Born outside of Philadelphia, Brad Ascalon was immersed in the world of art and design from an early age. His grandfather was a noted sculptor and industrial designer, and his father is renowned for his large-scale art installations throughout North America. Ascalon earned his Masters’ degree in Industrial Design from New York’s Pratt Institute in 2005, and that same year was recognized by Wallpaper* magazine as one of the “Ten Most Wanted” emerging designers in the world. For his first collaboration with Stylex, the pair sought to create a timeless, but universally usable, product.
Tell us briefly about the formative design goals behind Nestle.
Nestle is designed not just as a chair, but also as a platform to receive different bases that allow it to function across different settings. It’s a unique benefit to contract environments because you can use the same body with whatever base suits the space without sacrificing a uniform look. Stylex worked extremely hard to finesse the chair so that all the design details mesh flawlessly with each base.
The chair brings to mind a classic, mid-century look. What makes its appearance special and different?
With Nestle, there’s this great dialogue between hard and soft, organic and geometric. We played with these contrasting elements so that although it recalls and pays tribute to classic mid-century elements, it really is a timeless, elegant chair.
How did you get your start in the industry?
My grandfather was a designer/sculptor/inventor/artist, and my dad was an architect. At first I was in the music industry, and then on my way to becoming an architect, I stumbled across industrial design. I love this field because it’s a problem-solving industry. And, once you master all the rules, you can break them in super creative, innovative ways. There’s always something that hasn’t been done before, and it’s exciting.
How did your collaboration with Stylex start?
One of my former professors from Pratt, and a personal design hero, is Mark Goetz. He’s designed multiple products for Stylex and won numerous Best of NeoCon awards, so it was exciting for me to be able to follow in his footsteps with my first Stylex design. And I loved working with Stylex. They’re based close to my hometown, which was cool to find out when we started working together, and I love that it’s a made-in-America company, supporting the local economy. They’re American artisans. It was a great first time around, and we’ve already received a lot of positive interest and feedback from NeoCon.