- Anyone who knows me knows how much I love furniture.
That's why I've created my very own
furniture design competition.
Hey! - Oh, my God.
- I have found seven of the best,
most talented up-and-coming designers in the country.
They'll be working from their own hometowns
in their own workshops.
[dramatic music]
And they get a helper of their choosing.
Who's gonna help me find the winner?
My dream team of judges, that's who.
Award-winning contemporary artist
and designer, Fernando Mastrangelo...
- I can't say I'm a fan of this piece at all.
- And celebrated interior designer, Brigette Romanek.
- These are absolutely stunning.
- And one of my dear friends, Scott Foley,
who loves furniture design almost as much as I do.
- Oh, yeah.
- They'll only have a few days to create furniture magic
before it's showtime in Los Angeles,
where they'll be presenting their pieces to the judges.
- All right, let's light it up.
♪ ♪
- As long as Scott doesn't break anything first.
- I'm sorry. I won't break the--
oh, shoot. - Oh.
- I literally said, "I won't break this one."
- I mean, it's not gonna be easy.
- You're gonna finish it your [bleep] self?
- No problem. - You gotta be kidding me
with this bullshit.
- [cries]
- But we'll also have some laughs.
- I'm gonna get here. You step on my back.
[laughter]
This is happening? [laughter]
- And we'll get to see some really cool furniture.
I'm not looking for any old designer,
I'm looking for my next great designer.
I gotta go, 'cause the logo's gonna be here in three seconds.
♪ ♪
I told you.
[mid-tempo music]
♪ ♪
[phone ringing]
- Oh, hello there.
- Hi, Scott. How are you?
- I am fantastic.
I'm so excited to be here with you.
- Well, first of all, you look very handsome.
- Thank you very much. As do you.
- I don't know where you are, because I've heard
that you've--
looks like a house. - It's my kitchen.
We just moved from LA to Connecticut.
- That's--'cause I knew you moved out of your house,
because I had neighbors that watched you pack up
and leave town in the middle of the night,
so I thought something maybe was wrong with the law.
- I just didn't want to bother them, so I did it
in the middle of the night. - All right, well,
you scared everybody. But I'm happy to see you.
- God, you got dressed up. You look so much better
than I do. - Well, you should see me
from the waist down.
Maybe not.
This show is going to blow people's minds.
- I'm really excited to see what these designers that
you've chosen have in store for us.
For someone like me, who is such a fan
of architecture and furniture design,
I'm always looking. We're driving around,
and I'm like, "Look at that house, oh, you can see
"that piece in there. Look at that table,
where'd they get that?" - I have to say that it
sounds a little creepy that you're looking
in people's windows to see the furniture.
But I'm sure it's the best intentions.
Here's what we're gonna do.
I am going to call them,
and I'm gonna tell them that they are in,
and they'll freak out. And then,
once I've called them, you're gonna call 'em,
and you're gonna give 'em their first challenge, okay?
- I'm so excited about it.
Yes. - Okay.
Who's gonna hang up first?
- Well, you're Ellen,
so do what you gotta do. - Okay.
Count to three and hang up together.
- Okay. - All right, ready?
- Yep. both: One...
- Just hung up on him.
In the middle of a sentence. It's the best.
[upbeat music]
[phone ringing]
- Holy shit. - [laughs]
- Hi, sorry. This is you.
- Yeah. It's me calling to tell you
you're in "Ellen's Next Great Designer."
- I'm jumping right now. I'm a little,
like--I don't know. [laughs]
[phone rings]
- Hey, it's Ellen. Hi.
- Hi, Ellen.
- Hold on. What?
You told me she was in the competition.
Why would you have me call her then?
I'm on the ph--
I'm so sorry.
That was a bad joke,
because you're in the competition.
- I am? - It's a little trick I do,
where I pretend like you're not, but you are.
But why would I be calling you to tell you that?
[phone rings]
Hi, Christina. - Oh, my God.
- Hello, Mark. - [laughs]
- Hello? - How are you, Paul?
By the way, I'm Ellen. - Yeah, I--
I can recognize you.
- This is Ellen DeGeneres on my phone.
- I'm in your phone, actually.
You are one of the designers that we have chosen.
- Oh, my God. Like, this is amazing.
- I'm having a heart attack. - Ah!
- I'm very proud of myself for making the show.
I'm gonna be much more proud if I can win it.
- Can't wait to see what you come up with.
- I'm excited. - This is insane.
Thank you so much.
- Congratulations, babe.
[laughs] This is so exciting.
[soft music]
- Hi, designers. How is everybody today?
- Great. - I'm Scott Foley.
I'll be your guide throughout this process.
And not only will I be a judge,
I'll also be checking in on you during the competition.
- Oh, my God, it's Noel from "Felicity."
