One to Watch: Knauf and Brown

Industrial designers Knauf and Brown are already making a splash on the world stage.

Considering Knauf and Brown’s recent successes at the 2014 New York Design Week and in their exhibition at this year’s Stockholm Furniture and Light Fair, it’s hard to believe the young design studio—started in 2013—was a two-man effort who not that long ago was working out of Calen Knauf’s home. But now that he and design partner Conrad Brown are in a larger space in Vancouver’s Chinatown, the pair can think a little bigger, focusing on furniture and lighting projects that represent a seamless marriage of function and aesthetic—a product of their backgrounds in photography and graphic design. Their Overcast light does away with hard lines and mimics natural cloud cover with its blended paper pulp shade; their Keefer credenza creates the illusion of floating shelves behind a bamboo-beaded skirt. “Our work is very balanced and driven by the formal qualities,” says Brown. “We want to make nice things that also work well.”

For more on the West’s up-and-coming designers and makers, subscribe to the WL newsletter!