Longoland – A foray into truly character driven design
In the field of Industrial Design, a term thrown around a lot is how much “character” a piece has, or what kind of story it tells, in rare cases, however, the term “character” can take a more literal term. The owner and head designer of Longoland, Joshua Longo is one of these kinds of designers, where every piece of the design serves the role of giving his designs character, and making people genuinely curious about just what goes on in this designer’s head.
Joshua Longo graduated from New York’s Pratt Institute in 2003, where he received his Bachelor’s degree in Industrial Design. His field of design is extremely widespread, working with, but not limited to: Furniture, things for the home, painting, sculptures, stories, poems, jokes, distractions, drawings, music, as he put himself. He eventually set up shop in Philadelphia, creating his own unique forms by hand, believing more in working with his hands rather than working in a digital environment:
“…It (3D Modeling) doesn’t. I prefer to build and experiment with my hands through drawing and building. If it was up to me I would only touch the computer when I absolutely had to…”
One of the biggest points of Longo’s designs, which is one of his design features, is the outlandish and stylized features present on many of his products. He described his inspiration coming from his love of the moment, and how a lot of what he designs is based on what his current obsession is. He believes that, “people don’t stop to take in everything that happens around them all the time; the more you notice, the more you look.” He then recalled an event that happened recently where he saw a hornet fly off carrying off a dust bunny, and then talked about how his own mind concocted a story about what that hornet could possibly do with a lone dust bunny, finally cumulating with an entire nest coming together in order to create a wig for an old man. One of Longo’s biggest products is the Monster Skin Rug, which perfectly encompasses his unique style and craftsmanship. When asked what his plans for 2014 were, he said he had a solo show in Brooklyn planned for March, but that was all he had planned, stating that he more enjoyed working on the fly.