- Looking at you all together for the first time,
it's fascinating to see
everybody in your work spaces.
It's like a little window into each designer's personality.
I can tell some of you are already
sizing up the competition.
- Definitely.
- Now here's how it's gonna work.
Each week, we're gonna present you
with a unique challenge
designed to test your skills,
showcase who you are as a designer,
and then you'll present your designs in Los Angeles,
where we'll separate the very good from the very best.
Each of you will have your own hand-picked craftsperson
to help you bring your creative visions to life.
Judging a group this talented
is gonna be extremely difficult,
so joining me on the judging panel
are two titans of the design world.
First, we've got world-class furniture designer
and award-winning contemporary artist,
with works in museums and exhibitions
the world over, Fernando Mastrangelo.
- What? Fernando Mastrangelo
is a phenomenal designer.
I have followed his work for many years,
and it's incredible to have him as a judge.
- And top interior designer to the stars,
like Beyoncé and Gwyneth Paltrow,
and one of "Architectural Digest's"
top 100 designers,
Brigette Romanek. - [laughs]
Oh, my God. This is awesome.
Brigette Romanek, she has done amazing work,
and I absolutely love her use of color and pattern
and being bold and eclectic.
- Now, designers, let me be clear.
We're looking for originality,
functionality, and of course,
great craftsmanship.
Ellen has created this platform
because she sees so much promise in each of you.
But, in the end, only one
is gonna walk away with $100,000
and the title of Ellen's Next Great Designer.
- Whoo. - We all know Ellen loves her
massive giveaways. She's famous for it.
And she's arranged for a sizable care package
to be delivered to each of you.
In fact...
you know, it should be arriving right about now.
- What? Oh, my God.
- You guys excited to see what Ellen sent you?
- Yes. - Ya!
- Yes and no.
But, yeah, like, let's go for it.
- [laughs] You're afraid already.
Don't be. [laughter]
- This is your first challenge.
And it starts...
right now. - Let's go get it.
- Let's go. - Let's do it.
- Let's go see.
- And they've all gone away.
That was easy.
- Andale.
[upbeat music]
- There's an envelope here.
- Oh. - Oh, shit.
- What is this?
- I want this one.
- "Open me first." All right.
- Okay. Oh, here we go.
- Hi there, it's me again. To begin the competition,
I thought what better place to start than the beginning?
Since the dawn of time, man roamed the Earth,
and then man got exhausted from all the roaming
and built something to sit on. - Ha!
- I bring this up because your first challenge
is to take basic materials
that have been around since the beginning of time
and transform them into a piece of furniture
that someone would use today.
I've seen what's inside the boxes,
and I do not envy you right now.
- Ah. - Just thinking about it
makes my body hurt.
- Oh, boy. - The good news is
you're gonna have as much time as you want
to complete the challenge.
I'm kidding. [laughter]
You only have four days
to turn these incredibly raw materials
into a beautifully refined piece of furniture.
And of course, we want to see you
use your own unique, signature style.
Open up the boxes. Everything you need is inside.
And good luck.
- Shit. - Man, let's open
this thing up and see.
- Whoo!
- Okay.
What is it? - Oh, shit.
- Shit! - Wood heaven here.
- Oh, my God, it's wood heaven.
Lots of walnut,
There's cherry, there's ash, there's hickory.
All these slabs of hardwoods are gigantic.
It's probably double the size of me.
- Ah.
- Let's see.
Ooh, its rocks. - Oh.
- Oh, my God.
This is amazing. - Huh.
She wasn't lying about the caveman thing.
- No. - I've never worked
with stone before.
Ellen, what were you thinking?
- How do you make stuff out of this?
- How you would break that down?
You can't break that down.
- What the [bleep], man?
This is way outside of my comfort zone.
- There's onyx, there's alabaster,
there's marble, red sandstone.
My first choice would be the alabaster.
I'm excited about the first challenge.
It's back to the basics.
Raw materials in its purest form.
One wood and one stone.
How am I gonna do that? That's the real challenge.
- I don't know I can even move this.
[laughs]
- Watch out. I don't know.
- We're gonna mess it up. - Put it back.
- I can roll it to you. - That's beautiful.
- Move away. I got it.
[laughter]
Ellen wasn't kidding when she said the Stone Age.
- [groans] - This challenge is so hard
because the materials are raw.
[straining]
Usually, you need industrial machines to get them
to a more polished look.
- Got it? - Yep, watch out,
Watch out, watch out, watch out.
- Workout of the week. - No joke.
- [straining] - Cool.
- Ah. - This is tricky.
I think because the rock is just so pure and natural,
I want the wood to be super clean.
Like, super polished. - Right.
Let's--up and then over.
I'm definitely nervous for the competition.
The other designers are very capable.
They all have amazing skills.
