Ronan Bouroullec (born 1971) and Erwan Bouroullec (born 1976) have been working together for some ten years. Their collaboration is a permanent dialogue nourished by their differing personalities and shared perfectionism. In 1997 they presented their “Disintegrated Kitchen” at the Salon du Meuble in Paris and were spotted by Giulio Cappellini, who gave them their first industrial design projects, notably the Lit clos (Closed Bed) and Spring Chair. In 2000, Issey Miyake asked them to design a space for his new collection of A-Poc clothes in Paris. Then came the decisive meeting with Rolf Fehlbaum, chairman of Vitra, which resulted in their conception of a new kind of office system, Joyn, in 2002. This was the beginning of a special partnership which has borne fruit in numerous projects, including Algues, the Alcove Sofa, the Worknest and the Slow Chair. Since 2004, the Bouroullecs have also been working with Magis, for whom they have designed two complete furniture collections, Striped and Steelwood. Finally, they have worked on several types of textile wall systems, such as the North Tiles, in close collaboration with the Kvadrat brand, for whom they designed a new Stockholm showroom in 2006.

Brothers Ronan (born 1971) and Erwan Bouroullec (born 1976) were born outside Quimper, France, in Brittany and have emerged as the most successful and innovative French industrial designers since Philippe Starck. Though much of their work revolves around innovative uses of plastic, other designs like the Steelwood chair for Magis and Quilt sofa for Established and Sons explore a variety of materials. Of their work, the Vegetal Chair, Slow Chair, Alcove series, and Algue for Vitra; the Striped chair for Magis; and Facet series of chairs and sofas for Ligne Roset are amongst their most famous designs. Though just in their 30s, the pair have ascended to the heights of design stardom, making them that rare creature--a designer who simultaneously amongst the most popular and amongst the most talented.

Magis SpA is a made-in-Italy design company founded by Eugenio Perazza in 1976 in Motta di Livenza (TV). It embraces the creativity of leading global designers (Richard Sapper, Jasper Morrison, Stefano Giovannoni, Marc Newson, Konstantin Grcic, Ron Arad, the Bouroullecs, Robin Day, Pierre Paulin, Jerszy Seymour, Naoto Fukasawa, Thomas Heatherwick and many others) and channels it towards objects perched on the cutting edge. The Magis catalogue includes a wide variety of furniture and home decor items, including chairs, stools, tables, shelving systems, accessories, and more.

Ionna Vautrin is a Paris-based designer. She graduated from L'école de design Nantes Atlantique and since 2002, has worked successively for Camper, George J. Sowden, and Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec. In 2011, Vautrin opened her own studio after receiving the Grand Prize of the creation of the city of Paris.

Founded in 1901 in Schiltach, Germany, Hansgrohe is the premium brand for bathroom and kitchen fixtures, and a market leader in showers and shower systems. Hansgrohe is an innovator in technology and design, with inventions such as the adjustable wallbar, multiple-spray handshowers, and showerheads, the QuickClean™ function and AIR and water-saving EcoRight™ technology. Its U.S. subsidiary in Alpharetta, Georgia manufactures and assembles many of its Hansgrohe-branded products for North America. Hansgrohe’s designer brand, Axor, successfully realizes “Designer Visions for Your Bathroom." Axor is recognized globally for its exclusive collaboration with world-renowned architects and designers including Philippe Starck, Antonio Citterio, Jean-Marie Massaud, Patricia Urquiola, as well as Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec, working with them to create unique and sustainable solutions for personalized bathrooms. Axor NYC, it’s New York City-based design studio, showcases the entire Axor line of products for the USA.

Parisian designer Benjamin Graindorge is self-deprecating but completely content in his chosen métier, professing that “learning is freedom.” His enlightened state derives from time spent in Patagonia as a student—a period when he considered dropping out of design school—and a later sabbatical in Japan. Before his travels, Graindorge admits he was more interested in the image of an object than its relationship to its user. Following his worldly design education, as well as a yearlong stint with renowned furniture designers Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec, his work has taken on a new dimension. It’s still ethereal—spy his ceramic vases and lamps for Moustache, which ripple and bubble across an otherwise smooth surface, or his limited-edition art pieces for gallery Ymer & Malta—but it is ultimately grounded in a humanistic expression of scale and tactility. “For me,” Graindorge says, “the perfect assemblage is the human body.”

Maria Jeglinska established her firm, Office for Design & Research, in 2010. “What I named my practice reflects my attitude toward my projects,” she says. “I’ve always been driven by the ongoing process of learning.” She completed two high-profile internships—assisting with Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec and Hella Jongerius exhibitions at Paris’s Galerie Kreo and in Konstantin Grcic’s Munich studio—before joining Alexander Taylor in London. In 2011, she moved back to her hometown of Warsaw. Poland’s manufacturing heritage, says Jeglinska, is built on the “idea of creating with minimal resources to produce the maximum.” She uses that principle to inform her design work, which include a slew of products for Ligne Roset, a custom tea service for local porcelain manufacturer Porcelana Kristoff, and an in-progress collection of metal wire furniture for Polish brand Meble Vox, inspired by the Warsaw café culture of the 1950s and ’60s.