Meet the Designers

Across disciplines, materials, and points of view, these creative voices share a common drive to push the future of design. Explore the minds behind DesignLab, presented by Haworth and Paved States at NeoCon 2026.

Ceren Arslan is a spatial designer and an architect based in New York City. She is the founder of EXIT, a creative project that focuses on architecture, interior design, and spatial design through a multidisciplinary lens both in physical and digital forms.

Zac Benloulou of Pavilion Audio Systems is a designer of bespoke sound systems that merge acoustic performance with a considered approach to space, form, and material. Drawing on a dedicated technical understanding of sound reproduction, his practice approaches audio equipment as a form of architecture, designed to complement and define the environments it inhabits.

Hank Beyer and Alex Sizemore are based in San Francisco and have worked collaboratively since 2017 as an object creation studio with a focus on furniture, product, and sculpture across various mediums. The designers met while studying at the University of Cincinnati and have since produced a diverse body of work. Their projects often involve reimagining industrial materials and processes and applying them to domestic objects.

Hannah Bigeleisen designs sculptural furniture and lighting in Brooklyn, NY. Her designs are guided by her background in sculpture to create an elegant, yet playful approach. Bigeleisen’s rich understanding of material, form, color and texture lends itself to collections that are highly crafted and designed for a lifetime of joy and inspiration.

Guillermo and Alaide Alejandre live and work in Mexico City. Their work ranges from small everyday objects to architectural projects and interior design. They have collaborated with Herman Miller since 2019, Savvy Studio in 2016, Esrawe Studio in 2015, and PLDO in 2016, contributing numerous habitat designs and remaining active in various office and home furniture collections.

Designer-artist, editor and curator, Jean-Michel Gadoua has earned a reputation as an aesthetic and stylistic leader in the world of contemporary design. The designer by trade began his career in graphic design and music. He's now co-founder of Mold Gallery, a project-based gallery showcasing fine arts, sculptural furniture, and decorative objects.

Stefano Giacomello is a Swiss-Italian designer and digital artist, known online as stefo_rotolo, and the founder of Studio Rotolo. His practice draws from the iconic designs and architecture of the 70s and 80s, with a special nod to Italian design, balancing clean lines with audacious, sculptural forms.

Kiki Goti is a Greek designer, architect, and educator currently based in New York City. As a maker, Goti hybridizes materials and fabrication methods to explore relationships between materiality, heritage, and identity. Her creative scope spans furniture, public sculptures, and interior design, where she critically engages with notions of femininity, beauty, and ornamentation, offering innovative interpretations of art historical themes.

Lauren Goodman is the lead designer and founder of studio Lauren Goodman, a sculptural furniture studio creating innovative works at the intersection of art and design. Lauren’s process is deeply rooted in the landscape, exploring the relationship between material and place.

Madeline Isakson transforms found objects and materials through emerging and traditional fabrication techniques to explore consumer culture. Ubiquitous, mass-produced items we encounter daily are recontextualized and distorted until they become visible again in a new light, a new form that retains the blurry outlines of cultural memory.

Malcolm Majer combines carefully crafted forms, using the formal language of sculptural minimalism to create furniture and objects that challenge textbook concepts of functional design.

marmar studio is a furniture and object design practice centered on cultivating endearment to the inanimate. By refining forms to their essentials, marmar creates pieces that align utility and character, where the act of use becomes an expression of personality. The studio’s ethos is to craft playful, beautiful objects that come alive.

Studio AHEAD is a San Francisco-based art and design collective founded by Homan Rajai and Elena Dendiberia. The studio’s approach is “borderless” in that its roots are far-flung yet deeply embedded in regionality. Drawing from diasporic experiences, the founders believe strongly that there is no universal idea of functionality that fits all cultures and people. What remains constant is an appreciation of tradition and craftsmanship.