Lighting Archives - Azure Magazine

Studio Vantot Champions Tech-Driven Lighting

Laura May Todd — Thu, 22 Aug 2024 13:17:00 +0000

For most design students, a graduation project is an exercise in aspiration. It’s the culmination of several years of study and research, the goal of which is to coax a company or more established designer to hire you for an internship or entry-level job. But for Esther Jongsma and Sam van Gurp, the founders of Dutch lighting studio Vantot, their thesis at the Design Academy Eindhoven became the foundation of a now-flourishing company. The project — Exploded View, a series of pendants that examines dimmability through the positioning of a moveable LED in relation to a gridded lampshade with a mirroring foil reflector — caught the eye of Microsoft, which commissioned the pair to create a custom version for its headquarters in Seattle....

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In Albania, a Light Installation Evokes the Afterlife

Kendra Jackson — Thu, 22 Aug 2024 13:16:00 +0000

Radiating a soft white light, the tunnel beckons passersby to venture inside and take a moment to contemplate life — and the afterlife. Terminal for Tirana, located on the grounds of Mother Teresa University Hospital in Albania, is a permanent installation by Polish contemporary artist Karolina Halatek that embodies her fascination with near-death experiences (NDEs). “I’m deeply interested in the transformation this has on a person’s life,” she says of the phenomenon. “It’s strong, pro-found and permanent.”

Although she has not had an NDE herself, Halatek has spent some 10 years researching recorded instances and ruminating on how
to create “a space where art, spirituality and science intersect.” She has long wanted to do so...

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Jaro Kose’s Lighting Series Harnesses the Human Spirit

Sophie Sobol — Thu, 22 Aug 2024 13:15:00 +0000

Designing a light fixture is an intrinsically material and hands-on process. Yet the A.I. images saturating the Internet — dreamlike lamps, interiors, houses and more — might have us believe otherwise. All are irrefutably magnificent but ignore a core element of what constitutes design: the ability to build it in real life. More often than not, these otherworldly creations will simply never exist in the physical realm. Polish-born, Amsterdam-based product designer Jaro Kose, however, is exploring a return to materiality in the form of table lamps, a chandelier and a large floor lamp handwoven from recycled PLA filaments. Constructed from fibres that are normally fed into a 3D printer, the up-and-comer’s new series, “I Am Not A Robot,”...

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3 New Lighting Collections with Unique Material Perspectives

Kendra Jackson — Thu, 22 Aug 2024 13:14:00 +0000

Clayp by Yurii Zhukov and Oleksandr Puzyrnyi

Yurii Zhukov and Oleksandr Puzyrnyi formed Clayp in 2021 as a platform to reconceptualize Ukrainian modern design through an eco-conscious lens. Along with lead designer Alisa Tiramisova and a team of skilled artisans, the brand crafts its weird and wonderful lighting and interior objects from mineral-rich clay that is sourced from deposits throughout the country. Blended with other natural materials like herbs, plants, marble dust and recycled paper fibres, Clayp’s one-of-a-kind illuminators are dried at 34 degrees Celsius to minimize energy consumption and reduce their carbon footprint before being packaged in cardboard for shipping (the brand is currently researching new...

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4 Modern Chandeliers with Mass Appeal

Kendra Jackson — Thu, 22 Aug 2024 13:13:00 +0000

Galaxy by Cassina

PHOTO: Paola Pansini

Presented as a prototype during the 1949 Alexander Girard–curated Exhibition for Modern Living in Detroit, the Galaxy chandelier by Charles and Ray Eames was never put into production — until now. Collaborating with the Eames Office and using archival sketches and documents, Cassina swapped the original wooden sphere and brass tubes with PMMA and aluminum poles; the 36 LED-equipped rods in differing lengths project from the centre to illuminate a space with a celestial beauty.

Vale Chandelier by A-N-D

Vancouver’s Caine Heintzman has developed a new chandelier iteration of his Vale lighting series for A-N-D. Using nearly invisible edge-to-edge connection...

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4 Striking Wall Lights to Create Points of Interest

Kendra Jackson — Thu, 22 Aug 2024 13:12:00 +0000

Caramel by Marset

As much a sculpture as a wall light, Caramel by regular Marset collaborator Joan Gaspar emits a soft, warm illumination through its hand-blown translucent glass shade when on — and, when off, expresses a graphic interplay on the wall. Multiple circular glass shades (in white, green, cobalt blue or terracotta) can be linked together to form unique compositions. Available 2025.

