In Daniel Arsham’s new drafting table, Caliper props the analogue and the mechanical

When it comes to creative production, there is only so much that the mind can conjure in the imagination. After a point, one needs to act: not to produce, but to test, observe and refine. The act of drawing often serves this purpose for artists, designers and even architects, wherein what is drawn—scribbled, hatched, stippled or illustrated—is a medium of exploration rather than the finished product; the beginning of a dialogue between the hand and the mind, imagination and reality. It is a rather necessary methodology of producing through iterations, of refinement through the act of continually producing something. This idea of drawing as a tool for exploration rather than a medium of production has always been integral to the creative workflow for American artist and designer Daniel Arsham. Often turning to sketching in graphite and charcoal to refine his ideas of a ‘fictional archaeology’, he commissioned the Madrid-based industrial design and fabrication studio, Caliper, to engineer for him a bespoke drafting table.  

Arsham, famous for his interpretation of the present as a ‘relic for the future’, is a visual artist who has worked with a range of international brands such as Nendo for Break to Make at the Milan Design Week (MDW) 2023; Hublot for their horological land art Light & Time; and Kohler for their MDW 2022 showcase, Divided Layers, awarded the Fuorisalone Award that year. Across a career ranging from set design, architecture, sculpture, fashion and painting, he has always found himself approaching drawing as ‘preparation’, a formative part of his creative process; a trait he attributes to his training at the Cooper Union in New York. The drafting table, hence, is essentially conceived as a large, smooth base to support this ritual of honing an idea on paper before detailing it in three dimensions.

The design scheme for the drafting table dwells on Arsham’s love for the analogue, the toolkit and the process—all mediums that resonated with Caliper’s founder, Quinner Baird. Conforming to its chief utility, the table includes a backlit drawing surface mounted with an adjustable arm, attached at the back through a flexible sliding mechanism, extending to hold a magnifying lamp—an essential piece of equipment, especially for some of Arsham’s smaller but intricately detailed drawings. The drawing board is accompanied with enough storage compartments—for paper, charcoal and other tools—as is customary for an artist’s toolkit. The storage panel also integrates controls for lights and the ever-important charging ports.

The design of the table carries a kind of mechanical, industrial yet polished aesthetic appreciated by those who thrive on the nostalgia of the process. It is perhaps this fascination that kept chunky mechanical keyboards alive even when technology had evolved to receive inputs from a projection on a flat surface. The legs are made of slender metal strips, their flat sides supported with stiffeners visible out front, lending them an intentionally bulky look and visually reinforcing the feeling of stability before it is physically experienced. The mechanism for the height and slope adjustments for the drawing board—supporting multiple working stances across sitting and standing—is left entirely exposed, from the gears to the winders. Only the mechanical knobs that adjust the tilt of the drawing surface are branded with Arsham’s monogram.

The table was made in parts, manufactured with precision in CNC-machined aluminium and processed with the studio’s signature bead-blasted anodised finish. These parts were then assembled in-house at Caliper’s studio in Madrid and shipped to Arsham’s studio in New York City. With their expertise in industrial design, Caliper strived to wrap the artist’s apparatus as well as stage his process in a shared admiration for the mechanical. As the drawings find their value in iteration and exploration, the drafting table, too, then, stands as a witness to these experiments or as a catalyst.