COURTESY OF FORMAT FINE GOODS (4)continuedIt wasn’t long after Joel
Edmondson accepted a
job as a designer for Pottery
Barn in San Francisco that his
dream of West Coast living
started to lose its luster. The
designer, who’d worked for Lo-
rin Marsh and Symbol Audio in
New York City before moving to
the so-called Best Coast, was a
little shocked when the lifestyle
wasn’t what he’d expected.
“[My wife and I] were hop-
ing to enjoy a better work/life
balance in the Bay Area as op-posed to New York, but we were
disappointed by the expensive
housing market and difficult
commute,” he says. So in 2017,
when his wife accepted a job
in Denver—“a city everyone
aspires to be in,” Edmondson
says—he took it as a sign.
Figuring he wouldn’t be able
to find a corporate furniture-
design job, he used the move as
an excuse to create his own line,
Format Fine Goods, which he
launched at New York’s Interna-
tional Contemporary FurnitureClockwise from left: Collins adjustable
drink table ($299); Arches coffee
table (from $1,495); Arches bench
(from $1,995)Fair (ICFF) in May 2017.
“The work is inspired by the
heritage of American crafts-
manship, imagined in new
forms and materials,” Ed-
mondson says. “For example,
the lighting features [the slip-
casting ceramic-forming]
technique: It’s traditionally
used to make table wares and
vessels, but we’re using it in a
completely new way.”
Edmondson’s unexpected
collection includes a collapsible
guitar stand—made of sustain-
ably forested ash or walnut
wood—that would satisfy Jimi
Hendrix, and the tube-like
Arches bench, which looks like
something the Jetsons would
recline on. Plus, it’s all crafted in
the USA: Upholstered items are
bench-made in the furniture-
opolis of High Point, North
Carolina; larger pieces, in Min-
nesota, and the smaller pieces
and lighting are assembled and
finished in Edmondson’s home
studio in the Whittier neighbor-
hood. formatfinegoods.comTHE GUIDE TOLOCAL
FURNITURE
DESIGNERSFormat
Fine
Goods
THE INNOVATOR2
40 | 5280 HOME | AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2019
Joel EdmondsonCOURTESY OF FORMAT FINE GOODS (4)continuedIt wasn’t long after Joel
Edmondson accepted a
jobasa designer for Pottery
Barnin San Francisco that his
dreamof West Coast living
started to lose its luster. The
designer, who’d worked for Lo-
rinMarsh and Symbol Audio in
NewYork City before moving to
theso-called Best Coast, was a
littleshocked when the lifestyle
wasn’twhat he’d expected.
“[Mywife and I] were hop-
ingtoenjoy a better work/life
balance in the Bay Area as op-posed to New York, but we were
disappointed by the expensive
housing market and difficult
commute,” he says. So in 2017,
when his wife accepted a job
in Denver—“a city everyone
aspires to be in,” Edmondson
says—he took it as a sign.
Figuring he wouldn’t be able
to find a corporate furniture-
design job, he used the move as
an excuse to create his own line,
Format Fine Goods, which he
launched at New York’s Interna-
tional Contemporary FurnitureClockwise from left: Collins adjustable
drink table ($299); Arches coffee
table (from $1,495); Arches bench
(from $1,995)Fair (ICFF) in May 2017.
“The work is inspired by the
heritage of American crafts-
manship, imagined in new
forms and materials,” Ed-
mondson says. “For example,
the lighting features [the slip-
casting ceramic-forming]
technique: It’s traditionally
used to make table wares and
vessels, but we’re using it in a
completely new way.”
Edmondson’s unexpected
collection includes a collapsible
guitar stand—made of sustain-
ably forested ash or walnut
wood—that would satisfy Jimi
Hendrix, and the tube-like
Arches bench, which looks like
something the Jetsons would
recline on. Plus, it’s all crafted in
the USA: Upholstered items are
bench-made in the furniture-
opolis of High Point, North
Carolina; larger pieces, in Min-
nesota, and the smaller pieces
and lighting are assembled and
finished in Edmondson’s home
studio in the Whittier neighbor-
hood. formatfinegoods.comTHE GUIDE TOLOCAL
FURNITURE
DESIGNERSFormat
Fine
Goods
THEINNOVATOR2
40 | 5280 HOME | AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2019
Joel Edmondson