Kara MannChicago-based Kara Mann’s first collection for CB2, which launched back in 2020, was based on her 1980s-era childhood bedroom, which she designed in high school using primarily furniture from sister brand Crate & Barrel. For CB2, she adapted her black-and-white palette of the past into a series of statement products — featuring elements like stripes, polka dots, ruffles, and frosted glass — that still managed to blend easily with most interiors.

Her sophomore collection took a different turn, replacing youthful whimsy with a more grown-up approach that she describes as better suited to a casual weekend house. “I wanted people to feel like the pieces were just comfortable to fit casually into life and would allow life to happen around all of them,” she says, adding that the shift also reflected her personal maturity over time. Mann attributes her signature blend of edgy casual meets refined elegance to her Midwestern roots. Take her new Plinth sofa, which is typified by horizontal lines that carry through the continuous back and seat cushions as well as the base, for a monolithic look that’s softened by textured fabric.

An ongoing collaboration is made even easier now that her studio is located just down the street from the CB2 offices, so she can easily visit to check on samples and prototypes — a key part of the process, she notes. As a designer, it’s been important for Mann to “understand the transition between the luxury market that I’m in right now, and how to create for a mass market” through working with an international brand. “To be able to share my knowledge in a way that reaches people that I could never reach is amazing.”

Farrah SitFarrah Sit’s sculptural lighting and furniture designs are perpetually in high demand, but due to the craftsmanship involved in their production, they’re typically made in limited runs or as one-offs, and they carry significant costs. “I’ve created custom chandeliers for clients and really large-scale installation pieces. But there’s always been a request for more accessible versions of my work,” says the New York–based designer. Her collaboration with CB2 allows Sit to retain the same expressive shapes and design quality, but use batch production that makes each piece much more affordable.

The designer cut her teeth at Calvin Klein before launching her own studio, and Sit still uses fashion-themed mood boards to influence and inform her product collections. For her first CB2 Designer Collective range, she wholly over-delivered and presented more than 30 ideas to the team. To her surprise, the majority were picked up and put into production. Of her designs currently available through CB2 — many of which are named after planets and zodiac signs — Sit highlights the Venus series as a favorite. This collection of lamps revolves around the balance between a resin or marble wedge base, and a delicate arcing line that connects a ball set into the stone at one end to a cloche-shaped shade at the other — a little bit Castiglioni, a little bit Grace Jones.

Regardless of the price point, Sit always endeavors to design pieces that are functionally and stylistically timeless, so that they’re not changed out or replaced quickly as fast fashion would be. She typically restricts herself to two or three materials per design, and describes her design language as a fusion of past and future. “I like to think of it as the future’s interpretation of the past, like what another time period would think of as a relic,” she says. A trip down the Nile to visit the ancient Egyptian sites had a big impact on her aesthetic, which often involves reducing a form to its essence (much like hieroglyphics) and cutting away at basic geometries to reveal unexpected shapes, like the timeworn temples and tombs of bygone dynasties. This is demonstrated in her new Peniche Travertine Table Lamp, with a base comprising two interlocking U-shaped pieces of smoothed angular stone. These look as if they have been weathered over millennia, uncovered from beneath the sands, and combined with a contrasting drum-shaped fabric shade to create a functional object. “Mystery is always interesting,” Sit says.

Mermelada EstudioA CB2 collaborator for over 13 years, Barcelona’s Mermelada Estudio has grown and developed alongside the brand. The studio was founded by Laura Blasco, Juanmi Juárez, and Alex Estévez, who met in the Catalan city and combined their individual styles into a practice that prioritizes simplicity and playfulness, ensuring their products have plenty of character but aren’t overtly in-your-face. “Each of us has been trained in different creative fields in major cities across Europe, and this European influence lends itself to an elegant yet carefree touch across our work,” the trio says. “Our design philosophy revolves around the harmonious fusion of contrasting concepts to forge innovative and distinctive design languages.”

For Fall 2024, Mermelada Estudio’s new pieces include a simple and sophisticated lounge chair with armrests that fold inward over the seat cushion, and two metal table lamps: the chrome Melani with a dome-shaped shade suspended from a curved arm, and the unlacquered brass Elliat, featuring stacked cylindrical forms etched with very faint seams that are exciting because they’re so simple. “We really focused on the details with this piece, with line detailing from brass sheeting adorning the shade and base to create horizontal and vertical bands throughout,” said the studio. “We love that, over time, the brass will develop a patina that adds character to the piece, or you could polish it gently, if desired, to restore its original shine.” Both lamp designs fuse forms that feel very familiar with an element that’s unfamiliar, and it’s the subtle nuances that make them stand out.

Having worked with CB2 for so long, Blasco, Juárez and Estévez have been able to witness the continued evolution of the Designer Collective. “Despite the company’s growth, it continues to uphold the philosophy with which it began: working on and preparing collections with the care and attention to detail of a small boutique/atelier that understands the crucial role of designers,” the team says. “Now, with this collective, CB2 is fostering a blend of languages, styles, cultures, and even eras, which we believe represents a new step in reinforcing their commitment to design.”

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