Brad Ascalon is an American industrial designer, born in 1977, who runs his own studio in New York. His furniture is built on clear lines and simple geometric forms, and in Scandinavia he is best known for the Soft Top chair family for Skandiform.
Background
Ascalon grew up in a family of artists and designers; both his father and grandfather worked in the field. He first took a degree in marketing at Boston University before studying industrial design at Pratt Institute in New York, and founded Brad Ascalon Studio NYC in 2006. The studio works with furniture, lighting and objects for clients such as Ligne Roset, Bernhardt Design and HBF.
Design approach
Ascalon describes his approach as reductive. He looks for elegant simplicity and function, draws on modernism and minimalism, and balances character against practical demands such as price, durability and versatility. Many of his pieces are designed for public interiors without losing a domestic warmth.
Designs for Skandiform
Soft Top, launched in 2018, was conceived as an affordable, stackable guest chair with a simple but distinctive character, made to fit offices, schools and reception areas as well as homes. It won a German Design Award, and the family later grew with bar stools and benches and versions on wheels.
Designs for Glimakra
For Glimakra of Sweden, Ascalon designed the ContourFloor and ContourFloor Glass floor screens for office environments. ContourFloor received a German Design Award 2020 in the office furniture category.
Other Nordic work
Together with the American manufacturer Martin Brattrud and Snøhetta, he created the Omaha bench for Snøhetta’s expansion of the Joslyn Art Museum in Omaha.
By Editorial Team, ScandinavianDesign.com
Photo: Steve Belkowitz
https://www.bradascalon.com
Soft Top chair and bar stool on wheels by Brad Ascalon – Skandiform
Soft Top chair and bar stool on wheels Soft Top Chair and Bar Stool on …
Soft Top by Brad Ascalon – Skandiform
Soft Top Bench with two upholstered seats and a table top. Frame in white lacquer …
German Design Award to ContourFloor by Brad Ascalon – Glimakra
ContourFloor by Brad Ascalon Wins German Design Award 2020 — Glimakra of Sweden ContourFloor and …
ContourFloor and ContourFloor Glass by Brad Ascalon – Glimakra
These very changing scales emote a sense of nature, like a series of trees in …
Soft Top chair – German Design Awards 2019
We are happy to announce that our new Soft Top chair designed by Brad Ascalon …
Soft Top chair by Brad Ascalon – Skandiform
Design: Brad Ascalon Guest or visitor, that is the question. Soft Top is made …