Hasta La Ideas

Founder Noel Wiggins describes Areaware as “a gallery for artists, sort of like a group show.” A fourth generation painter, Noel brought a different perspective to the product design industry when he formed of Areaware in 2005. Since then, the company’s line of “everyday objects” has struck the perfect balance between function and sculpture, as they continue to seek out young, local designers for objects to include in their line.

Core77’s Carly Ayres had the opportunity to talk with Noel Wiggins at NY Now (formerly NYIGF), where he walked her through some of Areaware’s latest products.

Core77: Areaware seems to strike the perfect balance between function and sculpture. Having a background in painting and the fine arts, what led you to form such a product-driven company?

Noel Wiggins: I’m an object guy. I like things. And I also have a lot of the engineer’s mentality of wanting to do things better than they’re already being done.

I come to it from a kind of problem-solving idea. Painting, honestly, wasn’t collaborative enough for me. You have to be a really kind of solitary person to be an effective painter.

I love mixing it up with our staff and the artists, and then we’re banging ideas around, so it’s like movie-making with objects—you know, with crews—and thinking about things, and they have narratives, and stories behind things. So it keeps me very mentally engaged.

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