12.06.21

American Design Hot List

Announcing Our 2021 American Design Hot List Honorees

Today we’re pleased to announce the honorees of our ninth annual American Design Hot List, an unapologetically subjective editorial award for the names to know now in American design. The list acts as Sight Unseen’s guide to those influencing the design landscape in any given year — whether through standout launches, must-see exhibitions, or just our innate sense that they’re ones to watch.

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12.04.21

Saturday Selects

Week of November 29, 2021

A weekly Saturday recap to share with you our favorite links, discoveries, exhibitions, and more from the past seven days. This week: a Calder-inspired exhibition in Melbourne, a psychedelia-inspired glassware collection, and a trippy lazy susan on which to spin canapés — or other passed things — at your next holiday party.

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12.03.21

Interiors

The Architect Remaking Santa Barbara, One Outrageously Fun House At a Time

Architect Jeff Shelton has spent his career re-contextualizing the streets of Santa Barbara, California. Whether for residences, businesses, or — soon! — public infrastructure, amidst the endless white “Spanish-style” buildings that define the city, Shelton's whimsical reimagining of the familiar plaster forms stand out. Squiggly purple metalwork, psychedelic patterns, irregular voids, curiously slumped volumes, and unconventional glasswork create structures that, while remaining distinctively Santa Barbara, are also unquestioningly his own.

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12.02.21

Interiors

A Chat with Erwan Bouroullec About Textiles, Layering, and His Studio’s Newest Showroom for Kvadrat

French designers Erwan and Ronan Bouroullec have such a long and creatively productive history with the celebrated textile producer Kvadrat that they’ve become something like family. So when the Danish company decided it wanted to establish a foothold in Los Angeles this fall, the Bouroullecs came up with a concept that’s a little less like a showroom and a little more like a home — literally. We spoke to Erwan about the project, as well as about how textiles change the way people behave, which design elements make a home, the importance of layering, and the power of stairs.

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12.01.21

Gift Guides

Pom Pom Pillows and Hand Rugs: The Sight Unseen Gift Guide, Part III

For those of you who would rather give your partner a hand-thrown ceramic vase than a mass-manufactured one, or are more into gifting your sibling a carved-wood ice bucket than the latest iPad, this guide is for you: Click through to see and shop our top 14 handmade gifts from Wescover's stable of independent makers — including Maja Dlugolecki, Christopher Norman, Esque Studio, and more.

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10.22.19

Current Obsession

RIP Design Legend Ingo Maurer, Who Was More Relevant Than Ever

In a strange twist of fate, we had a story on the recent resurgence of legendary lighting designer Ingo Maurer on our calendar for today, even before we'd heard of his passing at the age of 87. We had of course followed Maurer's work over the course of our 15 years in the design world, but we had never gone in for Maurer's more purposefully kitschy designs. But to focus solely on those works is ignore Maurer's sheer breadth of output, and to dismiss a collection of his lights that has recently begun to feel more contemporary and relevant than ever.

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11.30.21

Gift Guides

Gloopy Cake Plates and Striped Dog Beds: The 2021 Sight Unseen Gift Guide, Part II

We always look forward to putting together our annual gift guides, where we get to turn our brains off, scour our favorite stores for wishlist-worthy objects, and focus on sheer indulgence for a minute. What's our favorite candle this year, our favorite wine glass? Which books are we dying to have on our coffee table now, and in the case of Jill (whose guide is featured today), which which four-figure Gio Ponti vase? (Yep, that's how we're rolling this year.) We hope you can get some inspiration from these lists — particularly when it comes to supporting small businesses and talented independent makers.

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11.29.21

Gift Guides

Foot Vases and Artichoke Plates: The 2021 Sight Unseen Gift Guide, Part I

We always look forward to putting together our annual gift guides, where we get to turn our brains off, scour our favorite stores for wishlist-worthy objects, and focus on sheer indulgence for a minute. What's our favorite candle this year, our favorite wine glass? Which books are we dying to have on our coffee table now, and in the case of Monica (whose guide is featured today), which foot-shaped vase? We hope you can get some inspiration from these lists — particularly when it comes to supporting small businesses and talented independent makers.

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11.23.21

Sighted

This 20th-Century Vintage Design Store in London is Giving Peak Postmodern Maximalism

Vintage dealer M.Kardana opened a store on Hackney Road in London earlier this year, a physical space that allows owner Mario Kardana to take joy in the arranging of things. “What I love is curating all of these various pieces that could be 70 years apart and making them work together and complement each other,” he says. “I always make sure to mix styles and eras as this is what I find the most fun and interesting.” Downstairs, on the original wonky wooden floorboards, it’s maximalist and colorful whereas the newer upstairs room is more suited to Postmodern and clean-cut pieces.

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11.22.21

Interiors

Tour the Unbelievable 1930s Color-Blocked Fantasy Interior Hiding Inside a Simple Brick Building in Belgium

The modernist pioneer Jozef Schellekens was the public architect of Turnhout, a Belgian town halfway between Antwerp and Eindhoven, where he worked on schools and city halls. But his best-known and greatest work was his own house, a 1935 rectangular brick-and-glass structure whose simplicity belies the expressiveness of its interior, where Schellekens created a colorful world full of bespoke built-in furniture and other functional and decorative details.

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11.20.21

Saturday Selects

Week of November 15, 2021

A weekly Saturday recap to share with you our favorite links, discoveries, exhibitions, and more from the past seven days. This week, taste the rainbow: a new, multicolored chandelier by Bec Brittain, an iridescent rock table by Anne Nowak, and a shop in LA that transitions from terracotta to Yves Klein Blue as you move through the space.

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11.18.21

Giveaway

Win a $2,000 Credit For This Zwirner-Backed Site That Lets You Buy High-End Art in Your Pajamas

By doing away with the inquiries-only model, the new click-to-buy online marketplace Platform makes acquiring high-end art easy and transparent — you don't even need to be a collector, much less a VIP, to shop it (interior designers take note!). Backed by David Zwirner gallery, it offers 100 original works each month, by artists ranging from Lily Stockman to Erin O'Keefe to Kalup Linzy, at prices ranging from $1,500 to $50,000 — and if you win this giveaway, you could have one of them hanging in your living room. Click through to enter!

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11.17.21

Shopping

23 On-Trend Menorahs for Throwing the Latke Party of Your Dreams

For years, Judaica was majorly overlooked in the design world. There was, like, the one cool menorah. But if you celebrate Hanukkah — like your faithful Sight Unseen editors do! — you're in luck. Suddenly there is a plethora of cool menorahs! Not to mention some lovely Shabbat candlesticks, seder plates, and even a mezuzah or two! Here are a 22 of our favorites just in time for the holiday.

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