Rocking onto the scene with a background in set design and prop styling under his belt, Matt Pecina has turned his obsession for furniture into Studio Guapo, a design practice that combines his interests in art, pop culture, fashion, and the points in which they intersect.
Making a name for himself through the success of the Guapo Rocker V1, a DIY rocking chair with a refreshingly signature shape, Pecina points out, this is only the beginning. In our latest Creative Community, we check in on Matt and pick his brain regarding design inspirations, the connection between fashion and interior design, his work with Pink Essay, his titular rocker, and much more.
What was it like working as a set designer and prop stylist before venturing out on your own? How did you get into that line of work?
After dropping out of art school, I started doing window displays at different stores at the mall. A lot of those skills directly translated into set design so the transition was pretty chill. I continue to work on set design and prop styling projects today and as an exercise, they really inform what I do. I often think about that Virgil bar about designing the room around the candle versus just designing the candle. That, in a nutshell, is what set design is. In addition to designing furniture, I really love to design the space around my work to create a full 360 experience.
How would you describe your sense of style and how has it shaped your interest in furniture?
I’d describe my style as contemporary tejano dad. I love cozy, techy sneakers like ASICS and Yeezys, and I really appreciate strong, durable denim because I tend to beat through jeans pretty quickly. I always have a trucker on which is the Texas in me. My wife has sold vintage for years and all my best t-shirts I stole from her.
A few years ago I got really obsessed with chair t-shirts. And began an obsessive collection of tees ranging from vintage Herman Miller to staff t-shirts from the Virgil x Vitra collaboration. Many streetwear brands have put out tees with chairs on them at different points such as Supreme, hidden, and A-COLD-WALL*. I think I have almost all of them. Not to mention collecting merch from my furniture designer homies. I have even curated a design show called WEAR YOUR CHAIR featuring work that explores this intersection with my hommie David Eardley of @pinkessay .
Are there any makers either modern or vintage that you really mess with?
Oh definitely. Out here in NYC there really is a dope indie design scene which I lovingly refer to as #chairgang. I love my furniture fam and have to shout out the homies: Gustavo Barroso, Pitter Patter, Caos Mote, Phil Panza, Guilad Katz, and so many others. I am a big fan of furniture superstars Karim Rashid and the late legend Enzo Mari.
Do you collect furniture?
I do! I collect lighting and chairs mostly, but I try to keep it minimal as you can imagine space is already an issue as a designer myself.
When you started Studio Guapo, what led to this interest in connecting fashion with furniture? It’s such a great observation, especially in the Instagram generation where furniture can feel like an extension of the outfit on the set of a photoshoot.
You know for me I always believed in the power of art movements, and art history has taught me so much about how industries collide and culture shifts. I say this because I feel I started to see this movement bubbling for many years now. The way streetwear infiltrated the fashion industry in the last 10 years, it seemed only natural that these ideas would bubble over into other industries as well. My personal obsession with furniture began when I worked on the visual team at a luxury furniture store in NYC. I was 23 and learning about interior design and furniture retail while simultaneously making art with my friends, set designing music videos, and helping small brand do pop ups. What I do now is sort of a melting pot of all of these worlds and experiences together.
What is the Guapo Rocker V1 and how did it go from the sketch pad to the studio floor? What inspired its shape and exposed bolt detailing?
The Guapo Rocker V1 is an original chair designed by me and engineered by my buddy Joey Swerdlin. After first sketching the idea, I built a fully function full-scale model out of cardboard. I used the vectors as graphics and printed them on t-shirts and hats and started hosting open studios to expand my network. I met Joey at one of my events and he offered his engineering background to help me iron out the design for production.
The shape is very much inspired by space-age design, I wanted it to speak to similar curves you see in iconic modern design while also speaking to shapes you might see in graffiti. The exposed bolts are inspired by skateboarding. A big part of the fun of skating is putting together your board and customizing it to your liking. I love that the chair looks like something you can easily put together yourself with simple tools. For me, it speaks to the raw DIY nature of streetwear. Things like guitars, drumsets, gaming computers, bikes, vintage speakers, and record players all have exposed hardware which contributes to this feeling of independence.
How do you see it being styled in a living room, set, etc. What about with clothing?
You know I love the way it looks as a pair side by side staged in front of a couch. A great example of this is the setup at the Eternal Office in NYC. The guapo rocker is surprisingly comfortable, and it really functions well in a work setting. People at Eternal often tell me how much they enjoy working on their laptops in the chair and how nice it is to rock back and forth a bit while they think.
As far as clothing, you gotta keep it cozy with the guapo rocker. Throw on some mules, baggies, and a hoodie, and have a cup of coffee, and you're set!
"The Guapo Rocker is an ever-evolving vehicle for re-thinking not only my own work but design culture in general. The rocker is like a classic sneaker silhouette that will continue to come back in various colorways and materials forever. It's like my Jordan 1."
Speaking through a streetwear lens, the Rocker lends itself to an infinite number of material and color/ pattern variants. Are we going to see future iterations with different fabrications/ colorways/ collabs?
YES! The Guapo Rocker is an ever-evolving vehicle for re-thinking not only my own work but design culture in general. The rocker is like a classic sneaker silhouette that will continue to come back in various colorways and materials forever. It's like my Jordan 1.
Papua New Guinea PGK?
My team and I have a couple projects in the pipeline such as the “Guapo jr” a toddler-sized rocker, and a guapo ottoman to pair with the rocker v1. I will say I feel that this chapter of my work is coming to a close and I plan on taking the winter/spring to design and produce some new things.
Can you talk about the collabs you’ve been a part of? We know you have a chair with Heron Preston out now which is radical. Any dream collaborators in the furniture space?
Yeah! The Sedia 1 chair remix for Heron’s new design studio LED was a really awesome project. This project wasn't really about designing something new, but more so recontextualizing an iconic design by Enzo Mari, the godfather of DIY. Taking into account Heron’s “less environmentally destructive” mission, we made our own twist using reclaimed materials such as vintage hockey sticks. What I love about this design is that it's VERY simple and anyone can quite easily build their own. And that's the whole point of design - to encourage the youth to just go into the garage and scrap something together.
A dream collaboration would be with any furniture brand with large-scale manufacturing and distribution capabilities. I want to bring my work to the masses at affordable prices. Something which is almost impossible to do as an independent designer.
Tying it back to clothing, are we going to see merch or apparel under the SG umbrella at some point?
100 percent. Just recently I dropped a furniture mixtape called LOCAL DELIVERY, and will be dropping some tees at events at my studio. Merch is always a part of the storytelling for Studio Guapo.
What is Pink Essay and how did it get started? What is ”radical design subculture” in your own words and how is PE creating a space for this aesthetic to flourish?
The way the industry is laid out now, The barrier to entering the design world is insanely high and expensive. Education is expensive, materials are expensive, and even just photographing and transporting your work is expensive. Pink essay cultivates a community and network of aspiring designers that exists outside all of this. We love to see work that is made from unconventional materials and even unfinished ideas. This creates space and room for designers to grow. In the past radical design often spoke to form and aesthetics, for us radical design culture speaks to how we communicate design. In today's world, cultivating a design culture that is inclusive, accepting, and supportive is indeed radical.