Dormus by Studio Luddite

Part of a 12-piece collection that fuses materiality, craftsmanship and innovation, the Dormus sconce by New York City– based Studio Luddite is composed of a single nebulous shape in two orientations: A concave brass backplate (in three finishes) is filled by a convex frosted-glass...

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Lee Broom on the Creative Alchemy Behind His New Collection

Eric Mutrie — Mon, 05 Aug 2024 13:00:00 +0000

During New York’s NYCxDesign festival in May, British designer Lee Broom reimagined the living room of his Tribeca penthouse (which functions as both a showroom and his personal pied-à-terre) to feel like the private sanctum of some ancient philosopher. Dusty rose curtains covered the walls while antique globes, hourglasses and stacks of books were scattered across the tables. Adding to the overall spirit of enlightenment was the lighting itself: an exciting lineup of pendants, sconces and chandeliers collectively dubbed Alchemist.

Deeper study of the designer’s new collection revealed no shortage of cerebral associations — including connections to astrology, magical realist fiction and even famous landmarks like Stonehenge. Below, Broom talks us through the many intellectual layers of his latest designs.

This launch is following in the footsteps of your last big collection, Divine Inspiration, which took cues from places of worship. Alchemist is another very mystical series. What keeps bringing you back to those spiritual associations?

Lee Broom: I think that lighting naturally has a lot of spiritual connotations. When people talk about energy or spirituality, they often refer to light. And back in antiquity, lighting was one of the fundamental things that designers of churches or other places of worship focused on, because they wanted to draw your eyes up to the ceiling to bring you closer to the heavens.

How do ideas like that drive your design process?

: Since the beginning, I’ve always designed from an emotional rather than a functional place — for me, the functionality comes in afterwards. When I started, I didn’t admit that as much because there is this idea that form follows function, but now I don’t care. My products bring joy and pleasure, and you can’t do that without putting emotion into a piece. It’s the same as with art, in a way. I find it strange that somebody would go to someone’s house for dinner and be looking at a piece of art while talking about the artist and emotion and passion behind it, but at the same time they’ve been sitting on a chair for three hours and nobody’s talked about it.

Your latest designs make for especially great conversation pieces because of the rich stories behind them. This collection is named after The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. How did that novel serve as a starting point for these lights?

: The book is about a shepherd’s journey to find treasure, but it is filled with spiritual meaning and metaphors that a lot of the pieces relate to, while also pulling from mythology and other fables. In another sense, I was also drawing from the actual process of alchemy, which is why the collection focuses on metal. I mean, I’ve used a lot of metal before, but alchemy is really about turning a base metal into something more precious — in this case, a beautiful light fixture.

What are some ways that the end results reflect that idea of magical transformation?

Most of these designs find really unusual ways to encapsulate a light source, with lots of hidden technical components. Mythos is one example. It’s partly inspired by jewellery from antiquity and Egyptian times, but I wanted to really confuse the viewer about how it’s made.

Essentially, it’s illuminated spheres trapped inside very simple rectangular links. But by stitching the wiring into the leather straps it hangs from, we manage to give the impression that there are no cables whatsoever. The electricity runs through the brass to the underside, and then the bulb screws in, so it’s actually quite simple, but it has this magic. With most of these pieces, I tried really hard to eliminate as many seams and screws and things as possible. You don’t necessarily think about those things when you look at a light, but you would definitely notice if they were there.

The majority of the collection is made from brass — with blackened and brushed finishes — except the King chandelier, which is made from aluminum. What made that the right material for that design?

I wanted the laser-cut leaves in King to be as thin and precise as possible so that we can connect them together. They’re all brushed by hand, then anodized, and then riveted together into rings with these tiny individual rivets. There’s a hidden LED inside and I love when it’s switched on, but I really love when it’s switched off as well.

It’s inspired by King Arthur and the idea of combining medieval and brutalist touches. I feel like the two have some connections — particularly in things like jewellery and coronets and crowns. I was looking at images of these really battered, rusty medieval crowns, and they actually looked like brutalist light fixtures from the 1960s. So I was like, ok, that is the story.

Mythos and Solstice are offered as both sconces and pendants. Which came first?

