Here, we ask designers to take a selfie and give us an inside look at their life.
Age: 43
Occupation: Furniture designer.
Instagram: @davidgaynordesign
Hometown: New York City
Studio location: Brooklyn.
Describe what you make: We are a furniture company that approaches our design through a strong sense of material awareness, thoughtful connection, and an honesty to scale and proportion. We believe in refining each piece to what is necessary.
The most important thing you’ve designed to date: I could answer this a lot of different ways because I have different connections to all of my designs. My DGD Lounge chair was the first piece of my DGD Seating collection. It was launched at my first trade show and its success helped me grow my brand, but my connection to most of my work holds importance to me.
Describe the problem your work solves: My designs simply fill the need of a seat or a table or storage both practically and visually to the end user. I believe that form and function should go hand and hand in my design. A seat should be comfortable as well as beautiful. A piece of furniture should help create harmony in a space.
Describe the project you are working on now: We just launched our Arden casegoods collection and Cactus table collection. These are the first new collections I’ve put out in a few years Aad the first casegoods line that I’ve introduced. It’s been very exciting to get a body of work together again.
A new or forthcoming project we should know about: Our Arden collection and Cactus collection just launched. I’m already working on adding smaller wall hanging units to the Arden casegoods collection hopefully in the new year. We are also working on some updates to a few of our seating lines that I hope to present in the new year.
What you absolutely must have in your studio: I work in a shared studio space and being able to discuss my work and the work of others around me is vital to keeping the creativity going. Also a good pair of headphones for music and comedy podcasts to keep me focused.
What you do when you’re not working: I love to cook for groups of friends and family. I feel like I have a lot of control and creativity that I don’t always get on a daily basis. Cooking has a lot of the same principles of good design, mixing ingredients and course to make a cohesive meal and practicing refinement in your dishes.
Sources of creative envy: I just saw David Wiseman’s show at Salon 94 which has been on my mind all week. The high level of craftsmanship helps bring his unique vision to life so well. I also tend to look to the rest of the New York design community. There are so many studios doing very different work and it all looks like fun to design and inspires me to push myself.
The distraction you want to eliminate: The admin work of running a small business can take up a lot of my time. I’d rather be designing new work but the designer’s mind does enjoy knowing how everything works.
Concrete or marble? Both. The beauty in marble that is created by nature and the endless possibility to create with concrete
High-rise or townhouse? Townhouse.
Remember or forget? Remember.
Aliens or ghosts? Aliens.
Dark or light? Light.