But I'm excited to get started,
because it's a competition, and I'm very competitive.
My name is Arielle Assouline-Lichten.
I studied architecture at Harvard.
I've worked at architecture firms around the world--
Japan,
Copenhagen,
New York.
Transitioning to furniture design was a huge risk.
But to me, that risk is the reason for making furniture.
My style is contemporary, clean,
and a little bit of glam.
My helper is Lydia.
She's been working for me for two years,
and we can kind of, like, understand each other
without having to explain everything.
I want to win this competition because it would prove it
to myself, to my family, to my peers,
that I've chosen the right path.
Overall length.
I'm making a coffee table
using a live edge walnut
to create an extreme cantilever.
And if I can attach a brass bracket to that rock,
it'll hold the wood in place.
[sighs]
I would say I'm 90% sure that this is gonna work.
I just hope nobody else creates a piece like mine.
So I want to get, like, a tracing of the stone.
- Mm-hmm. - I think it's really
important to get everything to fit perfectly.
- Okay. Entonces.
So, the idea is...
a one-legged bench.
We're picking the elm and the alabaster
to make a one-legged bench
that cantilevers and pushes
gravity to its limits.
This first challenge is quite tricky.
I want this piece to be so good
that Ellen wants to take it home.
I'm really nervous about how little time we have.
Every minute I'm not working on that piece
can potentially spell failure.
[upbeat music]
- I'm thinking two end tables. I know that's ambitious.
Like, one leg is a soapstone,
and then the other side, the walnut, right?
- Anything is possible, just... - Yes.
- It's a time crunch. - Time.
- It's the first challenge,
so I want to create something
that nobody else is going to do.
I just want to make sure we have enough material here
to make an entire fireplace. Is that crazy?
- [laughs] - Do you think we--
I mean, maybe that's too adventurous,
but I really want to try.
- I don't know.
Uh, I'm trying to think, I'm trying to think.
Oh, my God, I'm getting a bad headache.
- So, that's the--this is the live edge.
That's exactly what I want. To preserve the theme,
I need to keep a couple of rough edges.
- Cut some of this cut some of that,
and then the rest, we'll deal with on the table saw.
- Okay.
[saw buzzing]
The shop is really not equipped
to cut four-inch wood.
It does make me nervous, but we're gonna figure it out.
- Yeah. [laughter]
- So we're gonna have to get a little creative
with our milling, but...
we've got about 80 inches this way.
- We're more than fine. - Yeah.
- My strategy going into this competition is just get moving.
We're gonna use this machine over here with the laser.
That's gonna cut us a straight edge--
cut this down, make a straight line, because
we're dealing with a really crazy live edge on this wood.
From the other contestants, I expect to see raw edge stone
protruding out of wood.
But I'm all about refinery and luxury.
That's beautiful.
[saw buzzing]
I think my individuality in this challenge
will work to my advantage.
I'm gonna design an end table.
My piece is primarily wood.
It's very animated, very humorous.
It has eyes, which are the soapstone.
It's children's furniture.
We've got everything prepped for a CNC.
A CNC machine does everything that we don't have time to do.
Being in this competition, it's fast-paced.
But we're in a good place.
We're in a good place.
[mid-tempo music]
♪ ♪
- Uh, I'm trying to think, I'm trying to think.
We're nearing the end of the first day,
and I haven't fully come up with a good design.
Ah.
This is a very hard challenge.
It's trash.
My name's Urvi Sharma. I'm 25,
and I am the cofounder and owner of INDO-.
I was born in New Delhi, India.
It's a beautiful place, and is this, like,
endless pool of inspiration.
Everything I make or design
has something to do with India.
I've been featured in "Architectural Digest,"
"Elle Decor," "Dwell Magazine."
Now we can start cooking.
Manan is my partner in both business and...
life.
[laughs]
Uh, winning "Ellen's Next Great Designer"
would mean the world to me. Having that
at such an early stage of my career
is invaluable.
Okay. Considering I've never
worked with materials this big and raw,
I'm having trouble really connecting my roots to it.
I still don't have a design that I'm happy with.
I'm not feeling good about the end of today.
I don't have a good start to this competition at all.
[upbeat music]
♪ ♪
- Yes. - Perfect.
- Good job. - Okay.
My strategy to win this competition
is to make things that are ambitious.
I work a lot in experimentation.
So this is the full soundscape of the forest on fire.
The design I'm making is two end tables,
based on sound waves from redwoods on fire.
I was able to get the sound bit from the fires
and turn those sound waves into my surfaces.
The two end tables will be a fusion of the walnut
and the soapstone together.
This is gonna be the way to do it.
- Something tragic made into-- - Something beautiful.
$100,000 would be life-changing for me.
I'm pretty broke in my business right now.
