Hasta La Ideas

When you think of two guys in a shop building furniture, you imagine them wearing Carhartt more than Canali. But Dan Hellman and Eric Chang aren’t your average furniture designers, nor the type to commission your average ad shots. With a strong sense of brand, impeccable business acumen and seemingly limitless drive, the Brooklyn-based duo have propelled Hellman-Chang, in less than a decade, from mere start-up to showroom darling in the world of high-end furniture—a position that has taken some furniture groups entire generations to achieve. (At press time Hellman-Chang had been added to Boston’s Webster & Co. furniture showroom, as well as Washington D.C.’s Hines & Co., bringing their total showroom partnerships to nine.)

Rather amazingly, they did all this without advertising. But as the company continues to climb the contract furniture ladder, this month they’re rolling out their first ad campaign, partnered with high-fashion brand Canali, to appear in the pages of Elle Décor, Interiors and New York Magazine. “The fashion and design industries are probably the two industries that can still benefit greatly from print advertising,” says company co-founder Eric Chang, who has a background in advertising. “We decided that we were coming to a point where we would take the plunge into advertising as a way to bolster our distribution efforts.”

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