In a world where emerging designers often struggle to break through the noise, the Designers’ Residency by New York-based Colony offers something invaluable and rare: time, space, and meaningful support. As a cooperative gallery, design studio, and strategy firm, Colony has long championed independent American design. Through the Residency led by Colony founder Jean Lin and Art Director Madeleine Parsons, it extends that ethos to the next generation of designers. Now in its third year (see 2023 and 2024), the 8-month intensive Residency program provides early-career studios with mentorship, subsidized shop space, hands-on gallery experience, and the chance to debut their work to the international design community.
The 2025 cohort introduces three standout studios to the Colony roster: Another.World, Studio B.C. Joshua, and MTM Studio. Each brings a unique point of view, rooted in storytelling, material exploration, and expressive form.
Another.World
The collaborative studio of artist-designer Youtian Duan and visual storyteller Yingxi Ji, Another.World reimagines the relationship between humans, inanimate objects, and nature with an imaginative theme. Their debut collection, From Elsewhere, introduces a whimsical cast of characters: the Love Seat as a silent confidante, the Treasure Box as a keeper of memory and secrets, and the Portal Clock as a playful trickster that guides through space and time. Each piece blends fantasy with function, inviting us to see furniture not as static objects, but as emotional companions with unique personalities.
Another.World
Another.World
Youtian Duan and Yingxi Ji of Another.World
Studio B.C. Joshua
Studio B.C. Joshua’s Minneapolis-born designer Blake C. Joshua’s Harlem Cottage collection is a nod to the cabin culture of his Minnesota upbringing and the design traditions of the African diaspora. Through sculptural seating, hand-painted tables, and light fixtures inspired by the Harlem Renaissance, Joshua honors Black history with thoughtful detail and artistic expression. Works like the Vincent Chair and Dogtrot Table balance structure with soul, while evoking visual languages shaped by hair patterns, quilting, and Southern architecture. The result is a narrative-rich collection that offers an intimate, tactile reflection on identity and belonging in American culture.
Studio B.C. Joshua
Studio B.C. Joshua
Blake C. Joshua of Studio B.C. Joshua
MTM Studio
Last but not least, Brooklyn-based designer Maxwell Taylor-Milner of MTM Studio brings a meditative approach to material and form. Influenced by their background in art history, childhood in rural northern New Mexico, and work experience at the Donald Judd’s Chianti Foundation in Marfa, Texas, Taylor-Milner’s Recent Relics collection is a study in elemental transformation. Each object expresses a single material and its defining property, from the luminous cast resin SPE Lamp to the sandcast CGB Mirror and charred pine VDB Desk. Resilient and quiet, the works speak to the elemental effects of nature and the lasting impression that leaves on a single object.
MTM Studio
MTM Studio
Maxwell Taylor-Milner of MTM Studio
The Designers’ Residency continues to affirm Colony’s role as both incubator and advocate for American design, giving emerging designers a platform to tell their stories and the tools to support and evolve their careers. With Another.World, Studio B.C. Joshua, and MTM Studio, the 2025 edition not only reflects the diversity of American design today, but offers a glimpse into its exciting future.
To learn more about the Designers’ Residency by Colony, visit goodcolony.com.
Photography courtesy of Colony.
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