From the Superbowl to the sitting room: No-Ga debuts furniture by Willo Perron

When Rihanna descended from the rafters at the 2023 Super Bowl, it was a spectacle. Standing on a floating platform — surrounded by her dancers, moving in unison atop similar stages rising and falling in the air — the set was simple, yet made a profound impact on the viewer: a masterclass in minimalism meeting grandeur. That set, as well as endless similarly striking designs for artists like Beyoncé and Sam Smith, as well as fashion show concepts for brands including Chanel, was designed by the Montreal-born Willo Perron, the co-founder of LA-based creative studio Perron-Roettinger. So what does it look like when you focus that kind of creative energy that electrifies the Super Bowl stadium to a domestic scale? Surprisingly accessible, as seen in Perron’s latest collaboration with the Swedish gallery and design brand No-Ga, on a series of modular tables and wall-mounted mirrors.

“I was thinking about this this morning in the car to my studio — about the disparity of my work,” says Perron, speaking over video chat from his Los Angeles office. “Considering all of the projects we’re working on — live touring, retail, furniture — the first four messages of my day were completely different worlds.” Despite the varied, often theatrical nature of Perron’s work, the modular coffee table and minimalist wall-mounted mirror for No-Ga are anchored firmly in function. “You basically have two formats of coffee tables, you have a square and a rectangle. And if your living room does not conform to that — you’re fumbling around,” notes Perron. His modular system, made from cast glass fibre and available in colours ranging from oxblood red to mint green, can be arranged in different configurations depending on the dimensions of the space. “The idea was to make coffee and side tables take the form they need to.”

The tables come in several coordinating shapes, sizes and heights, all based around a single cuboid form with rounded corners: a box with a slot for books and magazines; two volumes linked at the corner to create an hourglass-like shape; one with an a-symmetrical lip, creating a kind of shelf; and a triangle-shaped version. The wall-mounted mirrors, meanwhile, take inspiration from the Brutalist architecture, with an oblong pane of glass set into a rectangle-shaped frame that recalls cast-concrete panels.

Perron’s approach aligns with his worldview that champions flexibility in both the creative and domestic spheres. “There’s this very bourgeois convention where you must have a fireplace, a couch and two chairs in a living room,” says Perron. “But we’ve evolved away from needing that. I want to be able to break down spaces and use them in a hybrid way, so the collection can grow — like moss or fungus.”

He also sees this collection as an effort to democratise high-quality design. “The goal for a lot of the things I make is to give people an entryway to design. If you go from being a person with a small apartment to having a house, you need things that are scalable,” he explains. “The modular idea allows you to buy a single piece, yet have the opportunity to keep building off of it in the future.”

This week, No-Ga will unveil the collection at the Matter and Shape fair in Paris, where Perron also serves as creative director. He designed the setting for the annual design show, which takes place in Paris’s Jardin des Tuileries. Fitting, for someone whose work thrives at the intersection of spectacle and structure.

No-ga.com