm to helm her own interior renovation — a project we’ll be highlighting here next spring.  What is American design to you, and what excites you about it? American Design is inherently international. Our country doesn’t have the longest track record of craft or history, which frees us up to play and take risks. We don’t feel weighed down by any cultural expectations. What we think is really special is the mixing of cultures and various ideas and techniques generated by the totally distinctive coasts, the first generation families, the kids moving here and giving their dreams a chance. There is a great sense of possibility, drama, play, and endless technological innovation. We really enjoy what is happening in furniture, lighting, ceramics, glass, wallpaper, and textiles, and we hope to design our own line soon! What are your plans and highlights for the upcoming year? We are adding a tiny human to our family, working on some spectacular townhouses in Brooklyn and Manhattan, a few free-standing homes outside of NYC, and unveiling the five apartments we designed for a new Brooklyn development. We’re hoping to photograph several of our recently completed projects in the new year, and we’re in the thick of renovating a client’s townhouse that we’ve been involved with designing from the ground up. It’s a fascinating process. Some of our recently completed interiors will also make their way into books and in print, and that’s also exciting! Being published is always a thrill. In an ideal scenario, we’d also get to travel to Europe (we have family there and try to visit a few times a year), but the world is a weird place, and who knows what will happen come summer. What inspires or informs your work in general?  Lately, we’ve been thinking about what makes space “cozy” and “warm.” It’s as much about refreshing what we find inspiring as much as it is about creating a safe space and an intimate environment while sheltering in place. We are in nesting mode and are gravitating towards darker and richer colors, layered textures, with … Continue reading White Arrow

Brooklyn, tangible.space Michael Yarinsky is the ultimate multi-hyphenate. We first got to know him as founder and curator of Brooklyn’s Cooler Gallery, which literally turned a walk-in freezer into a showcase for art and design. Since then he’s made a name for himself as founder of the design studio Tangible Space, creating furniture and lighting for the likes of Made By Choice, and designing corporate interiors for young start-ups like Billie and Uprise Art and residential ones for friends like Nick and Rachel Cope of Calico Wallpaper. Definitely one to watch.  What is American design to you, and what excites you about it? A frequent phrase we throw around at our office (maybe an unofficial slogan of ours) is “No Style, No Discipline” in reference to the way we approach each project free from the constraints of stylistic trends or a single scale of design. We feel that the freedom of thought afforded in the American design world allows us the flexibility to work this way — constantly questioning and constantly experimenting. Additionally, the collaborative nature of American design and the ability to leverage the skills and resources of a community of designers allows us to make far more impactful projects. What are your plans and highlights for the upcoming year? In the new year we aim to expand our projects further outside of NYC — to the West Coast and abroad. We are pushing into larger and more intricate fields of design, like hospitality, which unify many of our various interests. We love to incorporate culture, design at multiple scales, and new approaches to social interaction. Larger, more complex projects present opportunities to explore these elements on a deeper level. Expanding into new locations affords us a new starting point and learning experience from which to design. We also plan to continue to grow our culture & advocacy work, like Design Advocates, Cooler Gallery, and People in Places. Design Advocates is a network of experienced architecture, design, and advising firms, as well as individuals, who volunteer their time and expertise to collaborate on projects, research, and advocacy to serve the public good. Cooler Gallery is an art gallery that focuses on the physical border of large art, design, and manufacturing communities; the curation aims to reflect the essence of this intersection. People In Places is a monthly gathering that began to both broaden and deepen the discussion of the interior and the human-space … Continue reading Tangible Space

Brooklyn, @studiopoa Giovanni Valdeavellano was a fun discovery for our Offsite Online show this year. The Guatemalan-born designer creates work that combines sculpture, digital technologies, and craft; it often has one foot in the computer and one on the lathe.  What is American design to you, and what excites you about it? I believe design in America is the enrichment of our diverse heritage, mixing in the most cosmopolitan cities like New York. In the beginning, designs were inspired by things brought mainly from Europe where aesthetics were dictated by religion or politics. But American freedom and the mix of cultures quickly started to shape things in a fascinating new way. New trends developed through the advancement of technologies that skyrocketed thanks to the merging of personalities hungry for a better future and the possibilities that the new world offered. Today we are lucky to live in an era where evolution has taken its course and we have developed a new heritage. I believe New York City is the epicenter of design, and that trends now expand to the world not from here but through here. This incomparable city receives the best from every corner of the world and gives it all back, spiced and seasoned by our own culture. I’ve had the most amazing experience, meeting, learning, and collaborating with great personalities from all over. New York City life is the best design school of the world. What are your plans and highlights for the upcoming year? My plans drastically changed due to the current situation with the pandemic. An opportunity has emerged in London where I plan to go and expand my network and learn. Just a few weeks ago I became an American citizen after living and fighting the good fight in this grandiose land for the past 20 years. Now I go to Europe as an American, which makes me super proud! The oath ceremony was a very emotional experience, officiated by Judge Mary Kay Viskocyl, who made me cry the whole time.  She reminded me that true Americans can come from anywhere. What an example she is! What inspires or informs your work in general? My work is inspired by the most bizarre things and my sources constantly change but currently I’m working on a commission for a client from Brooklyn who found Studio POA through Sight Unseen. He was looking for a Guatemalan artist to make him a centerpiece for his new residence. A few … Continue reading Studio Poa

Brooklyn, sorenferguson.com 23-year-old designer Soren Ferguson might be the youngest person we’ve ever featured on the Hot List but the RISD grad has both the pedigree — he’s worked for Vonnegut/Kraft, Misha Kahn, Eny Lee Parker, Grain, and more — and the chops. We have absolutely no idea what he’s going to make next — and that’s a good thing.  What is American design to you, and what excites you about it? To talk about American design as whole, I could spin some platitude about capitalism or values but really I don’t feel I have that grasp over it. American design is an aggregate of so many different self-actualized design communities; it’s not as a body that I see it, but locally. I experience it through the lens of Brooklyn. Here I’ve found there is an impetuous quality I really identify with. I think there is a nouveau riche sort of thing happening. A repudiation of the old. Things can be brash and not thought through, a little silly and definitely breaking with traditional notions of craft. Perhaps that’s no new observation but rather a recognition of a long existing pattern. Nonetheless I’m happy to be a part of its current iteration. What are your plans and highlights for the upcoming year? I hope for exposure to new materials and new ways of making. I hope for more of that to come unconventionally and in lived experience. This past year certainly facilitated that. Quarantine had me carving the stones I’d find on walks at the beach. I think that’s a sentiment I’d like to carry into 2021 — going to the source so to speak. What inspires or informs your work in general? Right now informality. When I left school and the infrastructure I had there, the way I worked had to change, too. What were predictable and solvable problems with the support of an institution now require makeshift solutions. Those traditional methods — whose efficacy lie in a well-funded shop — are exchanged for alternatives improvised in its absence. It’s equal parts the wrong tool for the job and navigating a subway turnstile with a sheet of plywood. It’s certainly not the most productive way of making furniture nor is New York the place for that, but there’s a scrappiness I like and a resourcefulness I hope to carry forward.