COHORT 01

REFERENCE started as a pretty simple idea: what if we created a space that acted less like a typical showroom and more like a shared reference point? We imagined a place where great work could live, be seen, and spark conversation without all the usual noise around it. Something built around the people and practices we genuinely admire.

For Cohort 01, we’ve brought together a small, inaugural group of designers and makers to set the tone for what REFERENCE becomes.

A young man with curly hair and a light-colored shirt sitting on a chair on a brick floor inside a room with brick walls and a window, next to a tall, hourglass-shaped wooden sculpture.

AARON GETMAN-PICKERING STUDIO

MEMBER

Hudson Valley–based woodworker and designer Aaron Getman-Pickering draws from vernacular forms, cultural artifacts, and traditional making techniques to create sculptural furniture and lighting. His work feels archetypal yet unfamiliar, producing objects shaped as much by curiosity and material process as by function. Read More.

A person with short blond hair wearing glasses and a green hoodie is leaning over and pointing at a black dress on a white mannequin in a room with wooden floors and white walls.

ELIZABETH ENGLISH

MEMBER

Elizabeth English approaches furniture as both object and inquiry. Drawing on a background in architecture, fabrication, art, and material culture, her Baltimore-based practice moves freely between disciplines, producing work that examines how objects are made, what they communicate, and the histories they carry. Read More.

Three people standing in a workshop or garage, posing for the photo. The environment includes shelves with tools, a workbench, and equipment, creating a professional or hobbyist workspace.

AUSTEN / MORRIS

MEMBER

Austen / Morris brings the precision of design together with the instincts of traditional craft. Founded by Dennis Turbeville, the Washington, D.C.–area studio creates restrained, highly considered furniture in solid wood, with an emphasis on proportion, joinery, utility, and the quieter details that reveal themselves over time. Read More.

A woman with short hair and a black sleeveless top stands barefoot in a workshop, leaning against the wall. The workshop contains wooden boards, a ladder, tools, and large containers of wood pieces, with brick walls and tiled flooring.

CAROLINE KABLE (EVAM)

MEMBER

Caroline Kable works across furniture, objects, language, and craft. Through Evam, she extends that practice into collaborations with craftspeople and manufacturing partners around the world, translating traditional processes, including woodworking, weaving, and metalwork, into distinctly contemporary furniture and lighting. Read More.

A man with a beard, glasses, and a red neck gaiter sits comfortably on a long blue cushioned bench in a modern indoor space, with a brick wall featuring large black painted letters reading 'SOCIETY' behind him. He is wearing a light blue t-shirt, khaki cargo pants, and brown boots, with his legs crossed and one arm resting on the bench.

HEAVYPAPER CO.

MEMBER

Baltimore maker Lawrence Moore approaches furniture through an intuitive relationship with raw material. Through Heavypaper Co., wood, metal, and other elemental materials become expressive but functional objects. His work is distinguished by a directness of construction, an appreciation for imperfection, and the visible presence of the hand. Read More.

A man with glasses wearing a black jacket sitting on a wooden bench in front of a pink wall with a large abstract art piece resembling a fork with headphones. Two patterned wallpaper sections with stylized human faces in earthy tones flank the wall.

JOMO FURNITURE

MEMBER

Jomo Furniture is the practice of Ethiopian American designer Jomo Tariku, whose sculptural furniture draws from the extraordinary breadth of African design. Architecture, traditional furniture, artifacts, landscape, dress, and even hairstyles become starting points for forms that expand the language and representation of contemporary design. Read More.

KOBA

MEMBER

Designed by Sam Acuff and made in Baltimore, KOBA pairs serious craft with a deliberately playful point of view. Familiar furniture archetypes are pushed somewhere stranger through exaggerated geometry, graphic gestures, unexpected details, and a productive tension between natural materials and almost cartoon-like forms. Read More.

A man with short brown hair and a beard sitting on a stool in front of a whitewashed wooden wall. He is wearing a black jacket over a white shirt, beige pants, and white sneakers. The man is looking at the camera with a slight smile.

MALCOLM MAJER

MEMBER

Baltimore-based Malcolm Majer uses the language and techniques of architectural fabrication to make furniture that sits somewhere between functional object and sculpture. Carefully composed planes, unexpected geometries, metal, wood, and color disrupt familiar furniture typologies while maintaining a rigorous understanding of how things are built. Read More.

A man with short gray and black hair standing outdoors in front of green leafy trees, smiling at the camera, wearing a dark gray button-up shirt.

MARK MELONAS

MEMBER

Artist, designer, furniture maker, and fabricator Mark Melonas has spent decades moving fluidly between materials and disciplines. His Baltimore practice is grounded in experimentation—particularly with concrete, wood, and steel—and an enduring interest in the relationship between craft, fabrication, sculpture, and useful objects. Read More.

Close-up of a smiling man with a beard, wearing an olive green sweater, against a plain white background.

MOTHERSHIP STUDIO

MEMBER

Founded by Max McInnis in St. Paul, Mothership Studio looks to the folk craft traditions of the Upper Midwest as material for something new. Furniture, lighting, and objects embrace the evidence of human making, translating familiar regional forms and techniques into work that is warm, idiosyncratic, and distinctly contemporary. Read More.

Man in a woodshop with woodworking tools and finished furniture, standing beside a wooden stool on a workbench.

outta luck furniture

MEMBER

Outta Luck Furniture is Keaton Klaff's Baltimore-area practice devoted to handmade chairs, furniture, and housewares. Rooted in a deep fascination with chairmaking and traditional woodworking, the work pairs an earnest respect for craft with experimentation, personality, and the freedom that comes from continually learning by making. Read More.

A man with dark, messy hair and facial hair wearing a dark denim jacket, standing in front of a white wall with a textured, brown, bowtie-shaped light or sculpture and a circular white element beside it.

SAM SHERMAN STUDIO

MEMBER

Sam Sherman designs furniture, lighting, and objects at the intersection of precise craft and material experimentation. His practice uses construction itself as a design language, allowing structure, connection, surface, and process to become expressive parts of objects that remain purposeful and quietly unexpected. Read More.

A man with a shaved head, beard, wearing a white shirt and black pants, sitting outdoors in a wooded area with trees and green foliage. He is seated on a wooden chair with his arms crossed over his lap, with a calm expression. There are small purple flowers and green plants on the ground, and a white candlestick on a wooden stand nearby.

STUDIO SOUR

MEMBER

Chicago-based Studio Sour is the practice of Palestinian designer Adam Mansour. Its furniture reinterprets Palestinian motifs, craft traditions, and visual culture through contemporary forms—using design as a way to carry cultural memory forward while resisting the idea that heritage must remain fixed in the past. Read More.

A man with a mustache and tattoos, wearing a brown checkered shirt with sunglasses around his neck, standing in a workshop with tools on the wall behind him.

SUPERMOON STUDIO

MEMBER

Bryce Moon's Portland-based Supermoon Studio makes what he calls “slow furniture”: small-batch and custom pieces shaped by material, craft, and use. Working closely with wood and other materials in relatively natural states, the studio creates expressive objects that allow their construction and inherent character to remain visible. Read More.

A man with brown hair and a beard, wearing a light gray jacket and dark jeans, sitting at a desk with a potted plant in the background.

warren brown furniture

MEMBER

Warren Brown Furniture produces handmade work from its Los Angeles studio with an emphasis on solid hardwood, proportion, and quiet refinement. Brown's restrained forms place material at the forefront, allowing grain, variation, joinery, and subtle detail to give otherwise minimal pieces their individual character. Read More.