Seeing the Light: Lindsey Adelman

Lindsey Adelman loves getting her hands dirty: “I don’t like sitting in front of a computer so I tend to spend as much time as possible working with materials,” says the New York designer. This passion for making is evident in her studio, where surfaces are covered with tools, cabling and components. Here, beneath a canopy of part-assembled chandeliers, Adelman and her staff design and build lighting fixtures and a range of other decorative products. Inspired by nature and crafted from materials including bronze, brass, porcelain and glass, the attention to detail and meticulous hand-finishing of the pieces has cast the studio into the spotlight of the global design community and led to a series of collaborations with prestigious clients.

After graduating from RISD, Adelman moved to Seattle to work at lighting company, Resolute, which designs and manufactures simple, high quality lighting products. Working as assistant to the company’s owner, Adelman gained an insight into the lighting industry’s inner workings and was able to develop her production skills in the metal and glass workshops. She returned to New York in 1998 with the aim of securing a position in the studio of lighting designer, David Weeks, who she worked with for a year before they founded an offshoot company together called Butter. “We designed very inexpensive paper lampshades and simple table lamps,” recalls Adelman. “We had this really sweet little product called Lunette, which is a clip-on paper shade that resembles origami. We knew we had a good idea so we just went with it. I think my work’s always been about following an idea, or a person I want to work with, and letting my interests take me places.”

Adelman and Weeks ran Butter for four years before they realised they would need to expand into much larger production to continue growing the business. “The idea of manufacturing huge quantities of products in Asia didn’t really interest us,” says Adelman. “And I was about to have a baby with my husband so I decided this might be a good time to take a break and be at home for a while.” During her hiatus from the design industry Adelman enjoyed spending time with her new son, Finn, who is now nine, and her husband, Ian who is the Director of Digital Design at The New York Times. When she felt she was ready to go back to work, Adelman realised that her priorities had changed. “I think parenthood made me realise that if I’m going to leave the house and not be with my son it has to be for something that’s meaningful and that feels worthwhile,” she explains. For Adelman, that meant starting her own studio from scratch and designing products she could manufacture herself.

Inspiration for her designs comes from the work of postminimalist artists such as Eva Hesse and Richard Tuttle, and from the intelligent and intricate forms found in nature. “I feel like the connecting factor is the idea of mechanised nature, where the shapes really resemble something you might find in the sea or in the woods,” describes Adelman. “The glass often has the appearance of something liquid or like motion stopped in time. It’s about taking ideas from nature and turning these into a system that can be fabricated.” Adelman retains her hands on approach to designing and making, and now has help from a growing team of employees (there are currently 15) to whom she is grateful that she can delegate some of her less favoured tasks. “I guess I can be quite selfish now about the parts of the process that I really enjoy, and with things I’m not so good at I can find someone else who is truly gifted in that area to take it on. It’s made the whole process really fun for me again.”

The studio’s expansion reflects the growing number of pieces it now produces, from the early lighting designs featuring bubbles of glass supported by slender metal poles, to a recent divergence into decorative items such as tiles, candlesticks, vessels and wall ornaments.

Alongside producing pieces for retail, Adelman collaborates with interior designers to create customised or hybrid versions of her designs for specific projects. “I adore that process because the ideas get much further than I would be able to take them on my own and I love the thought that someone gets to live with results,” she beams. The studio’s heightened profile has also led to commissions from companies including Anthropologie and Roll & Hill, as well as opportunities to collaborate with some of the world’s best artisans, and it is these projects that Adelman is keen to continue exploring over the coming years. “It’s a dream to have the opportunity to work with glassblowers in Murano and to be part of the collection of companies that I respect,” she affirms. “My aim for the next couple of years is to keep it dreamy and try to find time to enjoy it, rather than letting it all become too stressful!”

Lindsey’s CV