Search

Friday Five with Thomas Wold

San Francisco-based designer and artist Thomas Wold is no stranger to the virtual pages of Design Milk where his playful furniture and sculptural furniture installations leave lasting impressions for their custom uniqueness and eye candied whimsy. His furniture design and painting education background help guide his current creations that oftentimes mold a variety of styles and times periods into new and most definitely unexpected compositions that give Wold his signature and recognizable style. Let’s take a look into what keeps this creative inspired for today’s Friday Five.

Photo source

© ARS, NY and DACS, London 2002 \\\ Photo source

1. Frank Stella
I’ve always been drawn to Frank Stella’s work from the 1980s. This series of cutouts with lots of colors/patterns all overlapping in a large almost mini monumental wall hanging format are just so dramatic. I think finding drama within stagnant art and objects, similar to finding this sense in landscape, is really moving stuff, plus it’s so fun to look at.

Copyright Paramount Pictures

Copyright Paramount Pictures

2. Harold and Maude
One of my favorite movies. What moved me about this picture is it lives in so many places – comedy, drama, suspense, happy, sad, hope, dark, light…. We are all looking to find where to fit in, the world tries to dictate for us about what’s acceptable and “normal”, but it’s best to follow your own path and sometimes special people along the way help us out! I dare you not to laugh then tear up.

3. BMX racing
I’ve always been into bicycling, it’s keeps me connected to that sense of freedom I first experienced with my very first bike. I still like to ride and get rad, but mostly these days on my cross racing bike. Those early years of BMXing (late 70s-early 80s) and growing up in Southern California helped form and express personal style through competition, customization of bikes and equipment and in general was my introduction into design.

F5-Thomas-Wold-4-clowes

Copyright Daniel Clowes

4. Daniel Clowes
I am not a big comics reader per se, but I have really been into looking and reading Daniel Clowes’ graphic novels. He lives close to me and draws upon similar surroundings that I do. He illustrates amazing landscapes for his every-person heroes. It’s easy to visually enter his world and walk along with his typically sad and complex characters. I haven’t met Daniel but if you are there, ring me up!

F5-Thomas-Wold-5-sea-ranch-wold

5. The Sea Ranch, California
The Sea Ranch is a coastal development along the Sonoma Coast in California. Architect and planner Al Boeke envisioned a community that would preserve the natural beauty of this 16 square mile place next to HWY 1. There’s a lot of known history that you can read about this area. For me it’s a few hours drive away, so I come up here a lot for long weekends. Long hikes, exploring, hot tubbing, making good food, sketching, day dreaming, watching nature, it’s an amazingly peaceful and relaxing area to refresh and reflect any time of year.

Caroline Williamson is Editor-in-Chief of Design Milk. She has a BFA in photography from SCAD and can usually be found searching for vintage wares, doing New York Times crossword puzzles in pen, or reworking playlists on Spotify.