Often I start by designing a pendant, and then the business development team tells me to add a sconce. Everybody wants wall sconces, apparently. And I do listen to them — I just don’t focus on that as the starting point. Because I think if I just do what I want to begin with, at the end of the day, it’ll work out better.

But Solstice is the rare one that actually started off as a wall fixture — just a sphere propped to the wall with a super-slim channel around it. It’s a little 1960s — you can see a lot of mid-century references in my work — but mystical as well. I felt really inspired by Stonehenge, where I had stopped on the way to a friend’s wedding just outside of Glastonbury. It’s such a magical place — I mean, it’s one of the oldest monuments in the world, and nobody really knows why it’s there. Supposedly it’s a clock — and during the winter and summer solstice, there are a lot of festivals that happen there. So I created the illuminated globe to be the sun, and then the square brass section represents the monolithic stones. Once I had the wall version, I designed a pendant where you can have one square, connect them as a duo or potentially keep it going. And it rotates as well — bringing in the idea of how the sun rotates around.

Gemini is the fourth and final range in the collection. The dynamic between the two parts feels reminiscent of your Crescent lights, but in a new shape.

: Yes. Crescent is one of our best-known pieces from like, 10 or so years ago now at this point, and Gemini is kind of inspired by that same idea of two opposing pairs that have shifted. The name Gemini comes from the astrological sign, and the idea of twins. My mother was a twin, and there are a few in my family, so I’ve grown up with a lot of twinning in my life. I think that’s why I’m drawn to this idea so much. But the new form also has some references to alchemical apparatuses, like crucibles and flasks, which gives it a slight industrial touch. And you can hang these in multiple variations — horizontal and vertical.

You’re launching these in your Tribeca penthouse, which is part showroom, part personal residence. What do you like about this part of the city?

: Upstairs on the wall in my studio, I have a leather jacket that Keith Haring painted with a crucifix for his boyfriend. I bought it years ago, and I originally had it in my apartment in London. But when I read that his studio had been just up the street from me here, I had to bring it to New York. They have a little plaque outside his building — which is, interestingly, right by where Rihanna and A$AP Rocky live. There are a few fancy neighbours around — though I’ve only seen Mariah Carey once.

Speaking of music, what are we listening to here in your installation?

: It’s Bach. I listen to a lot of music when I’m designing — a lot of classical. And I felt like a more Baroque soundtrack worked with this collection.

What made you plan this sort of magical study-style setup for the launch of Alchemist?

: These lights are all produced at our factory in London, but I designed many of them in my office right upstairs, so it’s full circle. The downstairs installation is a more immersive showcase and speaks to the emotional side of design, but then we have them installed in some of the living spaces upstairs too, where people can see them in a residential setting. Plus, that means I get to actually live with them. I have two Mythos pendants hanging on either side of my bedroom.

What’s it like, living somewhere that’s also a showroom?

: I’m here about a third of the year, and I’m definitely the right person for it, because I’m pretty tidy anyway. My apartment in London is not a showroom, but there is still kind of nothing extra in it. If I were the type of person who loved clutter, I might not have signed up for it. But I can’t bear having anything that’s just going to collect dust.

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Hollis+Morris Launches Two New Lights Inspired by a Love of the Ocean

Kendra Jackson — Mon, 05 Feb 2024 21:16:37 +0000

When first founded 10 years ago, hollis+morri s was a one-man show operating out of a two-car garage. Today, the Toronto-based studio employs a team of 25 and works from a recently revamped 1,300-square-metre multifunctional space. Helmed by designer Mischa Couvrette – who named his studio after an intersection in Halifax, where he went to university – hollis+morris has grown from its humble beginnings to be one of Canada’s most well-regarded design brands, delivering sustainable hand-crafted lightin g, furniture and accessories that are distinct, minimalist and timeless.

Moving to its new space in late 2023 gave Couvrette and his team – which includes woodworkers, finishers, assemblers, shippers, inventory and sales – the opportunity to devise a tailor-made studio that suited and supported the needs of everyone. Starting with what was essentially a blank slate, Couvrette et al worked with architect Jonathan Mandeville of Halifax architecture and public art practice Passage Studio to create a full-process facility that incorporates seven distinct zones – wood shop, metal shop, prototyping, finishing room, assembly, showroom and offices. “It was important to us that we have a space to showcase the finished product but also to highlight, not hide, the behind-the-scenes aspects of our manufacturing processes,” says managing director Adrianne Straatsma of the sleek new location.

