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Nicholas Baker Studio: The Fun in Functionality
Brooklyn-based industrial designer Nicholas Baker imbues his work with nostalgia, story-telling and a distinct sense of lightheartedness.
“It’s often just a small detail or subtle interaction that makes a person smile,” says industrial designer Nicholas Baker. Working in the intersection between person and product, Baker brings a sense of play into his broad folio of work, which includes furniture, lighting, homewares and everyday objects. Since establishing his independent studio in Brooklyn in 2017, Baker has been telling “delightful stories” through the medium of product design.
The prolific designer focuses on elevating everyday interactions to not only bring joy but to make better products. “Whether it’s the twist of a knob, tying a shoelace or pulling a cork out of a bottle, it can really bring a delightful spark to someone’s day when they encounter a familiar interaction with a new object,” Baker says. Replacing the mundane with an opportunity for play not only infuses a sense of familiarity into the physicality of the product but is an opportunity to put a smile on a user’s face. “Playfulness is a core value for me. It’s a part of my process that feeds into the final product.”
That ethos is beautifully illustrated in his new Camp lamp. Comprising a light steel frame wrapped in fabric, the lamp comes flat-packed. Upon opening, it is then pitched like a tent, inviting the user to share in a moment of creation and nostalgia, echoing the feeling of constructing your own tent and the subsequent comfort that it provides. The warmth of its glow excites like the promise of campfire stories or the relief of a snug sleeping-bag. “Humans feel comfortable with familiar things,” says Baker. “I’m simply using that human tendency as a way to create delight and surprise.”
Story is a recurrent motif in all of the designer’s product offerings. The Haybale lounge chair, for example, speaks to Baker’s memories of playing in the loft of his great-grandmother’s barn in rural Kentucky. “I loved the way we used hay bales as building blocks and I felt compelled to explore how seating could look, inspired by that nostalgic memory.”
Quilted leather upholstery resembles stacked and bound hay, inviting the same sense of comfort a child might find in the secluded rafters of a barn or, for Australians, in a shed. The country inspiration is intentionally clear: Baker believes that a sense of immediate understanding and association can make a product “powerful and delightful”.
The Subway whistle is another example of how he employs industrial design as a medium to tell stories. Designed for the NYCxDESIGN ‘Souvenir’ exhibition, the piece pays homage to New York: it’s inspired by the iconic three-tone whistle made by trains as they leave a subway station, employing three conjoined aluminium flutes to re-create the notes. Its polished aluminium surface and sharp linearity are a direct reflection of the almost- brutalist form of subway turnstiles. Strung on a chain, it’s a wearable vessel that acts as a portable memory.
By fusing functionality and fun, Baker is among a cadre of designers intent on pursuing a more optimistic future through the objects which will populate it. “As designers, we must think practically about what our role is,” he notes. “We may not be able to cure disease or solve global warming, but we can create objects that embrace a delightful outlook. Whether it’s a calming bedside lamp for a scientist who’s had a long shift or a unique stackable chair that can ship more efficiently, it’s often the small details that can improve our lives, even if it’s just making someone pause and smile.” By using the opportunity to infuse a product with an experiential quality that brightens someone’s day, Baker challenges the impact objects can have on our lives.
