ReThink Designers

From Iceland to Venezuela, Beijing to Brooklyn, meet the 12 designers and artists who let their imaginations run free in the ReThink projects, drawing on their diverse cultural and cross-disciplinary backgrounds.

Belén

Belén is a design studio founded by Brecht Duijf and Lenneke Langenhuijsen, mentors on the Geo-Design and Social Design master’s programmes at Design Academy Eindhoven. Their work focuses on creative direction and material research, translation and application.

Fernando Laposse

Fernando Laposse is a Mexican designer whose practice focuses on transforming natural fibres, such as corn husks, sisal or loofah, into design pieces and new architectural materials.

Folkform

Since founding Folkform in 2005, Anna Holmquist and Chandra Ahlsell have been creating design objects that occupy the space between craft and industry. They began their collaboration while studying at Konstfack, University of Arts, Crafts and Design in Stockholm, where they created experimental furniture with flowers pressed into Masonite hardboard.

Fragmentario

María-Elena Pombo is a Venezuelan interdisciplinary artist based in New York City. She is the founder of Fragmentario, a platform for research and experimentation. She is best known for her work using avocado seeds collected by restaurant workers, reflecting a strategy of engaging participants from diverse backgrounds.

Christophe Guberan and Camille Blin

Camille Blin and Christophe Guberan both studied at ECAL in Lausanne and are both based in the city – working as designers and teaching at ECAL.

Ian Markell

Born and based in Los Angeles, lan Markell is a multidisciplinary artist whose sculptures, photographs and multimedia works reposition and reconstitute found elements to reframe human experience, typically highlighting his historically loaded material’s subjective past.

Jenny Chou

Born in Taiwan, Jenny Chou co-founded the multi-disciplinary Atlas studio in 2015 with two fellow architecture graduates of the Rhode Island School of Design. Based in Beijing, the studio is rooted in architecture but its design projects are wide-ranging, led by an interest in the evolution and preservation of culture and place.

Leong Leong

Founded by brothers Dominic and Chris Leong in 2009, Leong Leong is a New York-based architecture studio and design consultancy whose global work includes buildings, interiors, exhibitions and furniture.

Maxwell Ashford

Maxwell Ashford is a young British designer living in Switzerland who is fast emerging as a name to watch. His practice revolves around the ecological impact that accompanies the production and consumption of objects, centring on sustainable innovation.

Patricia Urquiola

Patricia Urquiola studied architecture and design at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid and completed her studies at the Politecnico di Milano (Technical University of Milan) where she graduated under the mentorship of Achille Castiglioni.

Rikako Nagashima

Graphic design is at the core of Rikako Nagashima’s work which takes in identity design, sign planning, book design and spatial design. Based in Tokyo, Nagashima places sustainability at the heart of her work, and is keenly aware of the environmental impact of design.

Ýr Jóhannsdóttir

Ýr Jóhannsdóttir is a textile designer from Iceland, based in Berlin and Reykjavík who works under the name Ýrúrarí. Her pieces are mostly textile-based, exploring the line between costume and casual wear.

Designers