Along with settling into the new digs, hollis+morris has kicked off its 10th year with the recent launching of two new lighting collections that speak to Couvrette’s love of the ocean – the Oyster sconce and the Berm sconce. First designed for his own family home (a nearby ground-up design/build that coincides with the completion of the new facilities), the two sconces share a common source of inspiration but express their own charming personalities.

Oyster sconce

Reflecting the delicate structure of pearl oysters, the Oyster sconce is composed of a moulded steel ribbon “shell,” which securely houses a substantial puck-shaped acrylic diffuser, like a pearl. In an intentional move, the looped fixture has no backplate in order to both wash the wall in light and to also feature rather than cover wall treatments.

“Whether it be wallpaper, wood or any type of plaster treatment, the fixture is able to integrate itself with the environment and quite literally shine a light on that element of the space,” notes Straatsma.

Berm Orb sconce

The Berm sconce, meanwhile, references the “horizontal underwater terrace found in streams and sheltered coastal areas” and includes two diffuser variants – a flat-faced frosted acrylic lens and a hand-blown glass orb.

Berm Acrylic sconce

With each, a solid wood bowl-like element elegantly presents the light source, which in turn casts a warm radiant glow that showcases the intricate and unique grain of the wood. (The flat diffuser version is also ADA compliant for commercial and hospitality applications.)

Both available through the hollis+morris Toronto studio, the Oyster sconce comes powder-coated in Black or White or plated with Brass or Copper; and Berm is offered in White Oak Natural, White Oak White, White Oak Black and Walnut.

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4 Small Table Lamps With Big Personalities

Kendra Jackson — Tue, 07 Nov 2023 18:58:46 +0000

With darker days ahead, an extra layer of lighting can help alleviate the winter doldrums. These four pint-sized yet distinctive table lamp s will make a welcome addition to any space.

Smoothy Lamp from Gantri

When Brooklyn-based industrial designer Louis Filos a was first contemplating schemes for a new desk lamp for California lighting brand Gantr i he found inspiration from a rather unexpected source – soft serve cones being doled out from an ice cream truck. Harnessing the nostalgia of the summertime staple, Filosa developed Smoothy, whose fluid and shapely form brings a sense of softness and movement to any interior.

Smoothy Lamp in Sunrise and Sage (above)

While the lighthearted design is intended as an affable alternative to the more mechanical and angular desk lamps that are commonly found in modern offices, its playful shape and focused glow would instill warmth in a bedroom, entryway or any other space where special moments can be highlighted. Equipped with a dimmable, museum-grade LED, the lamp emits a natural-like illumination that can be adjusted throughout the day. Further strengthening the feel-good nature of Smoothy is its eco-friendly production and composition: each lamp is 3D printed by-demand to minimize waste and uses a propriety plant-based polymer; Smoothy is offered in three bold colourways – Sage, Sunrise and Carbon.

Madco from Ambientec

Madco in Cherry

Madco in Olive

Italian architect and designer Elisa Ossin o pays homage to traditional Japanese lanterns with her Madco lamp for lighting brand Ambiente c, whose headquarters are in the coastal prefecture Kanagawa just outside of Tokyo. Ossino has distilled the classic luminaire into a simple sphere, the geometric shape she favours for its “iconic purity,” with a literal twist: positioned within an ultra-thin metal stand (that doubles as a handle for the portable lamp), the round diffuser can be rotated 360 degrees to allow for a multitude of lighting configurations; a metal cap on the bottom of the glass ball cleverly conceals the technical components and transformer.

Madco in Peach

Madco in Mustard

With Madco, Ossino is also introducing colour to Ambientec’s offerings for the first time, with a curated palette of five earthy hues – Olive, Peach, Terracotta, Mustard and Cherry. Rechargeable and suitable for use outdoors, the tiny table lamp can be used almost anywhere a little extra illumination is desired.

Pop Lamp from Mud Australia

Pop Lamp in Red

For years, Mud Australia founder and creative director Shelley Simpson had been toying with the idea of introducing a lighting collection to her brand’s portfolio. When she met Sydney-based industrial designer Zachary Hann a, she knew it was time to bring her idea to fruition. In 2021, the two began collaborating on a series of three porcelain lamps that merge Simpson’s material expertise with Hanna’s technical component know-how.

