Harry Allen
Harry Allen is a New York–based designer working across industrial design, furniture, lighting, interiors, objects, and graphic design. He received a master’s degree in Industrial Design from Pratt Institute and founded Harry Allen Design in 1993, establishing a multidisciplinary practice recognized for its clarity, wit, and conceptual rigor.
Early attention came through the interior design of the influential design store Moss, followed by projects that placed Allen at the intersection of design, retail, and contemporary culture. Among them is Supreme’s Los Angeles store on Fairfax Avenue, where raw materials, architectural precision, and a skateable installation by Simparch were brought together in a space that reflected both the brand’s identity and its West Coast context. Product design has remained equally central to the practice, from furniture and lighting to packaging and accessories. The Reality series for Areaware, including Bank in the Form of a Pig, remains one of Allen’s most widely recognized bodies of work.
Allen’s ongoing Generative Ceramics project extends that inquiry into slip-cast stoneware. Working with plaster molds, found objects, hardware, tools, and architectural forms, he explores the space between industrial design, sculpture, and traditional craft. Works such as the Hardware Mugs, Tool Vases, and Cube Vases retain the logic of production while allowing mold seams, casting irregularities, and material evidence to remain visible. The series continues Allen’s longstanding interest in transforming familiar objects through shifts in scale, context, and use.
Allen’s work is held in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Brooklyn Museum; the Denver Art Museum; and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. He is the recipient of the Brooklyn Museum’s Modernism/Young Designer Award and two Industrial Designers Society of America IDEA Awards.