With a clear approach to design, Jader Almeida fuses the spirit of modernist architecture with the poetry and vitality of Brazilian customs and craft. The young designer builds on his native culture, skillfully mixing elements from Nordic design and other international movements to create pieces that exude an honesty of materials and an attention to detail and form. From these inspirations, Almeida has created a design language that is distinctly his own, fueling a collection of over 150 pieces designed since the launch of his collection Sollos in 2004.
The distinction in Almeida’s designs starts with the process itself. He begins designing without the intention of arriving at a specific piece and instead works to understand materials, manufacturing realities, and the assembly required to create. This method of working was ingrained early on in his childhood when he worked at his cousin’s classic furniture shop and absorbed the technical side of fine wood craftsmanship.
In each of his products, his commanding use of materials, form, and proportions is exhibited clearly. His Teca Bar Cart features a concise design inspired by geometric elements which are refined into a pure expression of material while retaining the highest level of functionality. Likewise, his expertise in woodcraft is captured in his designs of chairs, like the Mad Lounge Chair. Here, he balances elements from mid-century masters with a characteristic modern approach which precisely translates into an arrangement of fluid lines, thickening and thinning to form a pleasant rhythm. He imbues this piece with references to classic Brazilian furniture through the use of a woven rattan straw back. Like the rest of his designs, these pieces reveal his adeptness of stirring an emotional connection with the viewer through the use of fluid lines, soft curves, gentle intersections, and delicate balances.
Almeida tends to categorize human behavior as his “Alphabet”. Every “letter” symbolizing the process of examining methodically how to use a chair, how to talk when sitting on that chair, how it feels when paired with a table. He explains that when introducing his new collection, the next one does not replace the previous one. Each new piece is placed as if it were a word that joins the others forming an increasingly rich poem.
This Fall, Luminaire welcomes Sollos into its Chicago and Los Angeles showrooms, presenting a full range of Almeida’s poetry. At Luminaire, Jader Almeida has the freedom to continue his strong work that balances robust structures with other more delicate, even frail elements, as a combination of lightness and strength in a composition full of rhythm.
September 2018