The end tables--one of them,
I'm getting fully machined by my vendor,
and the other one is gonna be hand-carved
in the studio by me and Mats.
The significance of the man-made one
is that we're supposed to go back to basics.
The other one is the complete opposite.
Two different processes.
The end result will be the same.
Both the end tables will be a fusion of the walnut
and the soapstone together.
They're unique. They're fully custom-made.
You can't find that shit in the store.
Definitely getting my workout.
- [laughs]
[upbeat music]
- Oh, my God, I suck at this!
♪ ♪
- Whoo, hoo, hoo!
One, two. - Oy.
Yesterday, I did not come up with a good design.
But I had an idea in the beginning of the day,
based on a game that I played as a kid
called pitthu.
It's a very traditional Indian game.
- Okay. - Okay.
- Good? You have seven rocks.
It's a mix of dodgeball and Jenga.
Yes! - Ugh!
- Pitthu.
I'm making a console table inspired by pitthu.
It's basically layer upon layer of seven stones,
just like the game.
I'm a little bit behind schedule already,
so I need to start working on shaping out the stones.
I don't have enough marble,
and so I need to make them out of the maple.
- Which, I think the stagger is helping.
- There's no room to mess up on this challenge.
- Okay.
[mid-tempo music]
♪ ♪
- Is someone here?
- Hello?
Hi, it's nice to meet you. How are you?
- Oh, my God, I'm freaking out.
- I'm freaking out about it too.
It's okay.
- I'm okay. [laughter]
It's kind of surreal.
And I'm overheating a little bit.
I used to watch "Felicity" when I was in high school,
and it was basically one of the reasons
I moved to New York.
Um-- [laughs]
- So, uh, can you tell me about your design?
- Sure. So, the idea is to highlight
the supernatural beauty of the rock.
- Yeah. - And...
I'm making a coffee table, so the wood
is going to basically wrap around the rock...
- Okay. - And cantilever off.
I have a mock-up, I don't know if you want to see...
- I definitely want to see. - My full mock-up.
I'm basically gonna try and have
the stone hold the piece of wood.
Actually, we have a scale here.
We were gonna weigh the rock
and get, you know-- - Let's weigh the rock.
- Do you want to weigh the rock with us?
- Let's weigh the rock.
I'll see if I can pick the rock up.
- How strong are you? - All right, here we go.
- Can you--can you do that? - I sure hope so.
- You can do it. - All right, all right,
all right, all right, all right.
[dramatic music]
125 pounds even. - Wow.
- Oh, wow, that's just a person.
- 125. [laughter]
- That's, um-- - That's awesome.
I'm trying to create a pretty extreme cantilever,
and I'm not sure if it's gonna hold the weight of the wood.
It's definitely an engineering feat.
- It's really, really cool. I'm so worried.
- Okay, now I'm--
don't say worried, okay? - Well, no, no, no.
I'm worried that you're gonna have to put a leg.
- Yeah. - You know?
If you have to put a leg, you have to put a leg.
It's the way it is. - Being able to pull off
the cantilever is my number one goal.
- Thank you for having me in your space.
Thanks for showing me around.
It was very nice to meet you.
- Thank you. - Thank you, Scott.
- I'll see you guys. - Bye. Bye, Noel.
- Oh, God. - [laughs]
- You're aging both of us. What are you doing?
- [laughs] I know, right?
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- Rene, Rene.
- Hey, what's up?
- If I'm being very honest with you,
I was quite concerned when we walked in today.
I knew we had a lot of detail work.
That's the stuff that sucks up time.
- If I don't get the metal back on time to prove the design,
that it won't tip over, I'm screwed.
- I'm feeling, at this point of the process,
a little bit of pressure.
Yeah, this has to be sanded. - Yep.
- 'Cause you can see the tool path lines.
- Right. - I still have a lot to do.
- But, yeah. Time is of essence.
♪ ♪
- Today, we have to build this whole thing and get it ready,
because if the painter doesn't have this by tomorrow morning,
we're not gonna have anything done.
It's two days left in this challenge.
I'm feeling anxious to get started.
I'm feeling anxious to make some dust
and get these machines going on,
make some noise, and start gluing some parts together.
My name is Mark Grattan, and I live in Mexico City.
My brand is called VIDIVIXI.
It's Latin for "I saw, and I've lived."
It's basically an interpretation of me
taking my experiences
and using those to create the art that I express.
I've been in "Wallpaper Magazine."
I was in "Architectural Digest" three times.
I've been in "Surface Magazine" twice.
It's not often you find a Black guy like myself
in the top furniture publications in the world.
I feel responsible to speak up.
Winning is important, because Black people
are not represented in this industry.
I have to represent myself, my art,
my Blackness, and my gayness.
I have to win.
After I got the call from Ellen,
I knew I had to find a wood shop to use,
since I don't have one in Mexico City.
