We started the experiment that is now Colony with a resolute idealism. A belief that if we fought hard enough and made smart choices, we could change some of the rules that were set out before us.
Design Politics
The rules of commerce and industry have been written by men unlike the vast majority of us. A self-preserving, uber-elite that have tipped the scales in their favor. I work every day to prove (mostly to myself) that we can stake a small claim of this industry for ourselves and for people like us. That we can subvert the status quo. Though many days this endeavor feels like brute force, Colony is in fact balancing between delicately fine lines.
Inclusion is a mindset, while curation is a necessity.
We must be simultaneously open and cautious, a seemingly impossible feat. If you’ve ever come to a Colony opening and had to wait in line (so sorry) you’ve experienced our dilemma. Colony and our carefully chosen designers work tirelessly to create work that many will never own, but all should have the opportunity to experience. I am acutely aware of this juxtaposition and hope that our space can become a conduit for inclusion, curation and discovery — for everyone.
Beauty alone is fleeting, while pure substance can be easily overlooked. However, once combined and truly achieved, the power of substantive beauty is unending. I’ll admit I invented this term but use it with such veracious frequency that one might assume it was common English vernacular. Regardless, it is the pursuit on which Colony was built and continues to grow.
The power of substantive beauty.
You can’t be neutral on a moving train. (Howard Zinn)
Colony was founded on principles of community, inclusion, positivity and substantive beauty. Sometimes we succeed and at times we fall short, but everyday we strive towards those ideals. I want to speak for our small community to express our intolerance for misogyny, racism, bigotry and aggression. In these politically tumultuous times, with weeks like last week, and men ascending to power like Brett Kavanaugh, please join us in fighting for light in a dark world. Please join us in always striving, even when we falter, for our highest ideals.
Coast to Coast: Nashville
Our second leg of Coast to Coast with Design Milk uncovered a genuinely supportive community where colleagues and clients seem more like friends and family. This camaraderie has resulted in a thriving self-sustaining industry of Nashville architects working with Nashville designers and artists, placing Nashville-made work in Nashville-based projects.
Natives and implants alike are disconcertingly nonchalant about this self-made industry, and their charm lies in their acute awareness of the world outside of Nashville, and their uncanny ability to not let it veer them from their creative paths.
Coast to Coast: Detroit
Balancing the tenuous lines between honoring the past, moving toward the future and nurturing a robust creative community while building an economically sound urban ecostructure, Detroit left us wanting more Detroit. More explanation, more exposure and more truth about how the historically embattled city defines its own growth through architecture, art and design.
Here are some of Detroit’s most innovative initiatives, in their own words. Corporations, non-profits, individual artists and small practices that all share an undeniable work ethic and a passion for the city they are working to grow. While opinions of this growth span from guarded buoyancy to quiet skepticism, one thing was made clear on our first leg of Coast to Coast, it’s these people who really run this city.
The BELT is a culturally redefined alley in the heart of downtown Detroit. The public space is home to murals and installations by local, national and international artists. It is part of local gallery, Library Street Collective’s continuous effort to ensure that artists have a space to create and engage with the public in Detroit.
TIFF MASSEY | ARTIST
My work merges the regal aesthetics of traditional African fashion and hair-styling techniques with the grandiose bravado of 1980’s hip-hop jewelry. Influenced by Detroit’s history of ostentatious fashion, my work examines how symbols of wealth in the regalia of African diaspora affect the wearer’s behavior and attitude, eliciting an experience whereupon the viewer may encounter an object and engage in thoughts and/or acts of vanity.
NOIR DESIGN PARTI | NONPROFIT | RESEARCH
Exploring how Black Architects helped shape the physical identity of Detroit and their influence on design, the building community, and future generations
PONYRIDE | NONPROFIT | COMMERCIAL SPACE
Ponyride is a catalyst for deploying social capital to a diverse group of artists, creative entrepreneurs and makers who are committed to working together to make communities in Detroit sustainable from our 28,000 square foot building in Corktown.
400 FORWARD | NONPROFIT | EDUCATIONAL SUPPORT
We are committed ambassadors of exposure, diversity and inclusion in architecture and urban planning, and making sure the design profession reflects the communities it serves. 400 Forward’s mission: to uplift girls by giving them the tools they need to address social issues created by the unjust built environments of our inner-city communities. We aim to support the career development of the next 400 women architects, with an underlying focus on African American girls through exposure, mentorship, and financial assistance.
Fall PREVIEW 2018
DOING AND BEING: TEN YEARS OF CREATIVE COLLABORATION AT GRAIN
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 11
6:00-9:00 PM
SEA NY x COLONY x KLEIN
LAUNCH DINNER
DETAILS FORTHCOMING
Introducing Klein Agency
Creatively rethinking the way in which people dwell, Klein Agency focuses on simple solutions to living well. With a background in architecture and art, Klein Agency is built on experience, an understanding of design processes, and a desire to give spaces, products and brands new, unexpected identities, rich in materials and attentive to details. Klein Agency understands and applies its’ design process in a holistic way, creating for its clients new untold stories, where all components come together in an elegant and coherent narration.
A wife-and-husband duo, Maša and Jon Kleinhample, started Klein Agency 3 years ago in Antwerp, Belgium and migrated its head office to Downtown Los Angeles at the start of 2017. Today they design out of their studio in the Arts District, DTLA.
The New-New
Objet Trouve Mirror by Codor Design
Farrah Sit
Ben Erickson
Planar Table by Fort Standard
Lexan Console by Phaedo
Slipper Chair by Moving Mountains
Lummi Quilt by M.Callahan
Sonia Table by Vonnegut/Kraft
View II by Hiroko Takeda
Meg Callahan
Walling Rug by Grain
Coast to Coast with Design Milk
Colony and Design Milk explore the United States in the name of design, discovery and inspiration.
In the upcoming season, Colony will travel through an itinerary of six cities and burgeoning design communities across the US seeking new expressions of American design, art and craft.
Chronicling our adventures through Design Milk, the Colony team will be in search of the most exciting new talent that the great expanse of our country has to offer.
We will be scouting for upcoming curatorial projects in New York City and possible publication in Design Milk. Designers and artists along the tour route can submit their work through submissions@goodcolony.com to set up an appointment.
We’re so excited to meet you!
Tour Cities and Dates:
Detroit, MI
September 12-14
Nashville, TN
September 14-16
New Orleans, LA
October 5-7
Santa Fe, NM
November 9-11
Austin, TX
January 2-5, 2019
Miami, FL
January 18-20, 2019
FARRAH SIT | NEON LIGHTING
On July 20, 2018 by Madeleine Parsons
- Colony
Finding stasis in the shape of an inverted triangle, Pingala’s neon form is stretched between a horizontal carrara canopy and the heft of a carved marble wheel. Much like a piece of string, the fixture’s thin line of light holds the circular wheel in a state of tension. Custom materials, dimensions and finishes available.
Ida’s carrara bar bows to the visual weight of a luminous arc realized in neon. Assisted by a brass joinery detail, the arrow of bent marble supports it’s light source in a show of tensile strength. Custom materials, dimensions and finishes available.
LAMPING SPECS
Neon w/ Transformer
3500K/ 450 Lumen
Sit chose neon in a nod to established technique and tradition. The bent materiality of this glass tubing allows her to further explore perceptions of tensile strength.
Pingala Tearsheet Download
Ida Tearsheet Download
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