The design industry can be a competitive place, but the Brooklyn-based lighting studio In Common With and fellow Brooklynite, ceramicist Danny Kaplan, have made a compelling case for working together. The two studios have come together to launch ‘Terra’, a sculptural lighting collection featuring Kaplan’s ceramic work that they have designed together.
Stemming from a mutual admiration that first emerged over social media, the partnership between In Common With and Kaplan started out organically and continues to grow, with eight new geometric forms now joining the original six pieces that they unveiled in 2020, on the cusp of the pandemic.
‘Terra’ ceramic lamps by In Common With and Danny Kaplan
Portrait of Danny Kaplan, Nick Ozemba and Felicia Hung.
‘Our studio was founded around a spirit of collaboration. Because materiality is so central to what we do, we are always looking to work with other makers, artists and craftspeople who complement our point of view, skill set and have expertise in a particular material, whether it’s metalwork, glass or ceramics,’ says Nick Ozemba, who co-founded In Common With alongside fellow designer Felicia Hung. ‘We love the interplay of light with the tactility of hand-thrown ceramics. Danny has such a mastery of the medium, so he was the perfect person to help us bring these pieces to life.’
Ozemba adds, ‘The first iteration of “Terra” launched digitally in 2020 in the midst of the pandemic and really resonated with our clients. We have continued experimenting with new ideas, and it’s exciting to now expand the collection in new directions. Danny has such a distinctive, yet timeless sensibility and an interest in form that parallels the approach Felicia and I have to design. Together, I think we have arrived at a new design language that came together in really interesting and unexpected ways.’
'Paloma' pendant
While not deviating from In Common With’s crisp and minimalist sensibility, ‘Terra’ leverages Kaplan’s handcrafted quality of ceramics and rich, tactile glazes to bring a new harmony between beauty and utility. Simple orb forms and timeless geometric assemblages exude a mercurial quality when combined with Kaplan’s gestures in ceramic and glaze.
New colourways, such as ivy greens, rust tones and even lapis, bring out a new lustre in ceramic form, that’s further complemented by brass hardware and concealed wiring. Each piece – the collaborative collection spans surface mount lights, a pendant, a sconce, a table lamp, a floor lamp, and the brand’s first mirror – easily illuminates an interior.
'Augustus' mirror
‘These objects look unlike anything we have done before in terms of colour and scale and are some of our boldest, most ambitious pieces to date,’ Ozemba says.
‘The larger lights, like the “Paloma” pendant and “Helena” floor lamps, are bordering on the monumental with totemic forms – they are approaching something that almost blurs the line between lighting and sculpture.’
'Helena' floor lamp
INFORMATION
‘Terra’ is on view and available for purchase at Assembly Line in Brooklyn until 30 June 2022
ADDRESS
373 Atlantic Avenue
Brooklyn, New York
-
Formafantasma’s biodiversity-boosting installation in a Perrier Jouët vineyard is cross-pollination at its bestFormafantasma and Perrier Jouët unveil the first project in their ‘Cohabitare’ initiative, ‘not only a work of art but also a contribution to the ecosystem’
-
Gingerbread City: architects sculpt London out of the season's favourite treatUntil December 29 in Chelsea, see London brought to life in a seasonal-appropriate medium by leading architects and designers
-
New Revox B77 MK III reel-to-reel tape recorder, and more cassette tape-based trickeryThe new Revox B77 MK III might be the ultimate analogue flex. In response, we’ve explored the outer reaches of cassette tape design
-
Brooklyn furniture studio Stillmade unveils its first collaborative design seriesStillmade brings to life the designs of four New Yorkers – Pat Kim, Danny Kaplan, Michele Quan and Mignogna Studio
-
Blue Green Works's lighting champions a new aesthetic in American designManhattan-based design studio Blue Green Works fuses sensuality and masculinity to create mellow, mood-enhancing lighting with visual impact
-
Blue Green Works introduces alluring new lighting collectionInspired by iconography, American design studio Blue Green Works introduces five new lighting ranges
-
Vincent Van Duysen ‘inspired by modernism’ for Molteni & C’s outdoor furniture debutMolteni & C goes alfresco with two new collections and reissued classics, bringing its signature elegance to the great outdoors
-
First look inside Centurion New York by Yabu PushelbergCenturion New York is an expansive new space for American Express’ ‘black card’ members. Its interior designers Yabu Pushelberg give us a tour
-
Is this the most beautiful office in the world?Parisian creative agency Art Recherche Industrie’s new HQ translates a 19th-century landmark into a chic open-plan office worth leaving home for
-
Designer James Shaw’s latest creation is a self-built home in east LondonJames Shaw's east London home is Filled with vintage finds and his trademark extruded plastic furniture, a compact self-built marvel
-
Taschen tantalises with new edition of Jorge Pardo’s ‘Brussels Lamps’German publishing house Taschen launches a limited-edition series of five ‘Brussels Lamps’ by Cuban-American artist Jorge Pardo
