ABBY is a minimalist lounge chair designed by Austin-based atelier Seer Studio. Scott Martin began his career as a touring musician, but transitioned careers when an opportunity to work for Joel Mozersky, an Austin-based commercial and residential interior designer, arose by chance. He founded Seer Studio as a response to all the custom fabrication requests he and Mozersky were receiving, and to improve upon the limitations of mass production.

In the brief time he has been running his own studio, Martin has already developed an approach that can be described as cozy minimalism, focusing more on the simplicity and honesty of natural materials for a minimalism that is welcoming and livable. 

Influenced by Brutalist architecture and 1970s and 1980s furniture, Martin describes his work as unique, but not unique for sport. In the case of his Abby lounge chair, he was influenced by Royere and the generous proportions of the Polar Collection, leaning into the scale and the spirit of Royere’s brand of post war modernism. “I wanted to bring that spirit into today’s context, though, ending up with a sculptural yet comfortable chair, that seems to look different in every angle you view it in.”

Martin approaches his design practice as a consistent introduction of new pieces, rather than the typical collection launch, and relates it back to shifts he observed in the music industry:  “I am not interested in doing collections, I prefer to release individual pieces consistently, as an easier way to digest new work. I observed that people don’t digest music like that anymore, people respond to new things all the time, so it seems natural to me to go that direction.”

Photography by Cristina Fisher