EGO Paris
Paris, France
Embracing outdoor life with added sleek sophistication, EGO Paris provides clients with an array of customizable furniture options. Offering almost 400 possible color combinations and a wide variety of modular designs, the company's belief that use should precede form results in spaces that are as comfortable as they are beautiful. Its vision removes standard, tubular aluminum and sticky vinyl patio furniture from our ability to live life outdoors.
Porky Hefer Design
Cape Town, Africa
It doesn’t normally occur to one to lounge within the ginormous mouth of a plush angler fish suspended from the ceiling, or to curl up with a book in a lofted nest (pictured), but designer Porky Hefer combines whimsical conceptions with high-end product and furniture design. Hailing from Cape Town, South Africa, Hefer embraces the indigenous skills and processes of his homeland, generating spaces which reverberate with energy.
After having spent 16 years in advertising as a creative director in Cape Town and New York, Hefer left to start his own creative consulting firm, Animal Farm, and Porky Hefer Designs four years later. The craftsmanship of his work not only elevates it to that thin line between high-art and functional design, but becomes lodged in the happiness center of your brain.
Arborite
Quebec, Canada
While Arborite keeps wow-ing us year after year with its new designs, it’s really the company's commitment to a greener earth that takes our breath away—or it would if its stringent chemical emission tests and standards didn’t lead its laminate to become a recipient of the Greenguard Indoor Quality Certification from the Greenguard Environmental Institute. What’s more, Arborite recently announced a partnership with Wilsonart as part of the Save a Sample! Program, an organization which recycles thousands of pounds of materials such as brochures, samples, fabrics, and finish cards through donations to design schools around the country.
Paul STUDIO
Delhi NCR, India
PAUL STUDIO, made up of co-designers Paul Sandip and Suhasini Paul, combines fun with function, paring down the elements to what Sandip describes as “voluntary simplicity.” Having been awarded numerous international titles over the years—including the Red Dot Award in both 2007 and 2010—this dynamic duo has taken over the product design industry, from toys to angular multiplugs to the playful Mr. Chair (pictured).
41zero42
Fiorano Modenese, Italy
The devil’s in the details in 41zero42’s tilework. The genius in the firm's work is the ways in which it uses simplicity meshed with dynamic details: a thin lime green divider between slabs of marble; etched lines in gray tile almost camouflaged against the neighboring tile’s grain; a lone hexagonal tile recessed behind the rest to create perfection-in-imperfection. Made up of emerging young designers, the budding company aims to create resilient, practical tile that offers the user unique, and contemporary designs.
