Talent Pool

By: Tim McKeoughWed Dec 19, 2007 at 8:24 AM

Making their mark from New York to Tokyo. Fourteen talents who are driving design forward.

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Cormier's Le Havre installation

Ponce de Leon and Tehrani's Helios House

2007 Masters of Design

Masamichi Katayama
Tokyo

The founder of the design firm Wonderwall, Masamichi Katayama creates retail stores with a few quirks, like shoes displayed on conveyor belts. His latest shop for streetwear company A Bathing Ape--Bape Kids in Tokyo--is all curved-wall pockets and soft lights, except for a pool filled with foam bananas. "The Bape stores drew a lot of attention because I broke the formula for the retail clothing business," says Katayama, explaining that he focused on the brand rather than maximizing shelving and display space.
Clients: Dean & Deluca, Harrods, Marc Jacobs, Uniqlo

Monica Ponce de Leon & Nader Tehrani
Boston

A canopy of crumpled steel appears to have landed on a BP gas station in Los Angeles. Designed with Johnston Marklee and Ogilvy & Mather's Brand Integration Group, Helios House is equipped with solar panels, a water collection system, and recycled materials. Although gasoline-powered cars aren't environmentally friendly, the station itself achieved LEED certification. Monica Ponce de Leon and Nader Tehrani's firm, Office dA, just completed Boston's first LEED-certified residential complex. (For more on LEED certification, see "Green Standard.")
Clients: BP North America, Pappas Enterprises, Rhode Island School of Design

Dror Benshetrit
New York

Asked to help design a two-part shoe system that separates function from fashion for Skins Footwear, Dror Benshetrit of Studio Dror sculpted an orthopedic "bone" that slips inside a floppy "skin." All his creations, from a Swarovski chandelier that sits on the floor to a folding chair that hangs on the wall, suggest that things are not as they seem. "When you have a vision, you need a designer to pull it from your subconscious out to realization," he says.
Clients: Levi's, Puma

Tobias Wong
New York

For most of us, a "cease and desist" letter from McDonald's lawyers would be cause for concern; for Tobias Wong, it was a badge of honor. The provocation: a gold-plated replica of a McDonald's coffee stirrer renamed Coke Spoon. Wong makes a career of hijacking brands; this summer, he went after retailing. Wong and Gregory Krum set up the Wrong Store, filled with designer goods. Shoppers showed up, but the doors never opened. With his work, Wong says, "there's always a nice little twist."
Clients: Alessi, Citizen:Citizen, Swarovski

Joshua Davis
New York

Digital image maker Joshua Davis drops hand-drawn art into elaborate computer animation programs of his own design, sets some boundaries, and lets the software do its thing. He splits his time between art projects and design commissions for the likes of BMW, Nike, and Nokia. Recently, Davis created an online kaleidoscope for Motorola's Motokrzr that viewers can customize and send to their mobile phones or save as desktop wallpaper. "Design is harder than creating art," he says. "You have to create something that adheres to strict rules and guidelines--logo treatments, brand identity, style guides, mood boards--and create something fresh."
Clients: BMW, Nike, Nokia, Motorola

Stephen Burks
New York

Calvin Klein's new fragrance, CKin2U, owes some of its success to the bottle, a simple glass vessel sheathed in plastic with a cutaway logo, designed by Stephen Burks. Burks says he aims to communicate "on a structural level, a conceptual level, or a material level," and convey a sense of how the product is made. For B&B Italia, Burks formed each table in a set from one sheet of folded aluminum and left visible seams. "The seams are remnants of the industrial process," he says. "By building in an industrial legibility, you can pique consumer interest."
Clients: B&B Italia, Coty Prestige, Estée Lauder

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