The work of Eugene, Oregon’s Studio Gorm has been included in numerous publications and exhibitions all over the world.
Designer-makers in the Pacific Northwest are "resetting boundaries, playing by their own rules, and establishing innovative models for creating, producing and distributing goods," says Jennifer Navva Milliken, curator of craft at Bellevue Arts Museum (BAM).
The New Frontier exhibition at BAM represented studios from across the region. "The 28 designer-makers featured have created practices with limited edition or one-of-a-kind production," she says. "In most cases, they're also developing one-on-one client relationships."
Noting that most of the featured studios have opened since 2008, Milliken says, "Entrepreneurship and focus on sustainable business practices are strong elements throughout. The creative strategies these designers have adapted to allow them to practise and realize their aesthetic goals are amazing."
Inter-studio and interdisciplinary collaboration is another principle that unifies the exhibition, she reports. "It is really inspiring to see these designers collaborating to maximize opportunities, and the ways these collaborations are resulting in community building."
Responsible resource use is also a key theme. "Graypants, for example, is well known for their use of discarded cardboard in beautiful and inventive lighting elements," says Milliken. "Joel Sayre sources fallen wood from forests and works it by hand to create gorgeous functional art pieces that can be used as stools, end tables or decorative objects."
“It is really inspiring to see these designers collaborating to maximize opportunities, and the ways these collaborations are resulting in community building.”
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Featured designer Darin Montgomery founded Seattle's urbancase in 2008 on the philosophy that "objects and spaces should contribute to a simpler and more pared-back lifestyle." He is also a founding partner of lighting design company Standard Socket.
Montgomery was creating metal sculpture in a studio in South Seattle during the mid-'90s when he was asked to weld some tables by furniture designers who had a shop across the alley. "It just took off from there," he says. "We did a handful of projects, and the design build eventually led to a furniture line. I started working more and more with wood, and eventually launched a product line at the International Contemporary Furniture Fair in New York in 2008. I've been doing it ever since."
Designers in the Pacific Northwest can't help but be influenced by the natural beauty of the region as well as by the rich design community, he says. "We've got such a crop of design studios, all coming of age at the same time, and I think we've had a huge influence on each other in aesthetic, resourcing and finding vendors willing to work in small scale. Several of us all use the same machine shop, for example, and the same timber supplier. It's very nurturing. People want other studios to succeed."
The New Frontier, a Bellevue Arts Museum exhibition, spotlighted the works of notable designers from British Columbia, Washington and Oregon. An offering of these works will be reinstalled at IDSwest, presented by American Standard.
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