12 minute read
Discover A New Era of Design Talent
WORDS Aleesha Callahan
Material explorations, traditional craft and the hand of the maker place these emerging designers at the forefront of collectable design.
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Accidental Beauty
Instinct and kismet have been the driving forces behind Studio HAOS, where exploration and manufacturing are combined under one roof.
Born from serendipity and shared vision, Studio HAOS is a Portugal-based studio founded by Sophie Gelinet and Cedric Gepner in 2017. With no formal design training, the studio developed organically but has always maintained the principles of spontaneity and authenticity.
Studio HAOS rejects reliance on heavy machinery and external expertise, instead elevating accessible materials through a handson approach. To this end, their studio is equipped with a workshop where all parts of production are handled under one roof.
Inspired by the Dogme 95 movement in cinema, they focus on stripping away excess to uncover raw elegance and emotional resonance in their work. “We believe there is a particular form of elegance in the ability to evoke emotions with restraint and purposely limited means,” Gelinet explains. Each piece reflects the process, embracing the imperfections and accidents that add depth and character.
Metal Madness
Combining maker, artist, and designer, Simone Tops pushes the boundaries of design.
Playing on dichotomies, Simone Tops of Melbourne-based Studio Tops uses design to express dualities such as beautiful and ugly, soft and hard, light and dark, empty and voluminous – ultimately coalescing in what she describes as a “comfortable discomfort”.
Tops started her career as an artist before moving into the world of fabrication. Never really losing her penchant for making, Studio Tops evolved along the spectrum of art and design, sculpture and function.
Tops’ approach is deeply grounded in materiality. “I use the idea of mimicry in materials—I use materials that can be interchanged and play off the other characteristics. For example, hand dying leather in a way to create an almost steel-like finish, and then waxing steel to give it a leather-like finish,” the artist explains.
Polymath Creativity
Holistic in its outlook, Teget encompasses furniture, lighting, homewares and fashion.
“I gather ideas around a theme and make different objects that can translate that mood,” Ana Kraš says on her multi-disciplined approach to design. Based in Paris, Kraš founded Teget in 2024 with Ruben Moreira as a platform for her varied creative outputs.
Teget bridges lighting, furniture, homewares and fashion in small, handmade editions. Having consulted with brands across design, art and fashion for 15 years, Kraš realised it was time to establish her own voice. “I came to a place of longing for something fully authentic to me and my taste. The different processes of each field complement each other because the ideas come from me – from the same source.”
New Ecosystems
Questioning the greater purpose of design, the German wunderkind Haus Otto is taking on the design world with equal parts humour and earnestness.
Coining the phrase ‘design ecosystems,’ Haus Otto is the brainchild of Patrick Henry Nagel and Nils Körner. The German duo is reimagining the role of furniture and objects and their impart on everyday life. Rather than focusing solely on objects, Haus Otto designs systems, unpacking the broader contexts of production, distribution and ecological cycles to challenge conventional narratives around design.
The pair’s practice spans industrial and object design, creative direction and spatial interventions, with each project blurring boundaries between disciplines. Their designs are as thought-provoking as they are functional, often laced with humour and a tongue-in-cheek edge.
Collaged Ideas
Storytelling, traditional craft and a kaleidoscope of inspirations have set Brooklyn-based Alexis & Ginger on an upward trajectory in the design world.
There’s a feminine undercurrent to the pieces designed and made by New York City designers Alexis & Ginger. Alexis Tingey and Ginger Gordon share that they “evoke a narrative of femininity and strength” in their work, finding ways to juxtapose materials and gather inspiration through collage and composition. “Our work explores traditional forms of female making with a bend to the surreal; these are objects and spaces of reflection and care,” Tingey explains.
The pair met while studying at the prestigious Rhode Island School of Design and seeing kindred spirits and an equal propensity for hard work in one another, decided to start their eponymous brand in 2023. While just getting started, Gordon and Tingey are working on a collection set to launch in 2025. “We hope that an individual that lives with the piece sees the hand and nuances of the form,” Gordon says.