I called Will Fagan, one of my great friends.
He works out of a wood shop in Bucks County, PA.
We have an amazing facility. The sky is the limit.
What the [bleep]?
I don't know how to turn this on.
I have no idea.
No one ever showed me how to turn these machines on.
They're not on.
- No, they killed the power.
The electrical company shut the power off.
- Why? - Just now.
They have to work on something. - Are you kidding me?
- But we don't how long it's gonna be.
- Are you [bleep] kidding me?
But this is the shop. We need--we can't do--
that means everything is shut off?
[suspenseful music]
♪ ♪
- This either makes us or breaks us.
[mid-tempo music]
Well. - Surprise.
I went all-out
and decided to make a bench.
The single most important aspect of my piece
is that the stone and the wood fit together perfectly.
There's a handful of architects in my family,
and design and architecture have always been in my blood.
♪ ♪
I've designed stuff for the mayor of Los Angeles,
Megan Rapinoe, Jessica Alba.
I'm so happy that this is my life--
to design beautiful pieces of furniture.
I want to win this competition for my kids.
I want to win it for my wife. I know I'm capable.
I know I am that good.
And this is the perfect platform to prove it.
Wait, this thing doesn't fit.
What? What did we do wrong?
There's a problem. It doesn't fit.
The metal is gonna need to be cut,
and the top is gonna have to be routered.
It's gonna take time that I really can't afford to lose.
Okay, let's get to work. Enough of this.
I cannot fail on the first challenge.
Is there anything more embarrassing?
Okay, let's go.
[drill buzzing]
[mid-tempo music]
[dramatic music]
- Will! [laughs]
The [bleep]? The power is back.
In order for me to get back on track,
I'm gonna have to do a lot of scrambling
to get everything done.
[buzzing]
I'm gonna have to have everything assembled
before tomorrow morning.
And water.
[whirring]
♪ ♪
I will probably be here all night.
♪ ♪
- ♪ This was always my vision ♪
♪ Let me show you how I'm livin' ♪
- It's my last day of the challenge.
I gotta bring all the pieces together.
We are so close to having this piece done.
Well, I don't have much time,
and I have a handful of problems right now.
- The last day. I don't have much time.
All the pieces are here,
but I haven't seen them all together yet.
And so I just want to make sure that they fight perfectly.
We're so close. Oh, wait.
- Did it--did it just go in? - It just went in.
- Wait, really? - [laughs] Yes.
- This is right now. This is the biggest issue.
The wood has to come a little bit of an angle.
I'm spending hours going through a chiseling process
between the stone and the wood to make them fit together.
I decided to go the most difficult,
time-consuming route, but the rock
has to hug the wood
in perfect unison.
- It doesn't fit.
Will!
Shit.
It didn't fit, because the paint added thickness.
It's a lot to do.
I feel like I need two more days.
- Should we drill this? - Yeah.
[drill buzzing]
[dramatic music]
Yeah? Oh, shit.
Mats, what the [bleep] did you just do?
Get that out right now. Get that out.
We didn't have to go that [bleep] deep.
[bleep].
- The soapstone cracked.
- We should have just Starbonded it.
Oh, my God.
We have now one more thing to do,
on top of all the other finishing stuff we have to do.
We have to just let it sit.
- Slow, slow, slow, slow, slow, slow.
The first piece gets anchored to the stone,
and then we just stack the rest of them on top.
Ah. What are you doing?
- I'm aligning.
Push it down. - All we have to do is
make sure that it's level, and then we're set.
In high school, I would finish the tests
in, like, ten minutes
and then play games the rest of it.
Yeah, it's perfect. Now what?
- Now you walk away. - I'm done!
- We only have an hour left.
Gonna have to do some very fast sanding.
- We got this.
[upbeat music]
- When this fireplace is finished,
your eyes are gonna be drawn to this focal point.
We just need to handle
everything really carefully. Like, no breakages.
- Yeah. Boy, everything goes smooth.
- I'm stressed, but it's good stress.
I haven't gone into a negative cycle yet.
- How much time we got? - Not much.
- We never had the opportunity to assemble
these three materials
with these different finishes together.
This is new.
So there's a bit of stress here.
And there's no time to change it.
[dramatic music]
[saw buzzing]
♪ ♪
- I'm feeling the pressure. $100,000 at stake.
I'm trying to stay chill, but, like,
I can only stay so chill.
[drill grinding]
♪ ♪
- Do you think it's worth adding that?
- No. That looks so stupid.
- No, that's right. - No, it's not right.
- Here we go. - Let's go at it.
- Yep.
♪ ♪
- I'm very pleased with myself.
And now it's in the hands of the judges.
- Thank you. It got a little crazy
towards the end, but we did it.
I'm excited to see what the judges think.
