“TRAME is dedicated to empowering artists and designers to express their creative visions seamlessly in both digital and physical realms,” Ismail Tazi, Founder and CEO of TRAME shared. “From day one, our focus has been on crafting high-end pieces in collaboration with talented artists.”

At Art Week Miami 2023, the collaborative studio at the intersection of art, design, technology, and craft, showcased RIFLESSI, in collaboration with ARTXCODE. Visionary artists Jeff Davis’ stained glass and Martin Grasser’s mirrored generative artworks seamlessly fused traditional and contemporary artistry to create a unique dimension to the event.

Portraits, by Martin Grasser uses generative algorithms to create mirrors that test the fluidity and interpretative nature of language and typography. Created by Arte Veneziana, this limited edition collection is the first chapter of Grasser’s exploration, inviting collectors to play a significant role in shaping the narrative of this innovative series.

Portraits, Martin Grasser

“In Portraits, my aim is to defamiliarize letters. I detach them from their conventional symbols and assign each one a specific color and rectangular form,” shared Grasser. “So while each letter and the words they make keep their original meanings, the ways in which someone can interpret them multiply. This collection of 12 words and phrases is produced as beautiful, meticulously crafted mirrors, which adds yet another dimension. Viewers standing before a mirror are invited into a dialogue where text, shape, color, and fragmented reflections of themselves and their environments are all in play.”

Portraits, Martin Grasser

Portraits, Martin Grasser

Portraits, Martin Grasser

Portraits, Martin Grasser

Portraits, Martin Grasser

Portraits, Martin Grasser

Tazi explained the avant-garde platform further, saying “TRAME is a collaborative studio but also a prestigious gallery bridging technology and craftsmanship. We’re pioneering the realm of luxury goods with digital provenance, sparking a conversation that reshapes culture and I’m thrilled to be at the forefront of this cultural evolution.”

Optimism, Jeff Davis

Jeff Davis, in collaboration with stained glass artisans Atelier Loire, presented visually striking, saturated pieces that carry narratives. Optimism represents a harmonious fusion of tradition, technology, and creative innovation.

Optimism, Jeff Davis

“I come from a background in physical art, including painting and printmaking, so this project excites me because it marks a return to physical production for my digital art,” said Davis of Optimism. “Stained glass aligns with my fascination with color and light, and I envisioned a human-scale floor sculpture designed to capture and interact with light. Through the collaboration with Ateliers Loire, we were able to achieve a magical effect in which color comes out of the work, is cast on the floor or on the wall, and starts to influence its surroundings.”

Optimism, Jeff Davis

Optimism, Jeff Davis

Optimism, Jeff Davis

Optimism, Jeff Davis

Optimism, Jeff Davis

“These collaborations not only represent a personal journey into the heart of art and design but also echo TRAME’s mission – where tradition and innovation converge. I’m excited about how we’re reshaping the boundaries of art and design through TRAME,” said Jaime Derringer, EIC and Head of Brand.

As TRAME looks ahead, the team plans for a series of showcases at renowned art fairs and events throughout 2024. To learn more about TRAME and upcoming events, visit trameparis.com.

Kelly Beall is Director of Branded Content at Design Milk. The Pittsburgh-based writer and designer has had a deep love of art and design for as long as she can remember, from Fashion Plates to MoMA and far beyond. When not searching out the visual arts, she’s likely sharing her favorite finds with others. Kelly can also be found tracking down new music, teaching herself to play the ukulele, or on the couch with her three pets – Bebe, Rainey, and Remy. Find her @designcrush on social.

Whether electric, hydrogen, natural gas, or biofuel, alternative fuel vehicles are generally received with a degree of curiosity and excitement. Infrastructure in support of those emerging alternative fuel modes of mobility? Considerably less so. Philippe Starck’s HRS BY STARCK sets out to change that reality with a progressively contemporary approach to the hydrogen distribution terminal that may in turn inspire a more futuristic take on fueling up.

Unveiled at the opening of COP28, the global community climate event hosted in Dubai, the French designer encased his vision of hydrogen refueling inside a polished stainless steel box with a color gradient mirror-like window emphasizing the nothingness of its contents. By utilizing dichroics, the optical effect where a material is used to split light into distinct beam of colors by their wavelength (if you’re into beadwork, you might already be acquainted with the effect), the fueling station seems almost illuminated with color despite hydrogen’s invisibility.

