Wade and Leta: »We don’t want things to live on a phone – we want the real deal«

Wade and Leta met on OkCupid, a dating app for lonely hearts, where Leta announced in her profile: “If you don’t know who Josef Müller-Brockmann is, I won’t talk to you”. Wade knew, and ever since then the two designers, art directors and sculptors are an in­separable duo, creating works as adventurous, col­or­ful and bright as they are themselves. They built scul­ptures for New York City’s Seaport District that are inspired by the motion of algae and seaweed, cre­a­ted thrilling, Eames-spirited campaigns for Herman Miller or playgrounds for grown-ups to party on. About to head to Mexico City, where the two
of them will be exploring for the next weeks, they ­talked to us about the rhythm of colors and design as a performance – and why they are sending text messages to each other even when they are sitting
at the same desk. 

As soon as you fell in love with each other you started working together, which is reflected in your famous series Complements. Was that your way of getting into collabo­rative work?
Wade: Already on our first date we quickly estab­lished that we both really love what we do and that it is a big part of what we are as individuals. Not that we’re obsessed with work, but we’re obsessed with cre­ation and making things. I think for a lot of couples traveling is the crucial test for their relationship. But we weren’t worried about that. For us it was if we could really bring us as individuals together into one true homogenous kind of creative world. Making Complements was a way to figure out whether and how we could work together. But mostly it was to ­visualize the growth of our relationship in abstract and sometimes silly ways.

»Not that we’re obsessed with work, but we’re obsessed with creation and making things«

– Wade