Here, we ask designers to take a selfie and give us an inside look at their life.
Age: 33
Occupation: Interior designer and furniture designer
Instagram: @leah__ring and @anotherhumandesign.
Hometown: Rochester, Minnesota.
Studio location: Los Angeles.
Describe what you make: I make playful yet highly considered sculptural furniture, lighting, and decor. Some of my work is more elegant and some is more bizarre, but my goal is for all of my work to bring a playful geometry and artistic sensibility to a physical space.
The most important thing you’ve designed to date: My Zorg Chair, which is part of my ET Collection, is my favorite piece to date. My studio is only two years old and I’m still definitely establishing my voice as an artist. Zorg is important to me because I had designed a whole different line of furniture that was pretty and refined and much safer, and I decided to scrap it and make this fluorescent, glittery, nonsensical alien throne piece. At this stage in my career, it’s important to remind myself that expressing my unique creative vision is why I started doing this in the first place, and to keep pushing myself to go for the weird.
Describe the problem your work solves: My work strives to tap into the inner child in all of us. As adults, we sometimes lose sight of the sense of play and excitement and curiosity we had as children. It’s so essential to human happiness. My hope is that by creating joyful, weird, irreverent furniture that I can help push people to reconsider their notions about what high-end design is and can be—that you can take your work seriously but that doesn’t mean the work has to be serious!
Describe the project you are working on now: I just released a few new collections that I showed at NYCxDesign. Two pieces from my ET Collection were in “Deeper Than Text,” on view at the 1stdibs Gallery through May 31, and I showed one piece from my Pool Collection at JONALDDUDD. I’ve got a bunch of new things and new iterations on existing products brewing. I’m always designing because I get bored of things pretty easily and want to always be moving onto the next thing.
A new or forthcoming project we should know about: I’m working on a table collaboration with ETC.etera that we’re going to debut at Intro/LA from June 20–23. It’s a version of their Block Coffee Table but the material palette is totally wild—it’s been a super fun collaborative process and we’re really excited to share it with the world!
What you absolutely must have in your studio: Music is the most essential component for me. Sparkling water, multiple tape measures, loads of random material samples that I don’t have a use for but make me happy, and my cozy slippers (LA can get cold, I swear!).
What you do when you’re not working: I try to hike as often as I can, see a lot of live music, art shows, eat all of the foods, and in general try to enjoy Los Angeles and get the most out of that wonderful city.
Sources of creative envy: Ettore Sottsass, Gaetano Pesce, Peter Shire, Carlo Nason, Guillermo Santoma, Max Lamb.
The distraction you want to eliminate: Robocalls… ugh.
Concrete or marble? Marble.
High-rise or townhouse? Is a shack in Joshua Tree an option?
Remember or forget? Remember.
Aliens or ghosts? Definitely aliens!
Dark or light? Light.
