Artist Spotlight: The Seventh Floor
Artist Spotlight: The Seventh Floor
We sat down with our favorite design studio, The Seventh Floor, to discuss their past projects and newest creation, The CD Mirror, a larger than life mirror modeled after a compact disc that's releasing exclusively with Vapor95!
1.) You guys are an incredible industrial design studio! Where are you based?
Even though our studio is only about 30 minutes away from Manhattan, we are proudly representing the state of New Jersey! New York is a great place, but we feel like our honesty and pride in our roots will show the world that talent can be found anywhere.
2.) You created two of our best selling (and only) candles, the Melting Beauty and La Croy candles. How did you get the idea for these two pieces?
We think that wax is an awesome material. It is so easily manipulated, and can be remelted almost to infinity. It is very forgiving. The specific type of wax that we like to use for our forms almost gives off a ghostly glow. Anything can be a candle, as long as it's made of good quality wax, and has a wick in it! The Melting Beauty was a result of a collaboration with Bryce Wong- it was inspired by some of his past 2D work that featured ancient sculptures in different states of distortion. The LaCroy Candle came about in one of our casual brainstorm sessions- those usually start with the words "what if we made..."
3.) What do you love about living and working near NYC?
Being adjacent to a global city is a great advantage as well. We often take trips to NYC to museums and meet friends to find inspiration and get a feel for new trends and styles.
4.) Your newest creation is this amazing CD Mirror releasing exclusively through Vapor95. How did you get the concept for this piece?
There's something interesting about objects and the feelings contained within them. We wanted to take a no longer needed object that was once very much part of everyday life, and frame it in a way that evokes nostalgia. With the rapid development of data storage technology, we think the Compact Disk is something that fell into oblivion so suddenly that we barely noticed its absence. The mirror, besides looking cool, can also encourage the user to reminisce.
Fun fact: it is made entirely to-scale, meaning that if you took a CD-ROM and scaled it up to about 18 inches in diameter, it would really be 1/8 inches thick.
5.) What is the mirror made from and what are its dimensions?
The mirror is made of a high quality 1/8 inch thick mirror acrylic. The diameter is 18 inches.
6.) What is the ultimate ethos of your design studio?
Something that we strongly believe in that we don't design for “consumers”, but an “audience”. We don’t think products are something that should be gluttonously consumed, but appreciated and cherished. Well designed objects are successful when they cause some sort of satisfaction. Our goal is to design people's favorite objects. Things that make people happy, things they want to share and show off to others.
7.) What's next for you guys? Any new crazy things in the works already?
The focus of our studio is business-to-business Product Design consulting, so there are always multiple exciting things in the works! While working with our clients, we like to think about independent projects such as the CD mirror. We have notebooks full of them!
8.) What made you choose Vapor95 to exclusively release the new CD Mirror?
We feel like Vapor95 has consistently stayed on top of the game in terms of aesthetics. You curate awesome products, and we loved the thought of being included in your lineup. We really enjoyed our collaborations in the past, and we feel like Vapor95 has always been a great retail partner who helped elevate our creations.
9.) Where does the name of your studio come from? Do you work on the seventh floor?
We went to college together and the Industrial Design department was on the seventh floor of the Architecture and Design building. It reminds us of where we came from, and the good times we had!
10.) Lastly, any advice for other designers or studios on how to create and release such unique pieces?
Go for it, and most importantly don't forget to write it down! Sometimes the best ideas are like dreams, after a while they get blurry and impossible to recollect, so always carry your notebook and pen. This is very important if you get a lot of random ideas like we do. Make sure you are passionate about your idea, because even the simplest of projects take a lot of time, work, and persistence to launch.