What Does It Take to Make It in Design?

How does a big career in design take shape? Often, it’s forged with a confluence of critical factors, whether that includes a degree from a top-ranked school, a promising internship with a venerated master, honest advice from experienced mentors, support (financial or otherwise) from family and friends, or pure grit. Innovative designs, blockbuster exhibitions, rewarding collaborations, and, yes, good press make all the difference along the way.

For these five designers—bootstrapping talent Bradley L. Bowers; Dutch heavyweights Lonneke Gordijn and Ralph Nauta of Studio Drift; king of collectible design Misha Kahn; and digital-crossover maverick Harry Nuriev—and many more like them, the road to success has been winding. We spoke with them to get an inside look at the make-or-break moments that have defined their careers.

Bradley L. Bowers
@bradleylbowers
New Orleans

• Bowers gets a scholarship to Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), where he earns advanced degrees.

• He leverages connections there to secure full funding to present at Salone Del Mobile’s young talents showcase in Milan.
• Back in Savannah, he floats around for a year, eventually securing a job in Miami with Ecuadoran brand Adriana Hoyos, but it isn’t the right fit.

• He saves up enough to launch his own practice and rents a storage facility turned studio in Miami—but it burns down. Defeated, he starts over in New Orleans.
• Bowers gets selected to be a contestant on HGTV’s Ellen’s Design Challenge in 2016.

• A friend gets him a residency at Mana Contemporary in Jersey City, and he gains traction in New York.
• New York design gallery The Future Perfect discovers his work and picks up his Halo lantern series. It earns the Best Contemporary Work prize at Design Miami in 2021.

• He meets designer Patricia Urquiola, who gets him in with Haworth, where he coleads its innovation-focused DesignLab.
• Dolce & Gabbana Casa taps him for its Gen D young talents project. His crystal-like Fiosa vase is a showstopper at Milan Design Week 2023.

• In a full-circle moment, SCAD asks Bowers to create a structure for its Lacoste, France, campus. He makes Ooma, which is installed on a hill overlooking the campus.

Harry Nuriev
@harrynuriev
New York

• After completing architecture and art school in his native Russia, Nuriev gets his first big break interning at prestigious New York interior design studio Luis Da Cruz in 2010.

• He establishes his own practice, Crosby Studios, in 2014 and outfits predominantly commercial interiors with his glossy, metallic aesthetic.
• Nuriev starts exploring collectible design. "I felt like interior design could be very square and decided to start doing other things as well," he says.

• In 2016, his arch-themed furniture is featured in Sight Unseen’s annual show of up-and-comers. At the same time, his Instagram following begins to grow.

• After a collab with Nike, he develops the Balenciaga sofa (a clothes-stuffed couch), introducing his name to the fashion world.

• Separating Crosby Studios and his personal work, Nuriev leverages Instagram to capitalize on mass-market crossover by becoming the self-styled protagonist of his own design world.

• He experiments with designs in the metaverse, but their real-world applications aren’t completely clear.

• His Trash Bag Sofa steals the show at Design Miami 2022. Shortly thereafter, his off-the-wall Paris apartment gets a T Magazine video feature, which is widely viewed.

• He’s tapped by leading design gallery Carpenters Workshop for his first solo show, Denim, in Paris.
• In 2023, a monograph surveys IRL and virtual facets of Nuriev’s practice to date.

Misha Kahn
@mishakahn
New York

• While at the Rhode Island School of Design, Kahn lands a Fulbright scholarship to Israel. Classes at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design set him on track.

• He moves to New York and creates animatronic displays for a department store, but the work feels menial.
• His Saturday Morning series earns him a spot at the Museum of Arts and Design’s NYC Makers show, which puts him on the map.

• Given pride of place at Design Miami 2016 by New York gallery Friedman Benda, his Scrappy Cabinet and light sculptures garner tons of press.
• Friedman Benda sponsors a trip to South Africa and Swaziland, where Kahn learns new techniques by collaborating with local craftspeople.

• Pandemic lockdowns severely limit the reach of his second solo show at Friedman Benda, Soft Bodies, Hard Spaces, in spring of 2020.
• An exhibit in collaboration with fashion label Dries Van Noten, Watermelon Party, affirms his celebrity status.

• He becomes one of the first designers to create an NFT collection, Furniture Unhinged, developed for an auction with Christie’s.
• In 2023, he participates in The Exhibit: Finding the Next Great Artist, a design contest airing on MTV. It doesn’t move the needle much.

• Apartamento Publishing and Friedman Benda release a monograph on his oeuvre, which launches at Milan Design Week 2023. The moment mints Kahn’s career.

Studio Drift
@studio.drift
Amsterdam and New York

• Lonneke Gordijn and Ralph Nauta find kismet as partners while in school at Design Academy Eindhoven. They bond over their love of design and a reverence for large-scale, immersive, and format-defying art.

• Graduating from talent incubator Design Academy Eindhoven puts them in rarefied air.
• They secure a €25,000 grant from the city of Eindhoven in 2007, allowing them to establish Studio Drift.

• The studio’s Fragile Future "dandelion lighting" is all the rage at Design Miami 2009, and a subsequent show put on by Carpenters Workshop Gallery sells out on opening night.
• Traveling the world with a variety of projects over the years, the designers gain more traction, but things begin to feel monotonous.

• In 2017, the duo make their art-world debut at The Armory Show in New York with Drifter, a hunk of concrete that appears to defy gravity.
• Franchise Freedom, drones programmed to move like a flock of birds, lights up Miami’s sky. The Instagrammable moment garners acclaim beyond the art and design worlds.

• In 2018, their first solo exhibit, Coded Nature, in Amsterdam, is a culmination of their career to date.
• The pandemic slows things down but provides time for reflection on their lives and work.

• The lull allows the pair to refocus their ambition. "Our aim is to share our ideas with larger audiences and move society forward," says Gordijn.

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Top Image: Daniel Kukla, Courtesy Friedman Benda and Misha Kahn 

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