This California Designer’s Steely Minimalism Was Inspired by Japanese Architecture and the Light & Space Movement

It’s a common conundrum for creatives: knowing exactly what you want for your own space, but, more often than not, finding it does not exist. California-based designer Orlando Pippig began producing furniture for this very reason, without any formal training, to create a home filled with pieces he actually loved. Eight years later, something of an accidental furniture designer, he’s amassed a collection of striking minimalist designs — several of which we sell through our own Sight Unseen Collection — and he continues to expand his range of “usable sculptures” through experiments with materials, scale, and proportion.

After building a series of plywood furniture pieces for his own home, Pippig was bitten by the design bug. He found work at a San Francisco woodshop where he was able to practice his craft, applying this new knowledge to an increasingly refined and minimal range of products, for which he first referenced Scandinavian mid-century furniture, then evolved his influences to encompass architectural forms. “I gained most of my inspiration from looking at architecture and how buildings relate to their surroundings, how they interact with the sun to create shadows. I was thinking about scale and proportion, and maybe picking out a little detail from a building that I liked and then using that as inspiration for a new piece.” His solid blackened ash T-03 side table is a prime example, featuring vertically emphasized lines and indentations based on the cast concrete elements of an unfinished skyscraper, while his T-02 dining table was inspired by the recurring wooden slatted walls of Japanese architecture.

From wood, Pippig moved on to metal, which he works in a similar fashion but achieves an even sharper and more exaggerated planar design language. “The great thing about aluminum is that it’s a very soft metal, so you can cut it with woodworking tools: a table saw, chop saw, a router table even,” he explains. “So it was very easy to transition into working with aluminum, from working with wood.” Some of his standout pieces in the material include the A-01 shelf, an imposing yet restrained design that comprises a tall, thin vertical sheet with its top sliced at 45 degrees, and an equally svelte horizontal shelf affixed about a third of the way up. Perhaps our favorite piece is the Larry Bell-inspired coffee table, with its smoked glass top and offset, L-shaped aluminum legs.

Pippig used to produce all of his designs himself, but recently opted to outsource production to allow him more time to experiment creatively. He originally studied interior design at Parsons in New York, but realized that most of the skills the curriculum taught he could pick up himself, so dropped out to save himself even more debt. Now, he has his sights set on interiors once again. He admits that his style might be “a little bit sharp and almost abrasive” for most residential settings, but he believes it would translate perfectly for retail spaces. A dream project? Store interiors for Swedish fashion label Acne, and we can totally see his aesthetic working for the brand.Shop Pippig’s collection at the link below, and scroll through for even more inspo.