I’ve mentioned the character art promoters Pictoplasma often here recently because of my involvement with their conferences in New York and Berlin this year. More than that, Pictoplasma is a rich source of inspiration to me because of the seemingly endless stream of highly talented and imaginative artists they bring to my attention, like furniture designer François Chambard. I don’t spend as much time drooling over nicely designed products as some people do, but I am completely smitten by François’s collection of vaguely anthropomorphic lamps and other objects.

Photos by Francis Dzikowksi/ Esto

The simplicity of the designs and the way that their basic variations give the objects wildly different personalities is exciting to me. Some of them have more distinct “eyes” and other human-like features, but I see distinct personalities in them all.

François builds 75% of his projects out of his Brooklyn studio, so I also love the fact that these are getting made close to myhome. I hope to pay him a visit sometime and see if I find any new creatures.

I would love to have one these guys move in with me! (One of the above designs, the Atum Lamp, is available for purchase.)

Even though I’m planning to stick with yarn and needles for the time being, it’s inspiring to see what François is doing with industrial materials and in the context of furniture design. Characters are everywhere!