Hasta La Ideas

Portrait by Ira Lippke

This is the latest installment of our Core77 Questionnaire. We’ll be posting a new interview every other Tuesday.

Name: Lindsey Adelman

Occupation: Industrial designer

Location: New York City

Current projects: Developing a new lightbulb. Planning my next video. Designing the business. And building hundreds of chandeliers.

Mission: To always ask “What if…?” To design with care. To believe in what I put out there.

One of the latest versions of Adelman’s Branching Bubble chandeliers. Photo by Sam Kweskin

Above and below: Adelman’s studio in New York City. All remaining photos by Lauren Coleman

When did you decide that you wanted to be a designer? I first heard about industrial design when I was 22, working for the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. I was walking through the exhibition fabrication department, and a woman was carving fake French fries out of foam. It looked like a lot more fun than my editorial job. I asked what she was—and she told me, an industrial designer. So I applied to RISD and that was that.

Education: I have a B.A. in English from Kenyon College and a B.F.A. from the Rhode Island School of Design.

First design job: I suppose it was in grade school, because I always did the programs and posters and props for all our plays, even though I did not know what design was. And of course I signed them really big.

Who is your design hero? There are many throughout history, but right now it’s Nendo.

Above and below: Blowing glass and applying gold foil to an Adelman chandelier-in-progress

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