Design of the Day spotlights a design thing our editors are coveting right now (and why you should be, too).
Two things characterize the work of Russian designer Harry Nuriev. One is his ability to see things for more than they are (as apparent in the chandelier he made for his Brooklyn apartment from some 300 Bic pens, which, with the ink capsules removed from their clear plastic forms, mimic a ring of crystal rods). The other is his obsession with color—specifically, one color at a time.
During architecture school it was black; when he launched his design practice, Crosby Studios, in 2014, it was pink. Most recently he was in a blue phase, epitomized by his freshly redesigned Moscow office, dressed top-to-bottom in the color of the sky. Now it’s purple, on display in a collaboration with Opening Ceremony he’s unveiling today at the boutique’s SoHo location in New York. (A similar installation will be staged in Collective Design’s capsule presentation at ICFF, on view May 20 through 23 during NYCxDesign.) His limited-edition home-and-clothing line includes the Fur Chair, a Muppety, Campana brothers–esque creation that anchors an ultraviolet world informed by Pedro Friedeberg’s surreal Hand chair and Serge Mouille’s skinny-arm Spider lamps. Texture is key in Nuriev’s monochromatic environments: the whole point of them, he’s says, is to highlight the richness of various surfaces and materials. The collection might lend itself better to Instagram than your apartment, suggesting that the thirtysomething is still finding his voice as a designer. As he matures, it’s fun to be dazzled along the way.
