{"id":44866,"date":"2025-09-05T07:25:14","date_gmt":"2025-09-05T07:25:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/44866\/"},"modified":"2025-09-05T07:25:14","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T07:25:14","slug":"david-rockwell-takes-on-the-product-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/44866\/","title":{"rendered":"David Rockwell Takes on the Product World"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rockwell Group<\/a>\u2019s first foray into products came courtesy of Maya Romanoff. \u201cI always respected Maya, and he respected me. He had never worked with an outside designer before, and it was a new thing for him, too,\u201d recalls David Rockwell<\/a>, founder and president of the New York-based firm.<\/p>\n

When Rockwell and the late Romanoff, founder of his eponymous luxury wallcoverings company, first met to discuss a potential collaboration, they both had planes to catch afterwards. But their conversation was so engaging, they lost track of time, and those flights were inevitably missed. Instead of boarding as they should have, Rockwell and Romanoff lingered at the conference room table and laid the groundwork for the 2007 release of Stitched. An evolution of Maya Romanoff\u2019s beloved Weathered Walls design, it showcased elegant horizontal and vertical stitching on hand-dyed paper.<\/p>\n

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Splash Salmon for the Rug Company captures soft brushstrokes of water in motion<\/p>\n

It was a thrilling process for Rockwell, who at this time was best known for his dramatic restaurant and hotel interiors. While he had dreamed up goods for the customers frequenting Monkey Bar, Vong, and Nobu\u2014all buzzy New York restaurants he designed\u2014to bring home as eye-catching remembrances of their night savored at a hotspot, a full-fledged product launch was something entirely different for him. Quickly, he discovered these creations were another way for him to embrace texture and forge meaningful connections, elements that were also crucial in bringing to life his hospitality projects.<\/p>\n

That same year, Rockwell Group joined forces with Italian lighting producer Leucos, conceiving the Stacking collection of floor lamps that referenced Japanese lacquered stacking cups. The handblown cylinders of glass, in juxtaposing hues of amber, tobacco, white, fume, and orange, were bolstered by shimmering gold and silver mirror finishes. Most importantly, they could be stacked in multiple permutations as users saw fit. \u201cThe idea was that you could customize it. So much of my work is about flexibility,\u201d Rockwell says.<\/p>\n

Nearly 20 years later, Rockwell\u2019s ideas for Maya Romanoff still flourish, manifesting in collections like Porto, a range of geometric patterns composed of thin die-cut cork veneers handlaid over metallic foil released in 2022 and 2023.<\/p>\n

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Casa Cork by Rockwell Group was an immersive living laboratory that debuted clad in cork at Salone del Mobile in Milan<\/p>\n

Likewise, Rockwell Group continues to push boundaries with Leucos. Coinciding with the brand\u2019s relaunch in 2023, Rockwell Group conceptualized pendants and chandeliers, and at Euroluce 2025, the international lighting exhibition held at this year\u2019s edition of Salone del Mobile, Rockwell Group introduced a ribbed glass finish that now enlivens a table lamp and sconces. Another Rockwell highlight at the show was Casa Cork, an immersive, living laboratory and atelier conceived to celebrate cork.<\/p>\n

So many of Rockwell Group\u2019s product designs grow out of relationships with \u201cthe people I want to be with and experiment with,\u201d says Rockwell. Over the years, these collaborators have expanded to include the likes of Shaw Contract and the Rug Company. For the latter, Rockwell Group recently rolled out Flow as Form, three graphic designs expressing rippling water through lines, curves, and brushstrokes, and Rockwell relishes how the Rug Company team let him \u201cgo as deep as I want to go in terms of research,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n

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The Falls Graphite Shaped rug for the Rug Company presents the fluidity of water in organic lines<\/p>\n

Rockwell Group also recently unveiled its second collection for Italian hardware company Gessi. Following Inciso, an assemblage of versatile taps and accessories, comes Colonna\u2014fixtures fusing travertine, crystal glass, and metal. Taking cues from modernist sculpture, it\u2019s centered on the classic column, balancing that architectural rigidity with a soft waterfall component that forges an \u201cinteresting organic relationship,\u201d Rockwell says.<\/p>\n

Stackabl, which transforms waste into configurable lighting and furniture, has turned Rockwell\u2019s head at numerous design fairs. So, it was serendipitous when he and his team were tasked with Tilt + Shift, a series of table and floor lamps anchored by bases of 100 percent post-industrial cork blocks reimagined from the remnants of wine stopper production. The cantilevered lighting fixtures also feature layers of felted wool discs.<\/p>\n

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Stackabl\u2019s Tilt + Shift lamps are made from post-industrial cork and felt<\/p>\n

Long a fan of French furniture company Roche Bobois, Rockwell has incorporated its signature Mah Jong pieces in his own home. Then, in 2019, Rockwell Group partnered with Roche Bobois on the Sunset outdoor furniture collection, which \u201cgrew out of an observation that in many of the hotels we did, like the Belvedere in Mykonos, people want to use the pool by day and night, whether to lounge or to eat,\u201d he says. \u201cBut we kept at it and wanted a deeper connection.\u201d<\/p>\n

That contemplative period resulted in the new seven-piece Dream collection, which takes lounging to another level with a relaxing yet poetic sink-into sofa and daybed as well as two sizes of ottomans, a coffee table, a side table, and a rug that nods to Vladimir Kagan\u2019s own sinuous Comete sofa for Roche Bobois. Dream, says Rockwell, explores \u201cwhat we think is the best of what Roche Bobois does, which is making these beautiful forms with curved corners. There\u2019s real precision.\u201d<\/p>\n

All of Rockwell Group\u2019s spaces and theater sets are underpinned by strong narratives and the firm\u2019s products follow suit. They are always embedded with \u201csome version of a story,\u201d points out Rockwell, \u201cwhich excites me.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Furnishings were made almost entirely of cork at Casa Cork<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared in HD\u2019s August 2025 issue<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rockwell Group\u2019s first foray into products came courtesy of Maya Romanoff. \u201cI always respected Maya, and he respected…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44867,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[267],"tags":[365,362,363,364,366,18,117,19,2810,17,33683,33684],"class_list":{"0":"post-44866","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-artsdesign","12":"tag-design","13":"tag-eire","14":"tag-entertainment","15":"tag-ie","16":"tag-interviews","17":"tag-ireland","18":"tag-multidisciplinary-designers","19":"tag-platinum-circle"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44866"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44866\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}