With skyrocketing costs of living pushing creatives out of major urban centers, smaller U.S. cities are offering affordable alternatives where designers can live and work more easily. Providence, Rhode Island, the home of the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), among the nation’s foremost design schools, is rapidly emerging as one of these new hubs. Rather than getting out of Dodge after graduation, a growing number of the school’s alumni are sticking around and setting up shop in the postindustrial town. They have formed a tight-knit community that produces art, furniture, food, music, and more. Take a look at some of the most impressive practices in the area.
O&G Studio designs and manufactures furnishings in its Warren, Rhode Island, factory. The company—helmed by RISD graduate Jonathan Glatt—develops new furniture and lighting concepts every season. These series often return to the same sources for inspiration: For example, the practice has reinterpreted the Windsor chair, a classic piece of New England design, in multiple collections. While the studio’s pieces are based on a historical construction technique where all structural elements are anchored by a solid-wood core, O&G Studio offers its wares in contemporary finishes.
