The humble work desk gets an artistic upgrade

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The average person spends some eight hours a day at work, and for many people, most of those hours involve sitting at a desk.

Desks have traditionally been blank slates—less a statement of design aesthetic and personality than a piece of purposefully functional furniture. Chassie is hoping to change that.

The Bronx, New York-based based company just launched a line of locally-produced desks that come with limited edition designs emblazoned up top. Statement surfaces aside, Chassie’s desks, designed in collaboration with New York studio FriendsOf, are also distinguished by aluminum legs extruded in the shape of an “X”.

Desk with cobalt blue legs in white walled room.

Chassie is launching with five collections, including a grayscale, loosely Art Deco-inspired design from Milton Glaser, the legendary designer of I ❤️ NY fame; that piece will sell for $1,350 in a limited series of 73.

Gray rectangular desk with diamond pattern up top. — Milton Glaser’s design for Chassie.

The Originals collection features desktops designed by 13 NYC artists, including a doodle-like design from artist Steph Stilwell and a neon-bright number from illustrators Jeremy Nguyen and Aubrey Nolan, with each going for $950.

The product line is rounded out with the Elements collection featuring explorations of light and dark ($1,350), the Four Seasons collection featuring ultra-detailed patterns ($2,350), and Color Coated, a more pared back line of simple walnut desktops with vibrant colored legs ($899).

“The brief was a sort of no-brief brief. We told the artists the aspect ratio (2:1), what their work would be used for, and that they would be getting one for their own homes,” says Chassie founder Andrew Daines. “As a new medium (the desktop) we didn’t mandate that the works be a pattern or follow any particular guidelines.”

All of the desktops come with wireless charging (just drop your phone and go) and come with a lucite tray that floats underneath the top surface. The tops themselves are built from Baltic birch plywood UV-printed with ink. And the finishing gloss on the desks mean you can take a dry erase marker to them—not that you’d really want to.