Design
May Furniture
Struttura Credenza.
Details courtesy of: Surface Magazine. Image courtesy of Travis James & May Furniture
The New York-based May Studio is making a splash with its line of sculptural furniture, lighting, and accessories which are hand-crafted with influences in both Brutalist and Modern Architecture styles. Founder and creative director Travis James grew up and was formally trained near Indianapolis. In 2012, James moved to Brooklyn where he set up a workshop and founded May Furniture. The rest is history!
Sunday Table. Inspired by Louis Kahn’s Brutalist-influenced Salk Institute in La Jolla, California.
Dimensions: 45″ (length) x 45″ (width) x 8″ (height)
Image courtesy of: Twentieth
James created a material and technique called Maykume. This unique wood product is made exclusively in-house and maintains woods’ qualities; however, it resembles the look of polished stone. This is created by various methods of wood layering and pigmentations that create a “stone-like” surface.
The process at May Furniture begins with domestically sourced materials that are hand selected and manipulated by a team of skilled artisans and local fabrication partners. The shop is located near the showroom as this enables the team to oversee each stage of the design process in order to ensure that only the highest quality output is produced.
James measures and marks up wood pieces with temporary chalk.
Image courtesy of: Design Milk
About the wood… Maykume is derived from at the ancient Japanese metalworking technique of mokume-gane. This is a processs of laminating various strips of metal layers to form a “wood grain meta”. In addition, it involves an intricate process of reorienting and fusing layers of wood from a variety of fast growing trees.
Made exclusively in-house at the Brooklyn studio, Maykime is available in eight different finish options. James makes sure to check the individual wood pieces for checks and knots. The checks-and-balance system allows for constant overseeing and double-checking… perhaps that is why the produced pieces are so unique and special!
Balboni Sconce. This lighting piece is made-to-order in Brooklyn and available in six metal finish options. It also comes as a pendant.
Dimensions are either 18″ or 24″ diameter.
Details courtesy of: Twentieth. Image courtesy of Travis James & May Furniture
It isn’t surprising that among his sources of inspiration, James counts Carlo Scarpa, Tadao Ando, Rick Owens, and Louis Khan. By applying traditional craftsmanship and sculptural techniques into the designs, May Furniture pieces are truly exceptional.
May Furniture has the capacity to work on large-scale projects with a broad range of private clients, interior designers, and architects. They also work on residential hospitality museums and commercial space interiors worldwide. May Furniture works on both collection pieces and custom commissions.
Riviera Tray in oiled walnut.
Image courtesy of: Design Milk
Sometimes James sketches his designs; but other times, they come together through playing with the pieces. The stunning Riviera Tray, for example, came together while playing with a finger joint. Typically, finger joints are short and serve one specific purpose. However, the design called for extended finger lengths which allowed for an exploration in an aesthetic manner.
Sample parts were made and moved around, joined in different ways, and then put together in a subtle angle… then the Riviera Tray was formed. It is a minimal way of making a tray out of a piece of solid wood.
