Brooklyn-based designer Orlando Dominguez mixes color and function for playful yet purposeful home decor pieces. Some of our favorites include his revamped traditional chairs, sporting bold paint and fabric combinations. Dominguez is the creative director and CEO of GIN Art & Design.

This month, Design Within Reach hosts “Brooklyn on the Verge of Spring,” a solo exhibition of the designer’s vibrantly colored, urban-inspired pieces at its Brooklyn Heights studio location. The exhibit runs through March 17th, so there are just a few more days to check it out!

To learn more, visit ginartdesign.com or dwr.com.

Design Within Reach:
76 Montague Street
Brooklyn, NY

*above: yellow front chair

*above: blue front chair

*above: Pink Chic chair

*above: Om Tea Table

*above: Buddha Tea Table

*above: one of Dominguez’s metal yoga sculptures

*above: one of Dominguez’s metal yoga sculptures

*Images courtesy of White Noise Showroom.

Check out designer Jason Phillips’ latest pieces for the Phillips Collection below! Based out of North Carolina, this impressive, award-winning young designer heads his own firm, Jason Phillips Design, and is also VP and creative director of the multi-designer, creative collaboration, the Phillips Collection. At just 26, he’s both the youngest recipient ever of the Pinnacle Award from the American Society of Furniture Designers, and now the youngest member of their Board of Directors.

Describing the resin and silver leaf Burled Bowl and Vase (first 2 images below), Phillips begins, “Why compete with nature?” For the Burled Collection, he “takes the best forms from nature and casts them and ultimately finished with a hand-applied gold or silver leaf appliqué.” Each egglike beauty is available for about $250, measuring 17x13x12”h.

For the Havana Screen (middle pair), nearly a thousand randomly placed bamboo sticks are nailed together. It comes with a metal base that lets it float in the middle of a space, but works equally well against a wall. You can even mount it onto the wall as a large piece of wall art or as a headboard. Available as part of a larger collection in espresso and blonde. Measures 43x5x67”h and goes for around $600.

And last – but absolutely not least – the very clever Indent Table is cast in “lightweight but durable concrete with a special distressed patina. The indoor/outdoor table has a sphere scooped out of it to serve as an ice bucket for storing drinks or bottles. Of course there are dozens of other possibilities and the piece works as great indoors with other goodies stored.” Phillips’ favorite filler choice? “Blue MnMs!” Indent Table measures 3x43x17”h and is available for about $1000.

*above: Burled Vase

*above: Burled Bowl

*above: Havana Screen (rear left wall)

*above: Havana Screen

*above: Indent Table

*above: Indent Table

To see more of the Lifestyle 2010 collection, visit phillipscollection.com.

The latest and greatest from famed British designer Tom Dixon? His newest offerings for 2010 include a set of geometric Enamel Vessels (appropriately named Trio, Quad & Pentad); the Offcut Fluoro Stool in Dixon’s signature fluorescent orange; Pressed Glass Bead & Top Lights, made from heavy weight, extra thick pressed glass, and bearing the unique marks of their industrial manufacturing process; and The Rock Table, available as a coffee or side table, and made from Forest Brown Indian Marble selected in Rajasthan, with infinite variations that make each piece different.

To learn more, visit TomDixon.net.

*All images courtesy of Tom Dixon.

above: hai_speed by Phillip Grass, 2009

above: The Flying Chair by Phillip Grass, December 2007
(digital prototype to be built later this year out of wood, fiberglass,
epoxy resin and chrome paint. The seat will be a shell of fiberglass,
upholstered with PU foam and white leather.)

above: Zhair chair by Phillip Grass, July 2008 (digital prototype)

Rhode Island-based furniture designer Phillip Grass has an eye toward the future. His sculptural designs are works of art: fluid, sleek and playful, evoking a sense of speed. His goal? To create “furniture that stimulates the senses and enriches the surroundings – as good artwork does.”

His talent and sensitivity to stability, size and material is well earned. Grass studied at the Art Academy in Bremen, learned wood-sculpture in Austria, and built furniture for respected Copenhagen manufacturer Rud Rasmussen before starting out on his own.

About Grass’s newest, hai_speed series (top image), in his own words:
“In the hai_speed world, there have been found six species so far. They all come from the same source and share certain characteristics. Each hai_speed being is made entirely by hand. The core is shaped out of wood (1). In order to ensure each hai_speed being a long life the wooden core is strengthened with layers of bamboo fiber (2) and epoxy resin. As hai_speed beings do not only look good and fast but are real freedom lovers each hai_speed being is finally coated with automotive quality paint. This ensures that hai_speed beings can enjoy life in their residence as well as next to the pool preparing for a swim.
The dimensions of the hai_speed species discovered so far are about 300 x 130 x 100 cm or 9’10″ x 4’4″ x 3’4″ (LxWxH).”

For more information, visit www.phillipgrass.com or www.phillipgrassgallery.com
*All images courtesy of Phillip Grass