Joseph Noble specializes in textiles, upholstery and leather for the modern home. If you’re the creative type and ready to dive into the world of DIY-design, these fabrics are a great place to start. With dozens of collections to choose from, ranging from the elegant “Soft” leather hide to the above pictured “Damn Chic” featuring tiny squares of playful cut velvet, you’ll find something that matches – or completely re-designs – your home at Joseph Noble. They are environmentally-conscious too, choosing natural and “green” products to make their textiles and trying to minimize their impact on the earth by using an eco-friendly production process.
Brad Ascalon Studio does it all: they specialize in furniture design, packaging, consumer products, and environmental design and development. Their client base is scattered all over the globe, giving their products an international flair. And because of this diverse client base, they are used to catering to large multi-national corporations, small start-ups, and residential projects. The above pictured Ostinato Table is representative of the modern, minimalist design appeal that Brad Ascalon Studio creates. It features a crisp, square, beveled glass top held up by four pieces of bent stainless steel, giving this an effortless, wavy, relaxed sensation. The Studio works hard to create design that is versatile and truly modern, and their large product offering and client base indicates that they are successful in this.
Great Boys is a design firm that consists of three “great boys” with an overabundance of imagination. They work together to produce creative home accessories and other pieces that are fun, funky, and fresh. The above pictured Doorman is a piece that uses the leftover “thingies” from doors to rework them into being a productive part of your home. The different color bulbs can be use to hang hats or coats. Other products from Great Boys include a Wall-ET, an eco-friendly paper wallet, and Shade, an innovative cover for TV screens. There is no lack of imagination over at Great Boys, and their upcoming products are sure to be just as bright and creative.
Objeti creates minimalist objects whose design is an honest reflection of their function. Their Aerialist series, including the above pictured Plane, features a simple form that is made to be sturdy, bold, and attractive. The Plane is a coffee table whose sections can be flipped around to reveal a firm, comfortable cushion to replace a tabletop with extra seating. The sections click into place and have a safety lock feature that prevents them from rotating uncontrollably. Objeti offers black, white, grey, red or black as color choices, and can create a custom piece, including adding a logo, for interested customers. The clean, crisp lines of the Aerialist line from Objeti will highlight any surrounding modern decor.
The six Irish designers that make up tales of design use their unique perspectives to achieve the same goal: expressing fun and innovation in furniture and sharing this with the public. Each piece in the collection tells a story, as individual as the designer who crafted it. The above pictured Creature Comfort, for instance, is designed by Jenny and expresses an animalistic energy in its jagged lines and odd angles. This design team works with natural materials, modern form, and uses a design process that taps into the deep wells of their creativity in order to create pieces that speak to nor only the modern world but the individual tastes of the designer as well.
With a master in interior design and years of experience working under renowned Italian designers, Zeljka Kavran is poised to be the next big thing to come out of the Italian design world. Still in her youth, Kavran has created many beautiful, modern, streamlined, and industrial pieces. The above pictured Maraka Shaker features a smooth, stainless steel form and is part of the Chic and Sick Kinky Kitchen collection – using passion, a fetish for the kitchen, and the modern home as inspiration. Kavran is currently working out of Italy as a freelance industrial and graphic designer, working on several sure-to-be stunning projects of her own.
Buro Bruno is all about sleek, contemporary designs. Using one to two main materials, the team crafts unique, streamlined pieces designed for their simplicity and their ability to be incorporated into any modern home. The above pictured Asquare table uses intricately intertwined origami-like legs that fan out in a star shape, holding up a beveled glass tabletop. The white and glass combination could not get more sophisticated. Other pieces from Buro Bruno feature this same minimalist yet detailed approach, combining eye-catching form with a unique approach to function, and offering an upscale solution for a modern home looking for some pizazz.
Studio Ludens takes a novel approach to design: they create tools for anyone to use in order to tap into their unique inner creativity. Their goal is to help people “create beautiful stuff with bewildering results.” They have four tools available on their website that are free to use, including repper, used to make patterns out of your images. They also offer epa:kato, an online tool that lets you design intriguing coasters yourself, such as the coasters pictured above, and then send them the final mock-up and they will laser cut it for you, offering such extras as personal engraving and a gift pouch. They are hard at work on more innovative computer tools that can help you be your own designer, so keep an eye on their website for updates!
Experts in industrial design, Design Nobis attacks a potential furniture piece from all angles: creative brainstorming, graphical mock-ups, prototyping, and a dynamic production process. All of this comes together in such pieces as the above pictured EcoBench. This piece uses sustainable material and a juxtaposition of modern chrome with natural wood to create a unique and thoroughly modern appearance that is industrial in style and environmentally friendly in production method. Design Nobis has worked with clients to produce everything from ergonomically correct seating to eco-friendly garden furniture, all with an eye to the rough, urban, industrial style that is such a staple of modern interior design.
The simple, edgy designs from Studio Geenen have that something extra that makes their style hard to define. One reason for this is Bram Geenen’s use of natural forces to help shape his creations. The above pictured Gaudi stool, for instance, was designed using hanging chains as a skeletal structure, allowing gravity’s forces to pull them into the strongest shape possible. Stark black and white balance this stool, and offer an engaging level of interactivity for its users. While young, Studio Geenen has a design ethos that promises to propel them to the center of the design world if they remain on the cutting-edge.
Amelie Onzon relies heavily on socially significant concepts to inform her unique furniture design. Her “In Vivo Exposure” line, pictured above, is designed to use form to question phobias, and work phobia patients through their fears by exposing them. Using sheets of fabric, she creates space – either a safe, surrounding space for those afraid of heights, or an adjustable, airy space for those afraid of confined spaces. Her other concept pieces include duck feeders and baths that are designed based on questions of our love/hate relationship with animals, and accessories designed around teenage concerns about their changing bodies. Although highly conceptual, her work is full of life, exploration, and creativity.
Inspired by the love that car-enthusiasts have for their vehicles, altreforme designs and creates industrial style furniture. They try to capture the intensity and passion that can be evoked from the metal frame and interior of the automobile. Using metal sheets once destined for the industrial car manufacturing world, altreforme reshapes them into emotionally-evocative sculptures that can be either art or functional furniture. The above pictured Liquirizia multi-chair unit is a smooth form seating concept, allowing back-to-back chance meetings along its minimalist, metal spine. The Monza mirror below incorporates emotion into the cold, industrial design that proliferates modern furniture.
