This past February, Bok Bar commissioned eight local individuals and small teams of designers, makers, and artists to create bespoke furniture for Bok Bar. The teams that were chosen are diverse – from emerging visual artists to long-time Philly furniture designers. For 3 short months, the teams went through a concept design process lead by Scout’s in-house architects, Emma Rutherford, and Richard Hall, and co-founder/managing partner, Lindsey Scannapieco.
DesignPhiladelphia’s program manager, Sharon Leshner sat in on the Bok furniture design process and spoke with each design team. Here is a behind the scenes look at 4 of 9 teams behind the furniture. Click here to read about the first 4 posts in part 1 of this series.
You can meet the designers in person on Friday, October 13 during the DesignPhiladelphia Festival. Guillio Cappellini of the world renowned Italian furniture company, Cappellini, will moderate a panel of Bok Bar designers and artists. Get tickets and learn more.
Brian Christopher
Brian Christopher, a self-taught woodworker, got his start making commissioned pieces in Hoboken. Inspired by the sheer number of people working as designers and artists in Philly, he moved here and started his own furniture design company, Bicyclette. Brian’s pieces for Bok Bar are inspired by a recent trip to Japan, where he discovered that good design is integrated into many of their public spaces. Like much of Japanese design, the beautiful materials and intricate detail work of Brian’s pieces speak for themselves.
Steven Dailey – Traction Co.
Steven is a sculpture artist who works as a part of Traction Co., an artist collaborative studio based in West Philadelphia (all Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts alumni). Steven is motivated by the ability that art gives him to express himself. “I like to show evidence of the hand – of mistakes. Art lets you breath and exposes the tensions of the creative process” Steven’s work for the Bok Bar process captures both the freedom of art and the utilitarian nature of furniture design.
Jeff Rubio
Jeff got his start as an industrial design student at Pratt. Since then, Jeff has been finding his own whimsical and bold style by designing window displays for stores like Urban Outfitters and Anthropology. Jeff’s pieces are inspired by the geometric graphic design of Bok Bar and Memphis Design along with sketches and artworks by Rem Koolkhaas, and Bauhaus students.
Milder Office
Milder Office is both a company and a system for designing furniture that focuses on the end user. While Milder typically designs customizable furniture learning and working environments, they stepped “out of [their] typical language” to create furniture for Bok Bar. During the design process, Avigail Milder shared that “we envision these tables to be an island of calm, a communal space that brings people of diverse backgrounds together – like our company, which is influenced by Israeli, German, and American heritage”. Milder Office successfully combined work and play in their communal chalk board tables, which come equipped with a chalk holder for doodling and drinking.
Meet the designers in person on Friday, October 13 during the DesignPhiladelphia Festival.
