Here, we ask designers to take a selfie and give us an inside look at their life.
Age: 36 (Kelley) and 35 (Michael).
Occupation: Designers.
Instagram: @tangible.space
Hometown: Bakersfield, CA (Kelley) and Saratoga Springs, NY (Michael).
Studio location: Brooklyn and San Francisco.
Describe what you make: We create space and objects and like to bring community into practice.
The most important thing you’ve designed to date: Our work for Summertime Gallery as part of Design Advocates focused on using participatory design to create an inclusive work and display space for artists with and without intellectual disabilities. On a completely different scale, our retail stores for Brooklinen encompassed a holistic design process across many scales at once, from the architecture to the detailed expression of a hang bar. We were able to develop the spatial voice of the brand from the ground up: a material language, a functional system, and most importantly a feeling that people could experience no matter the store location. At any project scale, we attempt to maximize impact and connection with people.
Our studio ethos is rooted in maintaining a connection to culture and community, which makes curatorial projects like Cooler Gallery or Works In Progress really core to how we’d like to grow. The focus becomes less about our own work but about the work within a greater community and the dialogue it creates. We are very fortunate to be personally involved with and impacted by the people in this larger web and hope to lend support to it.
Describe the problem your work solves: Our work is grounded in a human-centric approach and a desire to create an interpersonal relationship with space. We think of our work as creating a dialogue with the people who use our spaces and objects—inviting a conversation with the senses and looking to spark curiosity.
Describe the project you are working on now: We’re just wrapping up one of our largest workspace projects to date in downtown San Francisco and are excited to share it. On the object scale, we’re working on a line of serveware designs with a partner as well as developing a line of in-house break-formed and extruded aluminum home goods.
A new or forthcoming project we should know about: We know this is a long game and we are always trying to set ourselves up for future success. In the long term, we are moving into hospitality, cultural, and institutional projects that will far outlast us. These are under development and we’re excited to share more soon. We’re also gearing up for a solo product show in March that will feature our furniture and objects both new and old. A feature of this show has been reflecting on how these objects impact a spatial experience and form a collective whole.
What you absolutely must have in your studio: Drawing tools and paper, books, materials, prototypes, plants, and a collection of objects and art from our community.
What you do when you’re not working: We like to spend time outdoors, connect with people in our respective cities at events, garden, cook, work with creative partners, go to yard sales, make things, play and listen to music, and read a lot of fiction and theory. Inspiration comes from a variety of sources and from often unlikely places and outside of work, so we’re always passively absorbing in some way. The key is being an observer and a sponge and taking a healthy break from the “normal” day-to-day of design.
Sources of creative envy: Carlo Scarpa, Isamu Noguchi, Lina Bo Bardi, Alvar Aalto, Aldo van Eyck, Allan Wexler, Enzo Mari, Nendo, Charlotte Perriand, Arakawa and Gins, Superstudio, Eliel Saarinen, Edith Heath, Reyner Banham, Herman Hertzberger.
The distraction you want to eliminate: Michael’s jokes and the business necessities that often come with running a creative studio.
Concrete or marble? Both.
High-rise or townhouse? Townhouse the building, High-Rise the novel.
Remember or forget? Remember, or you are doomed to forget.
Aliens or ghosts? Aliens.
Dark or light? 2700 Kelvin Warm White.
Portrait by Hannah Grankvist.