“Hydrogen is clean; it is nothingness, an ether,” remarks Starck. “It is obvious that the HRS BY STARCK hydrogen refueling stations had to be dematerialized. No style or design, for an object that has already disappeared like everything intelligent that exists.”

The French company HRS, or Hydrogen Refueling Solutions, focuses its business on hydrogen refueling station solutions for captive fleets, trucks, buses, and passenger vehicles, alongside mobility, industrial, storage, and energy markets, so its very unlikely you’ll see one of these shiny boxes of nothingness on a street corner. But those within the European industry of transport may see the first HRS BY STARCK hydrogen dispensers installed some time in 2024.

Gregory Han is a Senior Editor at Design Milk. A Los Angeles native with a profound love and curiosity for design, hiking, tide pools, and road trips, a selection of his adventures and musings can be found at gregoryhan.com.

A palette of serene surfaces and earthy hues all add up to evoke a sense of tranquility and calmness throughout the Grand Bay Residences’ lobby, a residential development located in Key Biscayne, Florida.

Just two hours north of New York City a 3,000-square-foot studio within the Catskill Mountains showcases Coil + Drift’s catalog of work across a series of elevated displays that literally put the studio’s work on a platform – an office, showroom, and state-of-the-art production facility all-in-one.

Drawing inspiration from Montauk’s natural beauty, this beachfront bungalow exudes a welcoming warmth through its palette of whites, creams, and earthy tones that mirror its picturesque coastal surroundings. A blend of vintage and contemporary, the residence is an example of minimalism taken to a calm and inviting conclusion.

Designers Melissa Lee and Erika Chou revel in a New Romantic aesthetic inspired by the Norwegian and English countryside, giving this Federal-style townhouse a gently applied layer of quiet simplicity and mellow minimalism embracing the architecture’s historical context.

Emphasizing a connection to its picture perfect natural surroundings, this environmentally conscious luxury retreat on 140 acres in the Catskill Mountains, designed by architects Electric Bowery and interior specialists Ward and Gray, is furnished with inviting warm woods, handblown glass fixtures, and limewash painted walls.

Baja California Sur as interpreted by WATG and Studio PCH across 60 residence-style accommodations leans in Nobu’s identifiably Japanese tinged minimalist aesthetic, while also incorporating locally-sourced materials specific to Cabo San Lucas – a stunning fusion of Asian and Mexican cultures that may inspire your next vacation.

Designed by Burdifilek, the Forest Hill Residence in Toronto, Canada establishes a quiet dialogue through its commitment to the minimalist ethos, furnishing each space with built-in furniture accentuated with bronze cladding, Canadian black granite, and European white oak elements, alongside subtracting elements such as baseboards, moldings, and door handles to keep things on this side of the serene.

What to do when working with rooms defined by the irregular and asymmetrical? GRT Architects leaned into them within this minimal New York City apartment’s quirky layout. Establishing the foundation of a semi-open kitchen with a low cabinet on brass legs and a suspended storage system, the kitchen and the dining room have been demarcated all without the heavy weight of walls separating the spaces, a minimalist approach echoed throughout the apartment’s living room, bedroom, halls, and bathroom.

Two of three floors are harmoniously interconnected by a swirling exterior circular staircase within a minimalist townhouse located in Brooklyn, New York. Designed by architecture firm Also Office in collaboration with Colony to respect the building’s history while updating it to where the contemporary and vintage can naturally co-exist.

And the most popular Skim Milk post of 2023 is…

Even those who identify as minimalist aspire to invite beautiful and meaningful objects into their lives, something our 2023 holiday gift guide was specifically curated to deliver across a wide variety of categories including products for reading, listening, growing, organizing, and even hammering away.

Check out the rest of Design Milk’s end of the year coverage here!

Gregory Han is a Senior Editor at Design Milk. A Los Angeles native with a profound love and curiosity for design, hiking, tide pools, and road trips, a selection of his adventures and musings can be found at gregoryhan.com.