- I have done everything I can to make this as perfect
and well-thought-out as possible.
- Okay. Done.
It looks okay, man. You did good, you did good.
[upbeat music]
♪ ♪
- Hey, hey. all: Hey.
- Hi.
- Welcome, you guys.
- Hey, guys. - How are you?
- Welcome. - Oh, my goodness.
How are you? - We're great.
- So good to see everyone in person.
- Yes, it absolutely is.
- Wow, you guys. all: Hi.
- Everybody's here. - Hey.
How are you guys? - Hi.
- Before we get into everything,
I want to introduce my fellow judges here.
So, designers, this is Brigette Romanek.
- Hi, hi.
- And on the other side of her, Fernando Mastrangelo.
all: Whoo! - Yes.
- Welcome, designers.
- Okay, so your first challenge
was to go back to the basics
and use the natural elements of wood and stone
to design a signature piece.
All right.
Alejandro, why don't we start with you?
Let's see your piece first. - Let's do it.
- The rest of you guys can go on backstage,
and Alejandro and I and Fernando and Brigette
will have a conversation. Thanks, guys.
- I am nervous,
but my bench is beautiful, and I trust it.
- When you saw that pallet
full of stone and the crate full of slabs,
what--what was your first thought?
- I mean, my first thought was, "Wow."
I got incredible materials...
- Mm-hmm. - That are primitive and raw.
And I wanted to honor them, most importantly.
- Well, what do you say we take a look at your piece?
- Yeah. - All right.
Let's light it up.
[music swells]
- The concept behind it is, "How true could it be
"to the original stone?
How true is it to the original slab?"
Though I chiseled both and made it stand
in a way that it shouldn't,
it tries to levitate, it tries to be weightless.
[suspenseful music]
- When I thought about this challenge, Alejandro,
I literally thought,
"I hope no one does a slab with a rock through it."
- Mm-hmm. - I feel like I've seen
this piece so many times.
What this piece is about
is that moment where the rock meets the wood.
A little bit rough around there, so for me,
the illusion of it is gone.
- I get that you've seen it before.
I think was an interesting choice,
but there is something really powerful about it,
because it's so simple.
- I absolutely like it. I could see this
in the middle of a big, wide open space,
and almost like if it were in a museum,
the title of it would be "Back to Basics."
- All right, well thank you, Alejandro.
We appreciate your time. - Thank you.
- We appreciate your piece. Thanks, man.
- I really wanted to wow all three judges.
I have Brigette on my side,
I have Scott in the middle,
and Fernando didn't like it at all.
And I'm nervous I could go home.
- Hi, Urvi. - Hi, Scott.
- Hello, hello. - I'm very excited to show
the judges my first piece.
I think it's relevant to who I am as a designer.
- Hi, Urvi. - Hi.
- Did you have a design idea right away?
- Absolutely not.
A part of going back to the basics
is that you have to let the material be.
- Yep. - I was listening
to the material and using it in the best way possible.
- Gotcha. Should we take a look?
- Yeah. - All right, let's light it up.
[sweeping music]
♪ ♪
- I decided to create an entryway table.
I weave personal narrative into designing an object.
What came to mind was a childhood game
that I used to play. You stack up seven stones.
So, all of the stones
that connect the top to the base are the maple.
♪ ♪
- You've made a sculpture.
It's a cool combination, leaving the live edge of this,
but then your mark-making
on the other stones. - Mm-hmm, yep.
- I would have this in my home.
- Just as a sculpture, just as a piece unto itself,
it is really beautiful. And listening to your
story--which is important to me,
'cause I do love pieces with soul.
- As a piece that goes up against a wall,
I would have maybe taken
one of the live edges and squared it off.
- I thought it added to the piece, and it really connected
the top and bottom, in terms of edge treatment.
- I think you did a really good job, Urvi.
Thank you so much. - Well done.
- Thanks for your time. - Thank you so much.
I'm feeling really happy
because I've set myself up as a contender.
- There she is. Hi, Arielle.
- Hi. - Hello.
- I'm super nervous.
But I'm so excited about my piece,
and I hope the judges love it.
- You know, when we're looking at these pieces,
I think, "Does the piece make a statement,
or does it move something in us emotionally?"
What do you think? Did your piece do any,
or all of those? - I hope so.
- Yeah? - I think so.
- Well, what do you say we take a look, huh?
- Sure, great. - All right.
- Let's get right to it. - Let's light it up.
[soft music]
♪ ♪
- I wanted to create something that's timeless,
so I chose to use primarily the two materials given--
the wood and the rock--
and add a little bit of hidden bling
that you have to kind of walk around to see.
There's a polished brass side
that has a bracket that holds the table in place,
and it also just really frames the rock itself.
- Look at that.
- Whoa. Ha.
