Contract Magazine - May 2019 - 43

PHOTOGRAPHY: COURTESY OF BERNHARDT DESIGN

Helling partnered with the
famed and elusive Charles
Pollock (opposite, top left) to
design a number of products
(opposite page and above)
before he passed away in 2013.
Known for discovering talent
outside of the furniture
industry, Helling and
Bernhardt Design will
introduce their third collection
with Terry Crews (top right)
during ICFF this year.

Tell me about him. You're introducing new work
by him at ICFF this year, correct?
Yeah, we're doing our third collection with him.
Working with him is just a dream because he's an
artist and a sculptor. He's got a great eye. The most
remarkable thing is that as busy and in demand as
he is right now, he gives an incredible amount of time
to design, because that's what he secretly is really
passionate about.

Textiles are obviously very important to Bernhardt
Design. This year, you worked with the Swedish
duo Färg & Blanche on a collection of textiles.
That collaboration started two years ago in Milan.
I went to their first solo exhibition, and I just loved
them. I was really taken with how they used stitching
in unusual ways-stitching metal through wood,
doing very intricate things with stitching. So, I said,
'Why don't you design furniture for me, and we'll use
embroidery techniques?' We started down that path,
and we may continue down that path, but in the middle
of it, I said, 'You guys, you should really be doing
textiles. Everything you do is decorative and changing
the appearance of something. Let's do textiles first.'
So this collection, which is aptly titled 'A Stitch in Time,'
is going to be their first textile collection. A textile
is a very important element, because it really finishes a
piece of furniture and can change a piece of furniture's
personality. Bernhardt Textiles sells fabric to
everybody, so it gets shipped to other manufacturers.

You're a sponsor, along with Emerald Expositions,
of ICFF Studio, which demonstrates your mission
to support young designers and showcase their
work. Can you describe some of the program
highlights over the last several years? How would
you characterize the work of these new designers?
The Studio's a bit different than a lot of design
exhibitions because the guidelines for being accepted
is that your product be make-able, marketable,
and affordable. So, it's not as conceptual as many
exhibitions are. It is serious work that can find
an audience and that can be mass produced. Most
of the work is pretty slick and very thought out,
because the designers have had to make it. I don't
know if there is a common thread other than it's
pretty serious furniture; it's not experimental or
crazy furniture. It's something that you would buy.
That's why some of the people who come out of
the program, like Sophie Malbronch, Chris Adamick,
and Brad Ascalon, end up with amazing design
careers because they design really smart, beautiful
objects and furniture.
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Contract Magazine - May 2019

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