01.27.16

Studio Visit

Chiyome’s Japanese-Inspired, Minimalist Handbags

It’s easy to look at the work of designer Anna Moss and draw associations with a familiar sort of functional Japanese minimalism: her line of handbags, CHIYOME, is named for her Japanese great-grandmother. Yet for Moss, the starting point is plainly straightforward: “I strive for simplicity and that can take many forms,” she explains. What interests her is not minimalism for the sake of it, but rather a focus on the bag as vessel; it’s a study less in stripping back and more in adding intentionality.

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01.26.16

Up and Coming

Isabel + Helen’s Constructivist-Inspired Kinetic Sculptures

What happens when restrictive graphic forms are expanded into three-dimensional objects? The kinetic sculptures produced by London-based duo Isabel Gibson and Helen Chesner seem to be one modern-day answer. In their projects, references to historical art and architecture movements are offset by an unabashedly free creative approach that escapes all formal restrictions. Even the final pieces are difficult to categorize: Are they sculptures, products, or props?

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01.25.16

Sighted

The Jewelry Line Every Design Lover Should Be Wearing Now

Plenty of jewelry lines are inspired by architecture, but rarely does one transcend a mere aesthetic exercise into the realm of the truly, truly chic. AGMES, the brand new line by New York designer Morgan Solomon, is a pretty exciting exception — not only does Solomon name-check the likes of Cini Boeri and Bertrand Goldman when talking about her inspirations, but her pieces have such a strong, sculptural presence that you could picture passing them on to your children someday.

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01.23.16

Saturday Selects

Week of January 18, 2016

A weekly Saturday recap to share with you our favorite links, discoveries, exhibitions, and more from the past seven days. This week: The latest iridescent confections, new ceramics from New York and L.A., and some early picks from Maison et Objet, including an exciting new design brand working with a powerhouse of emerging European talents (like Thevoz—Choquet, whose new bench is pictured above).

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01.22.16

At Home With

The Brooklyn Brownstone of Sit + Read’s Kyle Garner and Sharktooth’s Kellen Tucker

Kyle Garner and Kellen Tucker may do magazine-level work for clients, but when it comes to their own two-floor brownstone in Brooklyn’s Bed-Stuy neighborhood, it’s barely about looks at all. “The driving force is comfort,” says Tucker, who deals antique textiles through her shop Sharktooth. “If you close your eyes and walk into this house, does it feel good?” Garner, the furniture dealer and designer behind Sit + Read, agrees: “We prioritize the feeling over the aesthetic,” he says.

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01.05.15

Up and Coming

Hallgeir Homstvedt, Designer

As we prepare to welcome the new year, let's all take a moment to reminisce about how great 2014 was. Sure, some had better years than others, but there's one thing that can't be contested — Norwegian designer Hallgeir Homstvedt had an immensely successful run, launching four products to the market and cementing relationships with companies like Muuto, Lexon, and Established & Sons. So what is it exactly that brings manufacturers knocking at his door? We've got a hunch that it's the designer’s ability to be adaptable and cooperative throughout the design process, whilst sticking to a very distinct concept, something he learned on the job during a three-year stint with design studio Norway Says. His products are tactile and interactive, smart and perfectly proportioned.

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01.21.16

Shopping

Our New Secret Source for Amazing — and Affordable — Rugs

A few years ago, we were asked by one of the glossy magazines to name our go-to source for amazing, affordable rugs. At the time, we cited Rugs USA as the place to buy insanely cheap, reasonable facsimiles of ultra-trendy floor coverings — think Beni Ourains or overdyed Turkish kilims that look great in photographs, but won't exactly be passed down as heirlooms. But lately we've found ourselves scouring another extremely unlikely source for textile gems.

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01.20.16

Studio Visit

Exploring Furniture’s Dark Side with Material Lust

Just a year and a half old, Material Lust was born of a desire to fill glaring gaps in the world of home design: lighting that isn’t overpowered by its surroundings, for example, or a rug that does double duty as sculpture. Now four collections in, the studio's work is singular, striking, always made with extreme care and attention. It’s also often and unreasonably stereotyped.

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01.19.16

Up and Coming

Thea Djordjadze Is Your New Favorite Artist

The Georgian–born, Berlin-based sculptor has a way of combining references to modernist architecture with a palette of diverse, process-oriented materials like plaster, foam, and linoleum that's total catnip to those of us in the design world.

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01.16.16

Saturday Selects

Week of January 11, 2016

A weekly Saturday recap to share with you our favorite links, discoveries, exhibitions, and more from the past seven days. This week: House-hunting in Sao Paulo, previewing this month's design fairs (including the Eileen Gray-Victoria Wilmotte match made in heaven above!), meeting the Martha Stewart of Bushwick, and crushing hard on the offerings at new LA design store Consort.

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01.15.16

Sighted

The Design Brand That Wants to Be America’s Answer to Hay

When the New York–based housewares brand Good Thing relaunched its website this morning with new branding, a new design, and colorful new imagery by Seattle art director Charlie Schuck, it wasn't so much an attempt to simply update its visuals as it was to recast its entire mission statement: to be America's answer to all the popular Scandi brands offering super-accessible design.

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01.14.16

Sighted

A New Collection By a Dream Team of Canadian Designers

When we introduced you last month to Thom Fougere, creative director of the Canadian furniture brand EQ3, we had no idea this was coming down the pike: At next week's Toronto Interior Design Show, the brand will launch Assembly, a capsule furniture and accessories collection featuring designs by 10 of Canada's most exciting emerging designers, including Fougere himself, MSDS (who we featured last year) and Sight Unseen OFFSITE alum Zoë Mowat (whose beautiful geometric dressing table can be seen above).

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01.13.16

Up and Coming

A London Studio on the Fine Line Between Utility and Art

Whether working on functional displays or sculptural statements, London's Listen Studio has found a middle ground where it’s equally comfortable creating architectural interiors for high-end fashion brands or sculptural objects for more abstract settings.

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