Living Vessels
The hand of the maker is imbued into every Kawabi lamp, where forms are both familiar yet entirely new.
Partners in life and work, Irisa and Aaron Kawabi set up their eponymous Brooklyn studio as a “creative container to explore heritage and transcribe its influence across time and place”. Bringing a fresh take to traditional paper lanterns, each light is painstakingly handmade by the pair, taking anywhere from two to six weeks to complete.
“We’re struck with how rich the process of handmaking paper lights is and love that we get to be a part of this ancient craft in our creative practice. We see the lantern, its history and presence, as a sort of communication tool between our past, present and future,” they share. Noting that their work will no doubt evolve as they continue developing their design language, unbound by tradition.
Earth and Fire
Organic and gothic, the raw volcanic rock is given a reverence at the hands of Monnier Studio.
Monnier Studio founder and Mexican designer Andrés Monnier is renowned for creating sculptural stone pieces that blend ancient carving techniques with a contemporary aesthetic. His work draws deeply from Mexico’s natural landscapes, often using local volcanic rock. “I like to think that I didn’t choose to work with rocks, but rather rocks chose me,” Monnier reflects, adding, “one of the things I value the most is the relation this material has with the measure of motion and time.”
Inspired by traditional handcrafting traditions, Monnier and his team of nine artisans forge every piece, relying on chisels, mazes and small tooling machines—all done by hand. This commitment honours the material's history while giving reverence to the stone. “Design is everywhere,” he says, “not only in materials and objects but also in ideas.”
Natural Order
Letting the materials guide the process, the founders of the Portuguese-based studio Ther allow space for each object to express itself.
Combining cabinet-making and engineering backgrounds with a fine arts and ceramics practice, Natasza Grzeskiewicz and Tomás Fernandes each bring a unique set of skills. The duo first met during a residency in France and are now based in Portugal, working under the moniker THER.
At the heart of their work is respect for materials, which are used as the starting point to guide both concept and form. “We often find ourselves with a material that is only repeatable once,” Grzeskiewicz explains, emphasising the uniqueness of each piece they create. The process is tactile and fluid—drawing, scribbling and shaping by hand—but always allowing the material to lead.
The creations emerge as iterations of their origins, evolving naturally without a predetermined outcome. Rooted in a deep connection between mind and hands, THER's approach celebrates the spontaneity of making, resulting in objects that exude their raw beginnings and artistic vision.
Witty Experimentation
There's a head-turning quality to the work of Drew Abrahamson, where creature-like forms and naughty shapes make for pieces unlike anything else.
Quirky and avant-garde, the pieces created by Australian designer and maker Drew Abrahamson are often the result of experimentation. Abrahamson’s first creative outlet was in illustration and printmaking before venturing into a trade, training as a carpenter and building merchandising sets for luxury brands. This combination of different pathways eventually wove perfectly for where he landed. “As I have pulled further and further away from more ‘traditional’ jobs to do what I love, I can see I’ve taken a little piece from all these disparate things and mixed them,” he shares.
At the core, Abrahamson’s work is centred on experimentation, which he says is a “vital part of my practice that I try to honour as often as I can. Experimenting, to me, is at the core of what defines what we consider collectable.”
A Life's Work
Known Works' debut Perceptions Collection is an invitation for the senses to go deeper.
The essence of Known Work is in the name itself, inspired by American artist Georgia O’Keeffe and her quote: “Whether you succeed or not is irrelevant; there is no such thing. Making your unknown known is the important thing.”
Founded by Danu Kennedy and Jeremy Levitt, Known Work is the sister company too New York-based interior design studio Parts and Labor Design. The current collection celebrates the tension between linear forms and soft, organic geometries as an exploration of material limits, but the pair are open to how future collections may shift. “We see each piece as alive to some degree but in the sense that it can evolve with you, your needs, your environment and life,” Kennedy shares.
