When designers Hector Esrawe, Emiliano Godoy, and Brian Thoreen were first invited to produce a series of works for Nouvel Studio’s 2018 Zona Maco presentation they found their dynamic of playful collaboration fruitful beyond physical objects. “We worked on this experimental stuff that was just going to be for [Zona] Maco 2018 but through that process it became clear that something interesting was starting and it had the foundations of something, a brand or platform for people to collaborate with Nouvel in more experimental ways.” says Thoreen.

A year later, their experimental ethos has evolved from a studio collaboration of creatives to a deepened commitment to pushing boundaries of experimental glass pieces in the form of the launch of Vissio, an experimental platform that invites designers, artists, and architects to collaborate with Nouvel Studio to produce unique and limited-edition glass works.

Working with Nouvel Studio’s expert artisans deliberately frees Vissio from the trappings of working with a technically complex material like glass, allowing for emphasis on the conceptual framework of the pieces. “We are interested in creating good design, beautiful, timeless pieces that show glass in interesting ways – whether that’s by combining it with other materials or not. We want to curate the collaborators we work with in the future based on their ideas and thinking not on their familiarity with glass.” Explains Godoy.

“Each piece gives birth to new ideas and so if you use the idea of language it’s like wordplay, like a continuous game. That’s what’s nice about this process because you start to compile ideas, they come easily and there’s an abundance of them that we haven’t had time to explore yet.” Adds Esrawe.