THE NEW SCHOOL OF DESIGN  View All

A Q&A with Jason Miller, Creative Director

Where do you find inspiration?

It comes from all over. One of the things that I’m very interested in is the culture that I come from and live in. So I look very much from that source, which is to say locally. Whether it’s suburban America or Brooklyn, where I now live. I try to take things from my own experience. You never know when something is going to strike you that generates an idea.

What do you value in design?

At Roll & Hill, we’re trying to make products that appeal to the American market. I feel in the world of design, that’s a real novelty. Most of what people consider to be design comes from outside the United States. We’re trying to flip that over. It’s been done historically, in the 40s and 50s, America was leading in design. But in furniture design right now, that’s just not the case. Beyond that, we’re trying to make great products. What I mean by that is, things that are made to be the best they can be, not just made to meet a certain price point.

Our designers work independently and I think that’s what’s great about them. They’re out there creating their own work with no constraints. We have no mandate to use American designers, but it’s not a coincidence that we use primarily American designers. They know what appeals to our market—they live in it, they work in it.

What mistakes do you see in design?

I generally react very badly to things that are overdone. Where every last little piece has been somehow designed to death. So that the product in the end doesn’t have any soul.

What is your own home like?

Temporary. I live with my girlfriend and we’re in an apartment that we never expected to live in very long.