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.
Laurie Beckerman had an unusual introduction to furniture design. Beginning in anthropology, she moved on to study architecture with prominent stonemasons in New York. She spent her free time watching them carve intricate designs out of slabs of stone, and one day picked up a chisel and crafted a beautiful table of her own. Since 2006, she has created modern tables, lighting, seating and desks that rely on a minimalist interpretation of industrial material. The above pictured Whistle Lamp stands seven feet high and is produced from mirror polished bronze – a truly stunning piece that draws out the beauty of the material it is made from.
Ania Wagner is a concept artist. She produces furniture that sits on the border between function and sculpture. The fluid form and appealing silhouettes she creates are a result of her artist vision encapsulating the world around her. And she uses local materials as much as possible in her creations, in order to produce something using minimal waste and pollution. This eco-friendly perspective, combined with attention to detail, is seen in the above pictured Barnacle Seat. It uses sustainably harvested ash and reclaimed industrial felt, and its modern spoke-wheel form is perfectly in line with the minimalist, modern trends in interior design today.
Catering to specific clients, Jason Muteham crafts beautiful bespoke furniture in the modern tradition. With an unusual combination of information technology and interior design in his background, Muteham is fully equipped to bring a product from 3D computer graphic to physical piece of furniture-art. Using wood and revealing its inner beauty has allowed Muteham to carve out a niche for himself as an expert in precise and naturalistic design. The above pictured Islands Coffee Table features smooth-cut pieces of American black walnut surrounded by a frame of maple, and the below pictured Sideboard in American Cherry features pink quilted maple panels and hand-cut dovetails.
Lex Pott is a creative mind bent on producing works that offer dualistic dynamics. Hailing from a Dutch background, his European perspective has given him an edge when creating lasting modern design that offers something new and exciting to the industry. He works with modern forms and brings together the organic appeal of natural wood with the modern desire for smooth, minimalistic silhouettes. The above pictured Fragments of Nature table combines two traditional woodworking techniques that have both seen a resurgence in modern decor: a bare, unfinished natural tabletop and completely raw wooden legs.
The versatile design firm Oliver Designs covers everything from web design to logo creation, but their talent rests in bespoke furniture. The fresh perspective that this group of young designers brings to their production invites a renewed idea of what design truly means. According to Oliver Designs, it is something that stimulates the mind, offers interactivity, and provides a solution to a problem. The above pictured Visto indoor vase uses thin slices of wood to create the optical illusion of an interior traditionally-shaped golden vase from one perspective, and a solid blood-red cube from another.
Fred Rieffel is the picture of a modern designer – he creates furniture that strips function down to its basics and makes a bold, firm design statement. A participant in many group exhibitions and contests, he has won awards for his vision. His background in interior architecture has given him an eye for innovative uses of space, which he incorporates into each and every one of his designs. The Spline Coffee Table pictured above uses four slabs alveolar plated wood at odd angles to create a minimalist but still eye-catching surface structure. And the below pictured shelving unit is a modular design that emphasizes space.
Cho hyung suk is a young designer from Seoul, South Korea who crafts modular, modern furniture with a unique take on the harmony between form and function. His use of internal structures to produce an externally streamlined appearance is his signature perspective, and has won him recognition in many exhibits and award ceremonies. The above pictured Chorong lamp uses traditional Korean inspiration to produce a modern light fixture that is tasteful and fun. Using wood as a base, this lamp creates an atmosphere that is both calming and invigorating, as it projects its glow onto the wall and its surroundings.