- What you've done is you've taken
these back-to-basic materials
and made something so elegant.
It's absolutely beautifully done, every detail is there.
The creativity, the functionality,
all of these things that are important to me,
are in this table. I'm in love.
- You're in love? - Really?
- I'm in love.
- We're on that same thing
of the slab with the rock in it,
and I'm like-- - I understand.
- But there's something different about this one.
- It's scribed really well here.
- Yes. - You did a good job.
- That looks like a sheet of water,
and then this, you know, monolith is coming out of it.
That shows your chops as a designer, as a thinker.
I wish there wasn't a rock through a slab.
- But if there's got to be a rock through a slab,
this is the way-- - You've done the job.
- This is the way to do it. - Yeah, beautiful!
It's a good piece, Arielle. Thank you so much.
- Awesome, thank you. - You got it, have a good one.
You too. Brigette loves it.
Fernando loves it. Scott loves it.
I am so relieved.
- Alejandro made the same piece.
However, Arielle's craftsmanship was great.
- Looking at Alejandro,
it's a little bit of lack of craftsmanship.
- He should have scribed around the rock instead of cutting
in straight lines. - And we know that it can
be done-- - Yes, because Arielle
did a great job.
There she is. Hi, Christina.
- Hi. I chose a fireplace
because I've never made one before.
And now I'm thinking, "Oh, gosh,
"is this going to be okay?
Is this going to work for me?" I took a risk,
so that does make me a little bit nervous.
- Was this a challenge for you? I mean, is this--do you
usually work with big stones, large slabs of wood?
- When I saw the alabaster,
it was like a visceral--
like, "Yes, that's what I'm using."
I was quite adventurous in choosing a fireplace.
- All right, well, on that note,
let's--let's light it up.
[soft music]
- The reason why I chose a fireplace
is 'cause it's such an alive piece.
You know, you have the sound of the crackling fires.
You have sound. You have light.
You have all of these elements playing together.
And if you look at the alabaster,
you see all those beautiful patterns.
They actually emulate fire.
- Okay. - Oh, my gosh.
- Look at that.
I have never thought of this as furniture.
- This is architecture. This is interior design.
This is lighting, which is furniture.
There's nothing here that I don't love.
- No, me too! - Which is--you know--
- It's finished beautifully.
I love the raw materials,
how you matched the grain.
- She did not let up anywhere.
Anywhere your eye goes, it's done really beautifully.
- Thank you for showing it to us,
for making it and bringing it here.
I appreciate it. - Thanks.
It's so validating to be told that your piece is original.
It's a great way to start.
- Hey, man. - Well, hello.
- How are you, Paul? - The best-case scenario for me
is that the very first challenge, you know,
I just wow these very esteemed judges.
- So, wood slabs, stone-- are these materials
you're familiar with, comfortable with working with?
- It was a bit of a gut check for me.
It was like, "Holy cow, Ellen really put me
in a--you know, in a box on this one right here."
- Well, I'm excited to see what you built.
- We should take a look at it. - All right, let's light it up.
[soft music]
- You know, I picked out this slab,
and it had all of this character in it.
And I said, "This thing has got a story to tell."
It requires support.
Stone actually represents principles.
Well, it's not really a bench.
- Oh, shoot. - But that's okay.
That's okay, I hadn't thought about it like that.
But, you know, hey. It's a coffee table.
- Oh, it is? - Ah, see, I saw a bench.
- I saw a bench as well. - Yes.
It's a--it's a--it's a coffee table.
- We have seen a slab with a rock through it.
What we have not seen is
the rock with a slab through it.
And I think that's what differentiates your piece.
I love the angles here.
It's almost like a wing. - I like the piece.
It's, like, technically well-executed.
It looks like something that should be
in a catalogue already.
- But I'm struggling a little bit.
- Yeah. I'm not, like...
- I'm struggling. - Wowed by...it.
- I'm concerned
because this is definitely narrow.
There are--not rules, but there are some things
about, like, a coffee table that you're gonna make,
that really functions well.
Scale. Scale is important--
that it make sense for someone's home.
- You know, in a railroad apartment in New York,
this works really well. - There you go.
That's where it's going. - I appreciate
you showing it to us, making it and bringing it out.
- Thank you. - I appreciate it.
- Okay, does that mean I, uh-- - That's it, my friend.
- Exit? - Thanks, buddy.
All right, thank you. both: Thank you.
- I'm feeling very good about my work,
so I took it with a grain of salt.
I'm hoping that I did enough this week to make it
to the next challenge. It's a long road.
- Hi, Erica. - Hello.
- Hi, guys, what's up? - How's it going?
- I'm nervous, but I definitely want to wow
the judges immediately, I want them to see my hard work.
I think I really pulled it together quite nicely.
