Brad Ascalon is one of those people who I’ve known for quite a bit of time, but I have no idea how we actually met. He’s always been rather demure about his successes, and had I not asked, would never have told me about his most recent work for some of the larger European furniture manufacturers.

Brad Ascalon Studio NYC
www.bradascalon.com

For designers fresh out of school, is it better to dive right, or take a job for a while?

There’s definitely benefit in getting all the experience you can in any way you can, and its different for each person. Personally, going out on my own immediately was the type of experience that I wanted to get. You learn how to do things because you have no other choice. Companies are paying you and relying on you to do things you may not have done in the past, and there’s enormous pressure, but there’s also greater reward. But you do need to have the clients to do it and that is the hardest part.

Where did you go to school, for what, and when did you graduate?

I got my Masters’ from Pratt Institute’s department of Industrial Design in December of 2005.

Brad Ascalon Studio NYC – is that just you, or are there others?

It’s just me at the moment, but on occasion I bring in freelancers on projects.

Looking back on your transition from school to the design world, what do you feel was the hardest part?

It was a rather easy transition for me, actually. First of all, I had worked in the corporate world for a few years prior to going back to school for my Masters’, so I had some experience that proved to be beneficial after I finished school. And when I did finish school, I was extremely fortunate that my first professional client, Maybelline, contacted me after seeing some of my work that appeared on design blogs. I ended up spending my first year as a professional designer consulting for Maybelline, Redken and Shu Uemura, and a number of other companies. The experience I gained and the feedback I received gave me the confidence to know I was doing the right thing, even though historically it is the harder route.

As a designer, where do you see yourself in five years?

In five years, I see myself continuing to work with a number of high quality, high profile manufacturers the furniture world. I’d also like to focus on smaller, high quality manufacturers who are trying to grow their companies. I imagine its quite a rush as a designer to have the vision and ability to help transform a company into something bigger and more successful. That would be great.

And of course, I’d like to continue to work in other areas like beauty and cosmetics, housewares and anything else that falls into my lap. I’d like to design one of everything eventually, but maybe that’s in my forty year plan!

The furniture industry is particularly hard to break into, due to both cost and scale. How did you start doing work for the larger furniture companies, and what advice do you have for new designers looking for a manufacturer?

First of all, I would say that a lot of young designers coming out of school feel the need to prototype everything they do. Of course there’s enormous value in that, but there’s also enormous cost, which most young designers can’t afford. The truth is, if a manufacturer picks up a design, they’re going to do their own prototyping and development anyway. They’re the experts at that.

I’ve always worked on furniture by developing concepts in sketches and renderings. Then I find manufacturers who, given what I know about those companies, might be interested in my concepts. When I do grab the attention of a manufacturer, only then do I invest the time and energy in really developing the designs, and always together with the manufacturer.

I started working with companies like Sintesi (Italy) and Ligne Roset (France) that same way. I presented the types of concepts that I thought each company might be interested in, either materially, stylistically, conceptually, etc. Once they were interested in specific concepts, I began developing the designs along with the companies to make the concepts a reality.

The absolute best advice is to network like it’s your job, because it is your job. In any creative field, you can be the best at what you do, but if you don’t know how to get the right people interested in you and your work, its an uphill battle within an uphill battle.