Pop Lamp in Slate

Pop Lamp in Orange

The second design in the collection to be realized is the Pop lamp (available November 15). Handmade from a single piece of porcelain, the cordless and portable LED lamp boasts a simple yet compelling form – its sturdy round body is topped by a half shade that emits light both up and down, creating a subtle interplay of direct and ambient illumination. The Pop lamp is available in six of Mud Australia’s signature colours: Blossom, Duck Egg, Dust, Orange, Red and Slate.

Ongo Rouge from Contardi

Originally designed for Contard i in 2015 by New York designers Jessica Corr (for Tzelan) and Tony Chi, the Ongo lamp has been given a new brilliant crimson dress for the holiday season. Maintaining its cute and compact mushroom shape, the rechargeable and portable lamp instills a sense of fairy-tale whimsy wherever it lands.

The lively and vibrant hue joins the existing mix-and-match finish offerings for the handblown Murano glass lamp, which include Warm Nickel, Dark Orange and Satin Gold lacquers. With two dimmable intensity levels, the petite table lamp can help take the atmosphere from lively to subdued and intimate.

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How Vancouver’s A-N-D Has Built an International Lighting Brand

Katie Nanton — Thu, 26 Oct 2023 13:17:00 +0000

On an industrial East Vancouver side street amid auto body shops, food processing plants and a smattering of creative agencies, there’s one business lit better than the rest: A-N-D. Step inside the lighting design studio and manufacturer and you’ll find a two-level workspace with 31 creatives; in the main room, some tap away at iMacs, others sip espresso, and all are bathed in the warm illumination delivered by A-N-D Slab pendant lights hanging overhead, which also work double-duty — thanks to their partial covering of Merino wool felt — to reduce acoustic ambient sound in the workspace.

In a bright back room, busy hands assemble fixtures with care; others load a van with boxes destined for Europe, Asia and the United States. A flight of stairs leads to an epicentre of material exploration (which could at any given time include fabric, concrete, aluminum, steel or glass), as well as 3D printing presses, a photography studio and an inspo-filled bookshelf. It’s also where you’ll find the offices of designers Lukas Peet and Caine Heintzman, who — along with president Matt Davis — co-founded A-N-D nearly a decade ago.

All three grew up in mountain towns: Canmore, Whistler and Edmonton, respectively. Davis and Heintzman first connected through snowboarding and skateboarding, and when they met Peet through acquaintances in the local design community, they recognized a shared passion for functional design. Peet had just returned to Canada after graduating from Design Academy Eindhoven — shortly after which he debuted the innovative Specular table light featuring a half-mirrored light bulb — and Heintzman had studied at ECUAD and Weißensee Kunsthochschule Berlin. In 2014, the trio formed ANDLight, each bringing a unique design language and theory to a practice built upon challenging the existing standards in lighting. (“AND” stands for “A New Detail.”)

On the global stage, their products have attracted attention for both their elegance and their sometimes supersized scales — such big bold releases as Slab, Iris, Pebble and Button are light fixtures and then some. The sheer drama of these sculptural designs has paid off: Today, the company has employees based in New York and San Francisco and a small office in Copenhagen. They also have a second Vancouver warehouse, giving them a total of 2,045 square metres of space in the city.

“Each of us has a lot of crossover,” explains Peet, who received the inaugural RBC Emerging Designer Award during A-N-D’s founding year. “But we also have specialties, to a certain degree.” In addition to being designers, Peet takes on the creative direction while Heintzman harmonizes the product direction; Davis provides steady leadership through it all. From a production standpoint, all A-N-D products are designed, prototyped, tested and assembled in house. For each component, they source from the most qualified vendors in Asia, Europe and North America. A fresh luminaire collection debuts every two years to take to the world stage. In 2023 alone, A-N-D showed at ICFF in New York, Milan Design Week, 3daysofdesign in Copenhagen and, in September, Paris Design Week. (They’ve recently dropped “light” from the original name.)

“Our objective from the very beginning was always to design and manufacture for the entire world market,” explains Davis. “The exposure in Europe [in recent years] created instant validation for us in knowing that our intentions were successful.” Despite the fact that their product is recognized and sold globally, awe sometimes strikes when the trio spot their designs in the wild. “In Milan this April, we walked past a retail store and saw a light we created,” says Heintzman. “It’s still kind of flabbergasting.”

