For Wallpaper*s 2024 Next Generation issue, we have rounded-up a hotlist of emerging design talent from around the world, shining a light on the newcomers paving the present and forging the future.
Join us on our journey to meet ten emerging designers from Adelaide, Tokyo, London, Lagos, Guatemala City, Mexico City, Loch Lomond, New York and Paris. Welcome to our ascending stars of 2024.
Emerging designer Amelia Stevens
Amelia Stevens at the Max Radford Gallery in east London, with 'The Architectural Completion of a Floor Bolster Cushion - 1 Person'
Stevens studied architecture at Cambridge, then worked as a set designer and writer before setting up her design practice in 2021. Her furniture and object series have a strict formality and material confidence that bely the glorious indulgence of their function and witty, subverted literary titles. Standout pieces include her ‘Ashtray Without Qualities - Standing’ and the stainless steel and toughened glass ‘Species of Table and Other Pieces - Side', named after Georges Perec’s seminal 1974 text Species of Spaces and Other Pieces. Stevens is quick to point out that she does not smoke.
Wallpaper*: How did you settle on design as your calling?
Amelia Stevens: I’ve always felt compelled to design, but the timescale of architecture didn’t suit me. After graduating, I worked in set design and found the scale and pace more enjoyable; the aspirational and experimental quality was interesting. I love academia, research and writing about design. Designing objects and furniture became a viable way of giving form to my own expression, while engaging in creative production.
W*: How do you describe your work?
AS: My personal design language is minimalist and understated, but my pieces have hidden meanings that are playful. I like reducing things to their essential forms. The idea of creating objects with a very specific function is fun.
'Species of Table - Low' (sapele)
W*: What has been a career highlight?
AS: I’m proud of my progression. It might sound counterintuitive, but it’s very hard to make things look simple. And I work with exceptional craftspeople with so much knowledge and expertise. Working in collaboration is such a joyful part of my practice.
W*: What would be a dream commission?
AS: I’m interested in working with a cultural institution. I find interacting with other art forms exciting. I’d love to explore designing scenography for performances to play with the experiential possibilities of design.
'The Architectural Completion of a Floor Bolster Cushion - 2 Person' and 'Ashtray Without Qualities - Standing'
W*: What do you believe is the power of design?
AS:I subscribe to the 20th-century optimism of design. I use high quality materials and craftsmanship to create pieces that people will fall in love with and look after. My practice is small and made to order; it’s geared towards beauty as a function of longevity, as opposed to contributing to throwaway culture.
'Table Without Qualities - Side'
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Paola Antonelli and Alice Rawsthorn on design as a powerful tool of changeDesign Emergency began as an Instagram Live series during the Covid-19 pandemic and is now becoming a wake-up call to the world, and compelling evidence of the power of design to effect radical and far-reaching change. Co-founders Paola Antonelli and Alice Rawsthorn took over the October 2020 issue of Wallpaper* – available to download free here – to present stories of design’s new purpose and promise
