CASTE

“The landscape here inspires everything I do. I live in a valley surrounded by mountains. It’s a very extreme climate: desolate in the winter and quite alive in the summer.”




CASTE in the July 2012 edition of Vogue Living Australia. Ty Best approaches his design as sculpture, pulling references from the sky, space, travel. Personally, they call to mind 3 of my favorite designers/sculptors that pushed form into their own netherworlds : Lee Bontecou, Gae Aulenti, and Philippe Hiquily.


"With their tripod bases and tapering, stalactite-like legs, some of Ty Best’s furniture pieces look a little like sinister creatures from a retro science fiction film. But don’t fear: there’s nothing at all menacing about the furniture’s affable designer. “With their sense of animation, a few of my pieces can be a little scary,” Best says playfully. “It’s never conscious, even though I love everything related to planets and space travel.” In fact, CASTE, the exquisite line of furniture, lighting and one-off objects Best founded in 2007, derives its inspiration much closer to home. “My work is really driven by the tension between what’s in my mind and what I see in my surroundings,” explains the designer, who has lived in remote Missoula, Montana, since 1995. “The landscape here inspires everything I do. I live in a valley surrounded by mountains. It’s a very extreme climate: desolate in the winter and quite alive in the summer.”







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