- All right. Let's light it up.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- I ended up deciding to make one piece
that's fully done by hand in my studio,
and the other piece exclusively done by machine.
By doing that, I used a 3D modeling program
to model both my forms
that were based off of sound waves of a forest fire
that happened at Big Basins, California.
- Oh, my goodness.
- Yo, I just want to say,
these are badass. - Thank you,
Fernando. - These are badass pieces.
- That means a lot. - They're doing something
that I think I've been wanting to see
through this competition so far.
They're unique.
- I love just the idea of turning sound waves
into a visual medium, right?
- Only issue with these...
is that they are not at my house.
- Wow. [laughter]
- Okay. - Because...
these are absolutely stunning.
- Okay, I definitely nailed this round.
I don't think this judging could get any better.
Thank you, judges. I appreciated it.
See you later.
♪ ♪
- Here he comes. - Hey, hey.
- Hello, hello. - Hey, Mark.
- I'm hoping the judges will think my piece is original
and thought-provoking.
- What was the most challenging thing for you?
- The power went out...
- What? - For, like, half the day.
- Yeah, but, you know, you gotta roll
with the punches. - I like your attitude.
You gotta roll with the punches.
You do, indeed. Well, we're excited
to see what you built. - Okay.
- All right, light it up.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- This was sort of my way
of communicating the fact that,
like, yes, we might be different colors,
but we still can fit together.
And one of the other concepts I have for this piece
is sort of my emotional state.
So, I have these expressions on this form.
It is a side table.
- This is really, really a memorable piece.
- I immediately felt like this
is a kind of piece that you would find at a retail store.
Like, it's lacking a bit of luxury aspect to it.
I would love to see it on the ground.
- It's really fun. On either side of a kid's bed.
You know? That just would be so joyous.
- Why didn't you make two, by the way?
[dramatic musical sting] - The color, for me,
I don't love, and I'm missing the stone.
- Well, it's the eyes. - No, I see that.
- Right. - I see this is the stone,
and you milled it down, and you--
it fits beautifully in there.
I don't know. I want more of the stone
because it was--stone and the wood, the slab.
- It's like a very contemporary language.
And-- - Jesus, mother.
- All right, well, that makes me a little nervous.
- Yeah, that would make me nervous as well.
- You know, there's some issues with the craftsmanship.
- Mm-hmm. - I'll be honest.
I'm not sure how I feel about it.
But Mark, thank you so much
for showing it to us. We appreciate it.
- Yeah. - Yep, thank you.
Emotionally, I think I'm just flat-out disappointed.
I fudged it up.
I think I might go home.
[upbeat music]
♪ ♪
- Hi, guys. - Hello.
- Hey, designers. - Hi.
- Designers, if you guys were trying
to not make this easy on us, congratulations.
You did a great job.
You know, this first challenge was a tough one,
not just for you guys, but for us,
because you all delivered incredible design.
There were three of you
that really knocked it out of the park.
That was Arielle,
Urvi, and Erica.
Congratulations, you guys.
- Thank you. - Congratulations.
- Now, the hard part.
There were two of you that came up a little short this week.
- Alejandro.
We know that you are an incredible designer.
Again, we have slab and stone.
But the originality wasn't there,
and the craftsmanship really wasn't there.
And that's something that I have to think about intensely
before I put it in front of a client.
- Mark.
I love that you did something original.
That was the best part of the piece.
The problems with the piece were the execution
of the craftsmanship.
It just is not to the level that we
expect from this competition.
- Unfortunately, it is a competition.
Someone has to go home.
This week...
we're sending Alejandro home.
♪ ♪
Thank you so much for your time here.
- Thank you. - You're a great designer.
- Yeah. - I'm so sorry.
Someone has to go first. I'm so sorry it's you.
But we appreciate your time and everything you've given
to this competition. - Thank you.
Thank you. - Thank you.
- ♪ It's been fun ♪
- Completely shocked by this.
It's devastating to go home,
because I put everything I had
on this competition.
I gave it everything. - ♪ Start a new war ♪
♪ Hear the march of hearts beating ♪
♪ I can't seem to breathe in ♪
- But I get to go back to what is an incredible family
and keep doing what I do,
which is, I get to go back and design tomorrow.
♪ ♪
- Mark, we actually really respect
that you took a big swing,
that you did something original.
Um, I just hope that next week,
your piece is a little bit more successful.
- You guys just put a lot of fire under my ass.
- Good, man. I'm glad to hear it.
- [laughs] In the best way.
- Good. - Listen,
we know we design for hours and hours,
and I go to see a client, and they'll go,
"Oh, I hate it."
And that's what we do.
But here's the thing. We have to use it as fuel.
- Yeah. - You know,
if you're passionate about what you're doing,
it is only gonna make you better.
- Thank you, guys.
♪ ♪
- Anyway.