The following month, Heintzman’s Iris pendant was suspended front and centre at their ICFF booth in New York. The grand orb of light encased in a large-scale elliptical shell appears at once imposing and ethereally weightless, and it garnered attention with its naturally magnetic appeal. “The goal of this luminaire was to introduce a voluminous fixture to our collection,” explains Heintzman. “And there is a bit of an optical illusion going on with Iris. [It appears as though] the light is floating. Where’s the power source? How is it held together? To figure all that out was a technical journey.”

In devising Iris, Heintzman sought to explore the effect achieved by diffusing light through the convex shape of thermoformed acrylic. “By taking a familiar material and changing the form, it transformed the quality of diffusion and created an unexpected effect,” says Heintzman. To add further dynamism, he decided to make Iris modular: The light is composed of top and bottom halves; two depths are available of each so the client may choose the combination depending on their preferred look. The acrylic is manufactured in Germany, shipped to Vancouver, then cut and thermoformed locally.

Iris, like all of Heintzman’s designs, began with a pen-and-paper sketch. He usually starts his process there, investigates material possibilities and does a deep dive into physical modelling. Conversely, Peet takes a methodical approach, executing concept exploration with a goal in mind. “Initial inspiration can come from anywhere; it could be material-based, technique-based,” says Peet. “I take that and see how it is connected to light, then see how I can shape the light to get a certain result.”

Milan Design Week 2023 marked the debut of Peet’s Vector series, which was inspired by the raw quality of Richard Serra’s artworks. For this industrial fixture, Peet placed special emphasis on material (steel) but still approached the design methodically. “For most products in general, and of course ours, there is a material, and a finish is applied to it,” says Peet. “I wanted to skip that process completely and design something where you pick the finish based on the material.”

Each component of the light is cut from one sheet of steel, and the three finish options feel inherent to the material: weathered, blackened or stainless steel. In the striking pendant version, which is hung by aircraft cables, light pours into a hollow centre and onto the inner and outer faces bidirectionally. Peet refined the theoretical 2D design so that it could be applied to anything that is a sheet — wood or glass, for example — opening up the possibility of a range of creations based on one bold design. Speaking of bold, Vector also made a splash at Milan’s “Alcova” off-site event in a defunct abattoir; the pendants were suspended along the central portico at Bar Galleria. The brutalist pendants played off the raw surroundings (plants, graffiti, concrete) to dramatic effect. “Alcova gave us the opportunity to show our artistic side,” adds Davis.

For a very different look, Peet’s classically inspired Column pendant took centre stage in Copenhagen. Here, symmetrical segments of machine mould-blown glass cylinders are stacked either vertically or horizontally, creating a Grecian Doric column reference with a contemporary twist.

The modular design enables the stacking of varying numbers of pieces; one office in Australia ordered a custom horizontal fixture with 27 pieces, expanding the space above an entranceway desk in a most grandiose way. A-N-D’s clientele is about 30 per cent residential and 70 per cent commercial/hospitality, based on volume of orders.

Next fall marks A-N-D’s 10-year anniversary, and the company continues to push the boundaries of lighting design. From a material standpoint, both designers want to explore casting — glass, plastics, metal — and from an innovation standpoint, the company is already implementing the latest dim-to-warm technology, which allows LEDs to be dimmed while controlling colour temperature and intensity simultaneously, mimicking incandescence. “With this technology, our LEDs are coming on at 3000 kelvin,” says Davis. “A full, bright blast. And when you dim them, they go down to 1800 kelvin, which is a romantic, warm, dusk light.” Effectively, it’s a much more usable light that fills a need for variance throughout the day, and it also escalates beautiful design into a highly functional piece that can affect the mood and well-being of those within a space. Currently, this technology is available in almost every A-N-D design.

This dimming detail may seem small, but it goes hand in hand with a clarity of purpose that’s formed the core of the company since day one: functionality. “We make light fixtures, not decorations,” says Davis. “Yes, they are decorative lights, but these are very functional objects.” Extreme care is taken to showcase the lights exactly as they are, be it in the photography studio or otherwise; they aim to create no illusion that is not naturally present in the design — and it pays off. “Usually, after just seeing catalogue photos, one of the comments we get is, ‘This is much more beautiful in person,’ ” admits Davis. “To us, that’s the ultimate compliment.”

Portrait, top of article, by Alejandro Ramírez Orozco.

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