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02.04.26

American Design Hot List

Announcing the 2025 American Design Hot List

Welcome to the 13th annual American Design Hot List, Sight Unseen’s unapologetically subjective award for the names to know now in American design. Founded in 2013, the ADHL serves as a guide to the US (born or based) talents influencing the design landscape in any given year, whether through standout launches, must-see exhibitions, or just our innate sense that they’re ones to watch. Considering we’ve recently changed almost everything else about the way we present Sight Unseen to the world, we decided to do things a little differently this year.
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09.11.24

Up and Coming

Carsten in der Elst Lets the Materials Lead Him Where He Wants to Go

Raw is the adjective that first comes to mind when looking at the work of German designer Carsten in der Elst. There's his Graywacke Offcut Series, for which in der Elst exclusively uses the jagged "crust" that's discarded when turning sandstone slabs into German sidewalks; his Accession chair, whose seat is formed from a sawn carpet of latex tubes resembling pasta noodles; and his ongoing Aluskin seating series, whose shells are crafted from the cast-off skins salvaged from high-precision aluminum production and whose cushions are foam remnants that puff up, lumpily, like loaves of sandwich bread. His designs feel contemporary and fresh but continue the red thread of predecessors like JB Blunk, Max Lamb, and Kwangho Lee (the former two in der Elst cites as inspiration). Like in der Elst, all of these designers seem to tease form from a material, allowing its inherent properties to lead to the final shape. 
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12.13.25

The Weekly

Enter our $12K furniture and lighting giveaway, tour a vintage-filled NYC home, and more

The Sight Unseen Collection has teamed up with Audo, In Common With, and Known Work to offer our readers the chance to win what we’re calling a cozy corner — a chair, ottoman, side table, and lamp that will create the perfect nook for curling up in this winter to read a book, watch old movies, have a drink, or otherwise unwind. PLUS: A new craft prize, a vintage-filled home, and more.
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12.04.25

The Weekly

Welcome to Our Very Stylish, Extremely Niche, Amazon-Free 2025 Gift Guide

Nearly every gift guide that's been published this season has wrung its hands about the state of gift guides — how there are too many, and they aren't even that good; how they've become vessels for affiliate link dumps; how people aren't even using them to buy gifts! The nerve! As much as we'd like to be the ones to ignore the discourse, we're here to say three things: 1) This guide is that good. 2) There's nary an affiliate link to be found, considering most of these pieces are by independent designers who are frankly too often confused by affiliate culture to participate. And 3) we don't care whether or not you buy these as gifts for someone. Or if you buy them for yourself! It's just a nice way to spend time, looking at a manageable number of beautiful things.
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