Here, we ask designers to take a selfie and give us an inside look at their life.
Age: 43 (Ben). 41 (Aja).
Occupation: Designers.
Instagram: @benandajablanc
Hometown: Providence, RI.
Studio location: Providence, RI.
Describe what you make: We design and make lighting, mirrors, objects, and furniture. We love to partner materials and objects that don’t always make sense together on paper, but work aesthetically in unexpected ways.
The most important thing you’ve designed to date: Our Halfmoon mirror was one of the first objects we truly collaborated on to design and it certainly has turned into a special piece for the studio. It set the tone for our continued exploration of pairing disparate materials in unique ways.
Describe the problem your work solves: Our objects need a certain kind of philosophical container to exist within—it’s one that’s optimistic and asks “why not?” which we think is a useful question in general.
Describe the project you are working on now: A show at Casa Perfect New York that debuts our work in ceramic (in addition to glass, mirror, and horsehair). It wasn’t a day after the show was shipped to New York that we were back in the studio making new vessels that continue working through our ideas. Work begets work and we’re eager to keep working through these obsessive, productive periods. More disparate material partnerships—glass and mirror with horsehair and weaving. Light and ceramic. Soft and strong, flat and three-dimensional. Objects that are not masculine, not feminine, and neither equal.
A new or forthcoming project we should know about: The Future Perfect recently opened our show “Kingdom for a Horse” on May 5.
What you absolutely must have in your studio: Pen, paper, scissors, and a wall (Ben). Same as Ben, but I love sketching with procreate on the iPad. Also, our daughter in kindergarten has something in her classroom called the “calming corner”— I’d like one of those in the studio (Aja).
What you do when you’re not working: Our pie chart is pretty evenly split between the studio, parenting our daughters, looking for noodles, and most recently rock climbing.
Sources of creative envy: So many. Richard Tuttle, Bruce Neuman, Donald Judd, Meret Oppenheim, Philip Guston, Charlotte Periand, Ray Eames, Vladimir Kagan, Louise Bourgeois, Andrea Zittel, on and on and on. There are so many talented people!
The distraction you want to eliminate: Noodles (Ben). I don’t get distracted to be honest (Aja).
Concrete or marble? Marble.
High-rise or townhouse? Townhouse.
Remember or forget? Forget.
Aliens or ghosts? Aliens.
Dark or light? Both.
