Filosa is a one person industrial design studio in New York, founded by Louis Filosa.

Recognition:

TIME Best Inventions 2025, Design category

quip Ultra

CORE77 DESIGN AWARD 2026, PROFESSIONAL WINNER, SPORTS & OUTDOORS

Solo Steelfire

NYCXDESIGN AWARD 2017, Office Furniture category

Authentic Living Collection, Lamborghini and Riva 1920

RED DOT: BEST OF THE BEST 2013, BRANDS & COMMUNICATION DESIGN

Koffy, Paris Baguette

SIT FURNITURE DESIGN AWARD 2020

Chelsea Collection, BoConcept

The Architect's Newspaper Best of Products 2024, Winner, Lighting: Decorative

Pendulum, Gantri

MOMA DESIGN STORE SELECTION

Cantilever, Gantri

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The principal

Louis Filosa, industrial designer and founder of Filosa, New York

Louis Filosa is an industrial designer in New York, working across consumer products, lighting, personal care and furniture. He founded Louis Filosa Studio in 2013, and has worked at Smart Design and Karim Rashid, and in-house at method and quip.

The studio is one person by design. One author from the first sketch to the final specification, which means the person you talk to is the person doing the work, and nothing gets diluted in a handoff between a pitch team and a production team.

Filosa works with companies where design is load-bearing, meaning the product is the brand. Established consumer brands, and hardware startups building their first or second product.

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Design philosophy

01

Simplicity with soul

Simpler forms, simpler functions, simpler experiences. But simplicity alone makes products that feel sterile and forgettable. The work has soul: an identifying personality that makes a product feel like itself and nothing else. Iconic, not anonymous. Recognizable, not reductive. Every project is a search for the exact point where simplicity and personality meet, and that point is different for every product and every problem. The search is the work.

01

Simplicity with soul

Simpler forms, simpler functions, simpler experiences. But simplicity alone makes products that feel sterile and forgettable. The work has soul: an identifying personality that makes a product feel like itself and nothing else. Iconic, not anonymous. Recognizable, not reductive. Every project is a search for the exact point where simplicity and personality meet, and that point is different for every product and every problem. The search is the work.

01

Simplicity with soul

Simpler forms, simpler functions, simpler experiences. But simplicity alone makes products that feel sterile and forgettable. The work has soul: an identifying personality that makes a product feel like itself and nothing else. Iconic, not anonymous. Recognizable, not reductive. Every project is a search for the exact point where simplicity and personality meet, and that point is different for every product and every problem. The search is the work.

02

Perspective is the raw material

The strongest work comes from being in the world, watching how people live and make and choose across different cultures and contexts. Studio practice turns inward easily: project to project, deadline to deadline, screen to screen. Taste and intuition and an ear for what's missing are sharpened by lived experience, not only by craft. I design for the world by being in it.

02

Perspective is the raw material

The strongest work comes from being in the world, watching how people live and make and choose across different cultures and contexts. Studio practice turns inward easily: project to project, deadline to deadline, screen to screen. Taste and intuition and an ear for what's missing are sharpened by lived experience, not only by craft. I design for the world by being in it.

02

Perspective is the raw material

The strongest work comes from being in the world, watching how people live and make and choose across different cultures and contexts. Studio practice turns inward easily: project to project, deadline to deadline, screen to screen. Taste and intuition and an ear for what's missing are sharpened by lived experience, not only by craft. I design for the world by being in it.

03

Modern tools, in service of the work

I use whatever tools serve the work best. Today that includes AI, the most powerful set of new tools to reach industrial design in a generation, used to explore more directions and see more of the possible before it narrows. Tomorrow it might be AR, or advanced prototyping, or something that doesn't exist yet. The philosophy stays constant: adopt what makes the work better, let go of what stops earning its place.

03

Modern tools, in service of the work

I use whatever tools serve the work best. Today that includes AI, the most powerful set of new tools to reach industrial design in a generation, used to explore more directions and see more of the possible before it narrows. Tomorrow it might be AR, or advanced prototyping, or something that doesn't exist yet. The philosophy stays constant: adopt what makes the work better, let go of what stops earning its place.

03

Modern tools, in service of the work

I use whatever tools serve the work best. Today that includes AI, the most powerful set of new tools to reach industrial design in a generation, used to explore more directions and see more of the possible before it narrows. Tomorrow it might be AR, or advanced prototyping, or something that doesn't exist yet. The philosophy stays constant: adopt what makes the work better, let go of what stops earning its place.

04

Clients drive. I challenge

Design happens inside a relationship. I listen carefully, take feedback seriously, and integrate what I hear. I also think it's part of the job to challenge, to propose what wasn't considered and to push back when the safer answer is the worse one. The strongest projects come from a real exchange: a client who knows their business, and a studio that brings a point of view.

04

Clients drive. I challenge

Design happens inside a relationship. I listen carefully, take feedback seriously, and integrate what I hear. I also think it's part of the job to challenge, to propose what wasn't considered and to push back when the safer answer is the worse one. The strongest projects come from a real exchange: a client who knows their business, and a studio that brings a point of view.

04

Clients drive. I challenge

Design happens inside a relationship. I listen carefully, take feedback seriously, and integrate what I hear. I also think it's part of the job to challenge, to propose what wasn't considered and to push back when the safer answer is the worse one. The strongest projects come from a real exchange: a client who knows their business, and a studio that brings a point of view.

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Questions

What kind of companies do you work with?

Companies where design is load-bearing, meaning the product is the brand. That runs from established consumer brands to hardware startups building their first or second product. The common thread is a company that wants the object to be the reason someone chooses it.

What do you actually deliver?

Design CAD, HD renderings, CMF specifications, dimensioned drawings, and a PDF presentation containing the design, the decisions behind it, and everything above. Together this is the design intent package, and it is what an engineering partner or manufacturer needs to quote the part and take it into production engineering.

Do you do mechanical engineering?

No. Industrial design carries manufacturing thinking throughout, so the design arrives knowing where a parting line wants to sit and what a wall thickness costs. But the full production engineering, draft angles resolved surface by surface, gate locations, tolerance stackups, the analysis that gets a part through a mold reliably at volume, is a different discipline done by different people. The best projects have an engineering partner involved early, while the CAD is still moving, rather than at a handoff. Worth working out who your engineering is in month one, because the answer changes the design.

How do engagements work?

Three ways. A Sprint is a fixed fee and a fixed end date, many directions explored, no production commitment. It is the usual place to start. A Product Program runs brief through design intent, phased, and is the default for a full product. A Retainer is a block of time drawn against as it is used, with no monthly minimum and no expiry, for companies with ongoing work rather than one project.

Where are you based?

Brooklyn, New York. Clients are wherever they are, and most projects run remotely with in-person time where it earns its place, especially for prototype reviews and major end-of-phase meetings.