Kelly Harris Smith
Boston
The details: While studying architecture at Northeastern University in Boston, Kelly Harris Smith was drawn to industrial design after attending Salone del Mobile in Milan in the early 2000s. “Architecture taught me about space, dimension, proportion, and scale, and has helped me grasp all these facets as I design products that must function within built spaces,” she says. Smith cofounded FilzFelt, acquired by Knoll in 2011, before launching her own practice in 2017. Her latest, the UP collection for HBF Textiles, was inspired by “unexpected urban details” like brick patterns, sewer grates, geometric traffic signs, and chain link fences that “just bring a smile to my face,” she says.
Moyo Ogunseinde
Lagos, Nigeria
The details: Hailing from Ibadan, Nigeria, Moyo Ogunseinde’s career is centered on promoting African art and design. After studying architecture at UCL, she moved back to Nigeria and cofounded Àga Concept as a way to explore and reinterpret the history of West Africa’s Yoruba region. “I’m passionate about African culture and design and I have a desire to share the materiality, textures, and energy through objects and furniture,” Ogunseinde explains. Channeling her contemporary studies in the UK, her work is decidedly minimalist while still exhibiting unmistakable African features, such as the Oko chair (shown), inspired by traditional farming tools. “The result is product design derived not only from cultural heritage, but also from a place of self-expression,” she says. Among her latest releases is the Egungun collection of accessories inspired by African masquerades. Ogunseinde plans to expand the line into lamps and shelving units, and to design distinct furniture collections. “The rawness and simplicity of the products we create must evoke a deeper connection to Yoruba culture and Africa in general,” she says.
Marlon Darbeau
Trinidad & Tobago
The details: Marlon Darbeau was practically born a maker. In his native Trinidad and Tobago, Darbeau’s grandfather constructed wooden doors and windows, his father operated a mailbox manufacturing business, and his great uncle ran a welding workshop. Darbeau studied visual communication design at COSTAATT and started his career designing signage and advertising for a furniture manufacturer, but it wasn’t long before he crossed over into product design. This led to founding By Making, a design practice that threads together his love of furniture with his Caribbean upbringing, such as in the Peera high stool with its contrasting materials. “I am interested in the familiar, and what that means when you are from Trinidad and Tobago,” Darbeau says, “is Carnival traditions, the way we use language, and the practical, manmade things we use every day in the home—I see this as material I can rework.” His latest releases include the Pass Through Chair, featuring a graphical form with a metal U-shape supported by wooden back legs, and the Basket lantern, which is made from sheet metal and rivets in reference to traditional Trinidadian houses with wooden louvre windows.
Topher Kong and Stein Wang
Toronto
The details: Topher Kong and Stein Wang, who hail from Guangzhou and Shanghai, respectively, met while earning their undergraduate degrees in industrial design at OCAD University in Toronto. During their collaborations on various academic and commercial projects, they discovered that they challenged each other, and decided to establish their own firm, Hi Thanks Bye, after graduation in 2017, finding early success with Collection 0 (shown). “We head toward very different directions when we seek inspiration,” Wang says. “Topher has a taste for a wide range of indie music and sculptural art, while I like to draw inspiration from photography and fashion.” Their latest is the Swell seating line, part of the Be My Guest collection, that was designed with the idea of entertaining guests in smaller spaces: Its round and plump form embraces the user’s body, and all its tangible surfaces are upholstered. Having to halt their 2020 collection due to the pandemic, the duo is currently preparing for a 2021 launch. “We are relatively young in this field,” says Kong. “We would like to try and challenge our perspectives often and not let a fixed aesthetic constrain us.”
Steffany Hollingsworth
Santa Fe, New Mexico
The details: Steffany Hollingsworth knew from an early age that she wanted to become a designer. Raised in a small oil-patch town on the Texas-New Mexico border, she would draw floorplans of her ideal home while in church. She attended Texas Tech and Oregon State Universities for her interior design degree, and then worked at a showroom in Dallas before landing a merchandising and purchasing job with designer Kelly O’Neal, a position that Hollingsworth says helped her develop a broad range of skills. Her first foray into the product world was working with Cosentino as a trendspotter, charged with co-creating a new color for the Silestone line. “[That] taught me what is possible in the world of materials,” she says. “I rediscovered with new insight how product and interiors work tap into very different headspaces, yet are mutually supportive and synergistic disciplines.” Embarking on her own, she founded PARE Strategies in February of this year, and is preparing to dip her toes in bath, textiles, lighting, and flooring design. “I’m best known as a natural culler of ideas,” Hollingsworth adds. “I don’t bring ego to the process, rather an openness to the most valuable, refined, and distilled ideas, thus the name of my company.”
Photos by Bob O’Connor, Kibwe Brathwaite, Damian Libert, Kate Russell, and courtesy of Àga Concept and Hi Thanks Bye, and PARE strategies
This article originally appeared in HD’s 2020 Product Marketplace issue.
