DANIEL HELLMAN AND ERIC CHANG EMBODY THE “BROOKLYN RENAISS ANCE” MOVEMENT WITH THEIR BUSHWICK-BASED LUXURY FURNITURE EMPIRE

by Catherine Gigante-Brown

Friends since the sixth grade, Eric Chang and Daniel Hellman’s trajectory towards visionary local furniture designers and builders began in math class.

“We did a lot of school projects together, so we knew we liked working together,” Chang recalled. “At an early age, we both had an interest in art and design, and taught ourselves old-fashioned woodworking in Dan’s father’s garage.”

Chang went on to study finance and marketing at NYU—and helped start a marketing and advertising agency. Hellman studied classical guitar at Northwestern. “After college, we rented out an old wood shop in Bushwick that we found on Craigslist,” said Chang. “We went there every weekend and after work, and sold the pieces we made to friends and family.”

Fifteen years later, Hellman-Chang pieces have earned coveted spots in Sex and the City 2, Gossip Girl and The Today Show, not to mention places of honor in high-end hotels like The Setai, The Ritz Carleton and The Four Seasons, with a style that can be best described as organic and sleek, and in which the negative space is as important as the positive.

“You’ll find our furniture in hotel lobbies and presidential suites,” firm cofounder Chang added. “We even did benches for the Mandarin Oriental in Manhattan. We sent our Z pedestal table to Interior Design Magazine’s ‘Best of the Year’ competition and ended up winning an award. Then the Four Seasons Hotel in Seattle asked us to redesign it for them as a round table. Dan and I quit our day jobs then, and haven’t looked back since.”

Both self-taught, Chang explained that the partners don’t work with templates. “Much of our creative process is based on emotion,” he said. “When we have that ‘Aha!” moment about a piece, we know others will be moved by it, too.”

Private clients include celebrities, Fortune 500 CEOs, and others with an appreciation for artisanal, hand-made furniture with a bold, elegant aesthetic. There’s also a certain sense of movement in Hellman-Chang pieces—one of grace, along with a tactile quality. Their furniture is like functional sculpture, and the warm, sensual patina encourages touch.

All the duo’s pieces are crafted in a recently-expanded 16,000-square-foot studio in Bushwick, just a few blocks from their original 50-foot shop. The streamlined operation employs approximately a dozen craftspeople who create close to 1,000 units each year. “Staying lean and flexible has helped us grow successfully and maintain a high-quality product,” said Chang.

Hellman is the business’s production manager and technical designer, while Chang generally works with salespeople and visits clients and showrooms (13 and counting). Their wares are shown across the United States (including New York and Boston); here in the city, the work can be seen at the Bright Group in the New York Design Center at 200 Lexington Avenue.

When asked to name his favorite piece, Chang is torn between the Avery Chair and Z pedestal table. “The Avery was four years in development,” he said. “Dan and I wanted to make a statement that defined Hellman-Chang in one piece, and that was it, but the Z table put us on the map.” There’s a Z side table in the one-on-one interview area of the Today Show set and Z bedside tables in Carrie and Big’s bedroom in Sex and the City 2.

For season two of Gossip Girl, Hellman-Chang did a major piece which was part of the permanent set. “And last season,” Chang said with pride, “we were called in to do Elizabeth Hurley’s conference table in the [Gossip Girl scripted] The Spectator’s office.”

It was a defining moment when the 10-foot dining table was written into the show. “Someone said, ‘Oooh, is that a Hellman-Chang table?’” Chang said with a grin. “There was even a moving crate with our logo. It was a first in the industry— product placement for a furniture designer.”

Being featured in film and television strengthened the brand’s association with style, fashion, and pop culture. It wasn’t long before Showtime asked them to design and build a table for the dining room in their series The Tudors—partnering them with legendary designer Piero Lissoni. “It moves you to a different area of recognition,” Chang added.

As for their celebrity clients, the co-owner couldn’t name names: “Let’s just say that I’m surprised and humbled by the people we get to meet and create pieces for.”

On the immediate horizon for the pair is a collection of seating and a new sofa, which they’ll introduce in the near future. “Our brand is going to allow us to put our hands into all different elements of the home, from lighting to textiles,” said Chang. “We also have some interesting co-branded partnerships in the works. Only in our seventh year, we’re growing exponentially.”

Hellman-Chang
509 Johnson Avenue / 212.875.0424 / hellman-chang.com