After receiving a Masters in Industrial Design from the Pratt Institute, Harry Allen worked for Prescriptives Cosmetics designing counters and point-of-purchase displays. With the ideas he developed in his Master’s thesis and on the job, Allen opened a studio and produced a line of furniture called “Living Systems” which he showed at New York’s International Contemporary Furniture Fair in 1993. Today his furniture is in production with a variety of clients including Habitat, Dune, and Magis.
From the beginning, Harry Allen’s work has been recognized with honors and awards. He won the Fashion Group International’s Rising Star Award in the area of interior design, the Brooklyn Museum of Art’s Modernism/Young Designer Award, and Interiors magazine’s George Nelson Design Award for innovation in lighting. Three of his projects were selected for the Denver Museum of Art’s “US Design 1975-2000” exhibition and subsequently acquired by the Museum. His design of the Aveda Uruku lipstick packaging won the International Package Design Award, a Bronze IDEA Award, and Design Distinction in ID magazine’s 2004 Design Review. His Kila desk lamp also received Honorable Mention in ID’s 2004 Design Review. In 2006, he again won the International Package Design Award, the Bronze IDEA Award, and Design Distinction in ID magazine’s 2007 Design Review for the solid fragrance compact for Target’s Sonia Kashuk cosmetics line.
Harry says...
‘’Gaia&Gino is a design company with a capital ‘D’. There are so many conflicting forces in product development today it is hard to keep focused on design, but Gaye Cevikel has a commitment to bringing the best design to life. She does this with style and love, and I am very happy to be working with her. Gino, on the other hand, is a lazy dog and he never returns my calls.”
