Here, we ask designers to take a selfie and give us an inside look at their life.
Age: 32
Occupation: Designer and founder of From: C.
Instagram: @fromc_co
Hometown: San Francisco.
Studio location: New York.
Describe what you make: Furniture and interior spaces.
The most important thing you’ve designed to date: I’m very excited about two upcoming projects: a collaboration with a retailer for a new line of furniture which focuses on wood and woven pieces celebrating the hand of the maker, and a piece for an upcoming show in May highlighting AAPI female designers during NYCxDesign. The collaboration has been amazing to work together with a talented team and to eventually see the pieces exist at a scale and quantity that simply wouldn’t be possible on my own.
The latter exhibition allows me the freedom to create a one-off, personal, and somewhat intimate piece combining many of the same optical elements I’ve been experimenting with, but within a cultural context that I deeply believe in.
Describe the problem your work solves: Some design is intended to directly solve real-world problems, but most of my work isn’t that. Right now I’m focused on subtle shifts in perception, and specifically how carefully designed objects and spaces can start to ask questions that might prod us to rethink something we thought we knew, or see it in a new light. I believe in the ability of objects to transform our perception of ourselves within our immediate space. These shifts can happen consciously and immediately or subconsciously over a long period of time, but the hope is that the direction is toward a more self-reflective world.
Describe the project you are working on now: I’ve been working on a new collection which will debut at ICFF this May. It’s a series of sculptural glass and mirrored furniture seeking to bring interactive views into objects and furniture. Mirrors and glass have always been interesting to me because instead of creating a surface boundary, they optically extend a view further, either by reflection or transmission. The collection is really a culmination of years of thinking about ideas in architectural perception. I like to think of each piece as a singular idea or spatial effect if you were to extract a discrete moment within a space or building.
A new or forthcoming project we should know about: I am launching BLOC Collection, my inaugural furniture collection at Salone Satellite during Milan Design Week. BLOC is a five-piece collection consisting of the Cube Chair, Wedge Chair, Tri Stool, and Cylinder Lounge & Ottoman. The collection draws inspiration from familiar geometric shapes often associated with children’s wooden play blocks, such as a cube, wedge, triangle, and cylinder.
The unconventional material additions such as transparent lucite blocks help transform familiar and nostalgic shapes associated with childhood and play into elevated sculptural objects and provide functionality and comfort from otherwise abstract geometric forms. I love that something as simple and overlooked as a child’s building block can recall nostalgic memories, provide playful geometric possibilities, and create rich sculptural forms transforming them into something else entirely.
What you absolutely must have in your studio: I’m always battling having enough space to spread out my studio mess, and natural light to see the imperfections to fix in each piece before it’s complete. So, space and light. Which makes sense, in a way, because those are also two conceptual ideas that I’m alway striving to extract or highlight in my designs.
What you do when you’re not working: Probably visiting local galleries or furnishing/designing/redesigning my apartment. It’s a never-ending project which allows me to live with my pieces and understand how they react to light conditions and time, as well as tinker and experiment with new ideas. I also often spend time with my family along the Northern California coast. It’s a magnificent place that allows my soul to breathe and release.
Sources of creative envy: Olafur Eliasson, Nanda Vigo, Tokujin Yoshioka, Rebecca Solnit, Hilma af Klint.
The distraction you want to eliminate: The thoughts that creep in with too much time.
Concrete or marble? Right now, glass.
High-rise or townhouse? Townhouse.
Remember or forget? Remember.
Aliens or ghosts? Ghosts.
Dark or light? Light, always.
