Here, we ask designers to take a selfie and give us an inside look at their life.
Age: 43
Occupation: Designer.
Instagram: @jonahtakagi
Hometown: West Hartford, CT.
Studio location: Brooklyn.
Describe what you make: I design objects at a range of scales and in many typologies with an emphasis on furniture and lighting.
The most important thing you’ve designed to date: The glass work currently on view at Marta in Los Angeles. It represents a novel, more intuitive and irreverent way of working for me that I hope to incorporate into my more commercial projects.
Describe the problem your work solves: Keeping the forever looming existential crisis at bay!
Describe the project you are working on now: I’m working with my frequent collaborator Hallgeir Homstvedt on a number of furniture objects for an American contract furniture manufacturer.
A new or forthcoming project we should know about: My exhibition of new work in glass at Marta called “Brut Vessels” (March 11–April 22). It’s the result of an almost five-year-long residency at CIRVA in Marseille and my first solo exhibition in a gallery context.
What you absolutely must have in your studio: Aleene’s Original Tacky Glue. It’s indispensable for model-making and is an unsung hero.
What you do when you’re not working: Tinkering, building, and modifying things: bikes, amplifiers, etc.
Sources of creative envy: Issey Miyake, Tauba Auerbach, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Tom Verlaine.
The distraction you want to eliminate: My curiosity.
Concrete or marble? Marble.
High-rise or townhouse? Townhouse.
Remember or forget? Forget.
Aliens or ghosts? Aliens.
Dark or light? Light.
