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Kalon Studios Rugosa Offsite Online
06.17.20

Sight Unseen OFFSITE

Kalon Studios On Their Pared-Down Rugosa Collection and What It Truly Means to Be Essential

The word “perfect” is subjective. It holds within it an individual’s taste and proclivities, needs and non-starters. The search can be elusive, exhausting — but also thrilling and very satisfying. But we'd venture to say the new Rugosa collection from Los Angeles–based Kalon Studios offers a seven-piece slate of perfect living room pieces, for anyone tired of the hunt but also for anyone who’s over the idea of furniture that doesn’t actually get used, sat upon, or well-loved.
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06.17.20

Sight Unseen OFFSITE

In SAIC’s Whatnot Studio — As in Life — Utopia is an Impossible, But Ultimately Worthwhile, Pursuit

There’s no such thing as utopia. Coined by Thomas Moore in his 1516 book of the same name, the word "utopia" combines the ancient Greek roots for “not” and “place.” It’s a fiction, a nowhere, or at least a not-here-yet. But its perpetual absence — or deferral — shouldn’t leave us discouraged; its inaccessibility is precisely the point. “Utopia is an impossible ideal,” says designer Pete Oyler, “but one that designers continue to pursue. I think it's a testament to the persistence of the imagination and the ongoing quest for something better.” It was with this in mind that Oyler, along with designer Jonah Takagi, taught this year's Whatnot Studio within the School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s Designed Objects program.
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06.16.20

Sight Unseen OFFSITE

Cuff Studio’s New Collection Explores the Idea of Common Ground

So much of design can be about standing apart from the crowd. But for Cuff Studio, it was commonality that inspired their Offsite collection. For their Common Ground collection Kristi Bender and Wendy Schwartz of the Los Angeles–based studio looked to shared design elements that form not only a foundation within their practice, but in art and design as a whole. What they found was nature, form, shape, negative space, even community.
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06.16.20

Sight Unseen OFFSITE

A Teddy-Bear Chair, a Tennis-Court Rug: Play is Central to Everything Pieces Makes

In the world of Pieces, a rug can be inspired by a warm clay tennis court and a showroom can be a place you check into for a weekend away. Variations on the items that make up Collection III, which launched at Offsite Online, were first introduced in their shoppable Airbnb house in Kennebunk, Maine. The trio spent the whole of 2019 renovating the house and filling it with design products for guests to live amongst before purchasing.
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06.15.20

Sight Unseen OFFSITE

“Little Poop Stools” & An Anemone-Shaped Ottoman — Welcome to The Weird World of RISD’s MFA in Furniture Design

Student thesis projects can run the gamut, but this particular collection of them — representing the work of RISD’s 2020 furniture MFA graduates — happens to be much more sophisticated in execution than some of its playful starting points might suggest. Headed by Patty Johnson, the two-year program is co-taught by faculty members Ben Blanc, Lane Myer, Chris Rose and Emily Cornell du Houx. “The program is really focused on hands-on making and process-based learning — helping the students find their creative voice and what they imagine their creative practice to be,” says Blanc.
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06.13.20

Sight Unseen OFFSITE

Acid Camo, Ombré Glass, and Palm Tree Lights: It’s Part III of Our Offsite Selects Round-Up

Ever since we began hosting our Sight Unseen Offsite fair, it has always featured both full collection launches as well as a more gallery-like section called Selects, the latter meant to highlight only a piece or two each by a large, diverse group of designers. Now that our physical show has become Offsite Online, we’ve kept the Selects concept in tact, and we’re presenting those individual works in roundups on our main feed over three Saturdays this month. You can view the third and final group here.
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06.12.20

Sight Unseen OFFSITE

Lland’s New Copper Furniture is Meant to Age in Place, Because “Nothing is Perfect”

Rachel Shillander's copper Pipe Collection, debuting as renderings for Offsite Online, is made entirely of the lightweight alloy, in tribute to its quickly fading functional life as plumbing infrastructure in older homes, now often replaced by composite plastic tubing. The entire collection, which will eventually be available in a range of metals, is meant to “age in place,” making external what was once an unseen process. “I do respect that some people want it to stay new, but it’s meant to take on the characteristics of its home and its people,” says Shillander. “Nothing is perfect.”
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06.12.20

Sight Unseen OFFSITE

Studio POA’s Work Combines Natural Materials With Computer-Generated Growth Algorithms

Guatemala-born, New York–based designer Giovanni Valdeavellano blurs the boundaries between digital and analog, industrial and unrepeatable. His sculptural designs estrange familiar materials like glass, wood, ceramic, and steel to create fresh structures and shapes. We caught up with him to talk abstraction, technology, and the hand-made in an era of life taking place increasingly on the small screen.
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