{"id":60383,"date":"2016-03-14T15:14:58","date_gmt":"2016-03-14T19:14:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.1stdibs.com\/blogs\/the-study\/?p=60383"},"modified":"2021-12-15T01:02:07","modified_gmt":"2021-12-15T06:02:07","slug":"designer-qa-material-lust","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.1stdibs.com\/blogs\/the-study\/designer-qa-material-lust\/","title":{"rendered":"Designer Q&A: Material Lust"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"A

A view of Material Lust’s light-filled New York City studio.<\/p><\/div>\n

Material Lust<\/a> is vehemently anti-trend. At just over two years old, the New York interior and product design studio is in it for the long haul, producing small batches of handmade furniture in the workshops of traditional European artisans.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re old souls,\u201d says Christian Swafford, who co-founded the studio with Lauren Larson in 2013. Striving for a timeless aesthetic, the two adhere to a palette of natural, high-endurance materials \u2014 carved woods, solid brass, and glass among them, with no synthetics or surface-plating to be found. They draw inspiration from anthropological and art historical origins, from ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics to the artwork of Louise Bourgeois. The consequent body of work exudes both a sense of drama and familiarity.<\/p>\n

1std<\/span>ibs spoke to these self-described \u201cartists masquerading as designers\u201d about their unique sensibilities, their recent collaboration with Paul Kasmin and what the future of their studio holds.<\/p>\n

Currently, there\u2019s a new generation of designers in New York who have adopted an all-in-one, designer-manufacturer business model, yet the two of you still opt to travel to Italy to have your work made.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Christian Swafford<\/strong> The studios we work with have been doing the same thing for 200 years. They don\u2019t email. They don\u2019t invoice. But the quality of work is unparalleled. Working with great artisans means we can do pretty much anything. In the end, we want our stuff to be heirloom-quality and passed-along; we stay with classic materials. When it comes to things like the latest mixed resin or foam, we don\u2019t really do that stuff. If you make something trendy, it\u2019s going to end up in a landfill, especially if it\u2019s not well made.<\/p>\n

\n
\"Material-Lust-Headshot\"

Swafford and Larson photographed in their studio.<\/p><\/div>\n

There\u2019s also stylistic purity also comes across in your work: monochrome, very sharp, very straightforward. <\/strong><\/p>\n

CS<\/strong> We\u2019re OCD. That\u2019s what comes from really wanting to make sure the craftsmanship is there. The simpler a piece is, the harder it is to perfect. If it\u2019s slightly off, you can tell.<\/p>\n

\n
\"An

An up-close look at materials in the Material Lust studio.<\/p><\/div>\n

Where do the two of you look for inspiration? <\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>Lauren Larson<\/strong> We look at things you wouldn\u2019t normally look at: the beginnings of language, pagan symbolism<\/a>, Egyptian hieroglyphics<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/strong>CS <\/strong>It\u2019s also really art-based. We spend a lot of time looking at paintings and drawings. When we started our company two-and-a-half years ago, we were consulting for interior designers who didn\u2019t have in-house product design teams. We spent a lot of time referencing vintage furniture and making them new or creating a new take on them. We didn\u2019t want that for our own line. We wanted to do something unique.<\/p>\n

\n

Tell us about working on your first children\u2019s collection, entitled Fictional Furniture. <\/strong><\/p>\n

LL<\/strong> The point was to instill a sense of respect for the things in a child\u2019s room as pieces of art and design. We went back to the idea of the kids\u2019 bedroom being as important as your own bedroom; you shouldn\u2019t want to hide their furniture. They can be playful and fun and sculptural at the same time. There\u2019s also an element of interaction. With the Crawl Chair<\/a>, you can sit all over in different directions and it starts to come alive. The Amalgam Stand and Shelf<\/a> are based on Dali\u2019s Exquisite Corpse game, and you can move the parts around as you like.<\/p>\n

\n
\"Offerings

Offerings from the pair’s “Geometry is God” collection.<\/p><\/div>\n

What are a few of your more recent projects? <\/strong><\/p>\n

LL<\/strong> In the fall, we did the interiors of the Paul Kasmin bookshop<\/a> in New York. We wanted to highlight the publications in a way that was subtle, yet had enough of a sculptural element to draw you in. There is a horizon line, or step, that we created that wraps all four walls to extenuate the \u201ceye-level\u201d idea you have in a gallery setting. Because the space was smaller we wanted to create the illusion of the box being carved out or away, playing with positive and negative spaces.<\/p>\n

CS <\/strong>We\u2019re going to start putting more vintage pieces on 1stdibs. We go to Europe all the time to buy things, and we want to show how that mixes in with new stuff. We\u2019re also getting more into upholstery, porcelain, and wood-carving. Less hard metals and more soft materials is where our surrealism seems to be going.<\/p>\n

Interview by Janelle Zara. To view more of Material Lust’s designs, check out their 1stdibs storefront<\/a>. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Material Lust is vehemently anti-trend. At just over two years old, the New York interior and product design studio is in it for the long haul, producing small batches of handmade furniture in the workshops of traditional European artisans. \u201cWe\u2019re old souls,\u201d says Christian Swafford, who co-founded the studio with Lauren Larson in 2013. Striving […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":63443,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[106,15522093],"tags":[52,15523383,573683,174],"dibs-categories":[],"dibs-designs":[],"dibs-styles":[],"dibs-creators":[],"dibs-sellers":[],"class_list":["post-60383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-design-2","category-furniture","tag-contemporary-design","tag-furniture-2","tag-material-lust","tag-qa"],"acf":{"subtitle":""},"dibs_designs_tags":null,"dibs_sellers_tags":null,"dibs_creators_tags":null,"dibs_styles_tags":null,"dibs_categories_tags":null,"featured_image_url":"https:\/\/www.1stdibs.com\/blogs\/the-study\/wp-content\/uploads\/Material-Lust-Studio-445x450.jpg","post_title":"Designer 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