M&Objet Americas: 7 Rising American Design Talents

May

Design Guide

M&Objet Americas: 7 Rising American Design Talents

Miami Design Agenda already show you who was the winner of the Design of the Year Award for Maison & Objet Americas. Now, it’s time to bring you the 7 Rising American Design Talents chosen by the board of M&O Americas.

Every Maison & Objet fair provides an opportunity for seven up-and-coming names in the world of design, to present their work to professionals from around the world. Below, you will find the 7 Rising American Design Talents of M&O Americas.

MAX GUNAWAN / LUMIO, USA

An architect before becoming a designer, Max Gunawan is the father of Lumio, an inventive nomadic lamp in book form which when opened lights through all the pages. Based in San Francisco, this darling of the American trade press loves multi-faceted, multi-purpose objects, expressed through minimalist lines. At MAISON&OBJET AMERICAS 2015, he will once again show off his talent through a piece of modular furniture whose shape and height adapt to its owner. We can’t wait.

CASEY LURIE, USA, West Coast

Casey Lurie loves wood and proves it in his very personal way. After training as a woodworker in Los Angeles and spending three years in Tokyo as resident designer for Idée, the Japanese furniture manufacturer, he set up a studio in Chicago. His work celebrates the techniques of artisanal woodwork—especially Japanese ones—bringing to life collections of furniture, lighting and everyday objects mixed with high-tech details and a hint of American pragmatism.

LUKAS PEET, Canada

After completing studies in Industrial Design at the prestigious Design Academy Eindhoven—from which he graduated as valedictorian in 2009—the Canadian designer opened his Lukas/Peet studio in Vancouver. His inventive, ultra-contemporary productions won people over with their pure, graphic lines. In 2011 and 2012 he was a finalist in the “Young Design Talents” competition at the IMM furniture fair in Cologne, Germany. A designer as well as an entrepreneur, Lukas Peet has partnered with Matt Davis and Caine Heintzman to found ANDlight, a lighting brand. The multifaceted talent has signed on for the interior development of the flagship store of Livestock, a Canadian brand, in Vancouver. And is working on one of Toronto.

DAVID POMPA, Mexico

With a Master of Arts and Design from Kingston University in London, the Austro-Mexican David Pompa Alarcón is the founder of his eponymous interdisciplinary design studio. Based both in Mexico City and Austria, he delves into reinterpreted crafts in Mexico, in a contemporary vein. His creations revisit the country’s traditional techniques and materials in order to better reveal little-known cultural traditions.

LEO CAPOTE, Brazil

A metal magician, Leo Capote grew up in São Paulo, in an ironworks shop, where he learned as a child to befriend hammers, bolts and nails. The result: he created his first design piece at the age of… ten. Since then, he has had a special relationship with metals; he recycles them to turn them into objects, furniture and unusual works of art. After working with the Campana brothers, he founded the design Officina Outro studio in São Paulo along with the artist Marcelo Stefanovicz.

CRISTIAN MOHADED, Argentina

The trajectory of this Argentine industrial designer, who trained at the National University of Córdoba is stamped with brilliance. Shortly after opening his eponymous studio in Buenos Aires, his playful, ingenious, humorous work began to attract prestigious design awards, along with major names of the art of living. Roche Bobois, Gallery Serge Bensimon, Habitat and La Redoute adopted the surprising, elegant creations of a designer who knew how to subvert the lines and codes of furniture while taking great care to details and finishes. The Twist #2 chair (designed with Ricardo Blanco) has just been made part of the permanent collection of the Museum of Decorative Arts in Paris. A first for an Argentine design.

RAMON LASERNA, Colombia

Trained in industrial design, this Colombian designer, born in Bogota, is also passionate about photography and kinetic art. Influenced by these three disciplines, his woven chairs are more like paintings, in which the lines and colors explore optical illusions and the abstract power of of heightened graphic design. A geometric world close to the artist’s paintings and photographic “assemblages.”