HEWN
Industrial Design Studio
Mike Boylan and Danielle Pecora are the co-founders of HEWN (Formerly Wander Workshop), a Brooklyn-based design studio that produces thoughtfully designed housewares. Their first collaboration, a collection of brass bottle openers, was featured in Dwell and hailed by Design Milk as “design piece you’d be proud to leave out in your kitchen.”
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Good Design
Spark
Get to know HEWN
What's the inspiration behind the light you designed?
Mike: We were inspired by a lighthouse. My uncle is a structural engineer, and he did seismic retrofitting work on California's Point Sur lighthouse. Both his father and grandfather had been lighthouse keepers there. We went on a tour and were inspired by its enormous crystal Fresnel lens, which converts a single light into lateral beams that shine out over the water. It's this crazy Victorian prism that exists in a liminal place between something very magical and something very scientific. I fell into researching Victorian maritime technology and used it as inspiration for our Gantri light. We made it more domestic by adjusting its scale, making it less aggressive, and giving it a nice texture and finish.
Why did you start HEWN?
Danielle: We had talked about collaborating ever since we met, but it wasn’t until our son was born that we started craving more flexibility both personally and creatively. We think this is the best way to pursue and define our own aesthetic. We started with the bottle openers as a Kickstarter project, and now we're working on a variety of products inspired by our travels throughout Asia.
What's something someone would be surprised to learn about you?
Mike: I've climbed all 5,500 steps to the top of Adam's Peak in Sri Lanka before dawn, and I proposed Danielle in a 12th Century Buddhist Temple in Cambodia. Danielle: I got my motorcycle license when I was 18 and I designed a toy that was featured in an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art.
How would you describe your design philosophy?
Mike: I love expressive design that is edgy without losing its wholesomeness and humanity. A lot of my more successful pieces have been really angular and dynamic. But when you create something like that, you run the risk of creating a hostile, alienating atmosphere. I think you have to tread a fine line so that something futuristic doesn't become alienating.
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