Here, we ask designers to take a selfie and give us an inside look at their life.
Age: 36
Occupation: Designer.
Instagram: @the_micah
Hometown: Gainesville, FL.
Studio location: Brooklyn.
Describe what you make: I make sculptural furniture that combines industrial forms with a whimsical edge.
The most important thing you’ve designed to date: I had the pleasure of designing and building a permanent office/writer’s room for the director and writer Julio Torres. It was a joyful task to create custom pieces that felt as wild and inventive as his totally original voice. I wanted to channel his fantastical ideas and energy into the ethos of the space so it would reciprocally inspire creativity.
Describe the problem your work solves: My work is an escape from the banal. It is heavy, bold, present. My work doesn’t necessarily make solutions—it complicates environments. It is interactive and stimulating. It should be the antidote to disassociation in design. It’s the opposite of quiet luxury brown.
Describe the project you are working on now: I just launched a 16-piece collection of new work called City Block that explores the major themes of metropolis and artifact—where modernity and antiquity meet. The furniture and lighting evokes both classical architecture and modern skylines. These works are at once inspired by living in New York City with all its newness and grandeur, while also being rooted in old craft and handmade artisanship.
A new or forthcoming project we should know about: Several new pieces of mine will be featured in the upcoming HBO series Fantasmas from Julio Torres premiering this June.
What you absolutely must have in your studio: I love keeping off-cuts of material and old projects around to play with and be inspired by, kind of like toys for metalworkers. Also, lots of Turkish coffee.
What you do when you’re not working: Exploring the city and trying something I’ve never tasted before. The moment it starts to get warm I’m driving to the beach as much as I can.
Sources of creative envy: Carol Bove, Isamu Noguchi, Alexander Calder, Beverly Pepper.
The distraction you want to eliminate: Immediately forgetting where I just put that tool.
Concrete or marble? Steel.
High-rise or townhouse? High-rise.
Remember or forget? Forget.
Aliens or ghosts? The word for nefarious spirits in Hebrew is “Shedim” and I think about them all the time.
Dark or light? Light.
Portrait photography by Sophie Parker.
