Celeste Fernandez lives in a more modern community so when tasked with creating a collection rooted in the past, she turned to memory for inspiration. Specifically, her grandmother's apartment that was filled with ornate objects, vintage brass, and a world of textures that made her want to feel everything in the room. That became the foundation for The Historical Collection: Residence Supply's first in-house design collection. In conversation with me, Celeste breaks down how she translated those impressions into beautiful pieces that feel timeless, while being impossible to ignore.
Kennyatta: So it’s good to finally meet you—officially. We had that quick moment on WhatsApp, but this is better.
Celeste: Yeah, this is great.
Kennyatta: I have a few questions prepared, but they’re really straightforward and I think you’ll enjoy them too. Nothing too crazy. First, tell me about CF Studio and your origin story as a designer?
Celeste: I’ve been drawing since I was a kid. I literally didn’t play with toys or dolls, I just drew and painted all the time. I think I was the best kid ever because my parents just left me there and would come back and I’d be busy drawing. So choosing something creative was always natural for me.
When I found industrial design, which in Argentina isn’t as well known as a career, it just clicked. It combines creativity with engineering, and that balance was really exciting. Even now, I still draw and paint for fun. I never lost that part.
Kennyatta: What pulled you toward the engineering side? A lot of creatives avoid that.
Celeste: It keeps me grounded. If you’re a creative person, it’s easy to fly away all the time, at least for me. If I don’t have something to keep me grounded, I just like, fly away with my creativity.That’s why I love the tough parts of the career: mathematics, physics, engineering, all of those keep me connected to reality. Without that, you might design something incredibly beautiful, but can’t physically exist.
So for me, that balance is everything.
Kennyatta: Did you go to school for it?
Celeste: Yes, here in Argentina at the Universidad Nacional de Rosario. It’s a five-year program that teaches you everything: sketching, technical drawing, mechanics, engineering.
Some classes are super creative and let you be completely free to fly away with your imagination, and others force you into structure. You need both.
Kennyatta: Did you have a favorite class?
Celeste: Morphology.
It really pushes you to think outside the box. I remember one time they gave us a very free project where you can do whatever you want. I don’t know how I ended up with this idea, but I ended up creating this small, beautiful cube of mirrors that reflected light in darkness; it was so cool. And then I showed it to my professor and they said, “This is great… but you made a cube.”
After that, I never made a cube again haha. If you look at my work now, it’s very far from that.
Kennyatta: I’m putting that in the story haha.
Kennyatta: At Residence Supply, we’ve been using the phrase “made for gathering.” When you hear that, what comes to mind? What jumps out at you?
Celeste: I immediately think of people together, friends, family, all laying together, relaxing and having, I don’t know, a popcorn and watching a movie. That’s my kind of made for gathering atmosphere.
Kennyatta: For me, gathering always includes food, lots of laughs, and big groups. My family’s Trinidadian, so that’s pretty much the recipe every time.
Celeste: Same here. Always food, always drinks.
This mate right here, this is made for gathering. Argentinians are made for gather haha.
Kennyatta: haha I’m definitely quoting that.
Kennyatta: Let’s talk about The Historical Collection. What inspired it? And I have to ask, this grandmother story… is that real?
Celeste: It’s real.
When I started designing the collection, I struggled at first. I live in a very modern city, so historical aesthetics weren’t something I saw every day. So I started thinking and trying to get inspired in my head by things I’ve seen before or think of things that made me think of that “historical” feeling.
Then I thought about my grandmother’s home. She lived in one of the oldest buildings in my city. Everything there: the brass chandeliers with super detailed patterns and textures, trays, jars, was detailed, heavy, and textured. You could feel it. You wanted to touch everything.
That was where my mind stayed when designing the collection.
So I wanted to create pieces that felt like that. Pieces that felt like sculptures that were made into light and having the same attention to details like in my grandmother’s home; that and the arches and vertical lines of columns that represented past architecture.
Kennyatta: Was that feeling specific to this collection, or is it part of everything you design?
Celeste: It’s been strongest in this collection, but it’s always there.
I want people to feel something with every product. Sometimes it’s more playful, sometimes more sculptural, but the goal is always connection and moment of joy.
Kennyatta: What’s the one feeling you want people to have when they see your work, especially in this collection?
Celeste: A wow moment.
I didn’t want to design something that just lights a room. I wanted people to stop, linger five minutes just to look at it, that’s why I put so much detail into the collection. I once had a Chief Designer that told me “You should be able to see a product from far away and it be interesting enough that it draws you closer to inspect it.”
From far away, this collection should catch your eye. Up close, it should reveal more, and then more again.
That opportunity for discovery, that’s the goal.
Kennyatta: That reminds me of the fashion industry. You see something styled from afar, then you want to touch it, feel the fabric, then see it move, and just like that, it stops being just a jacket or a dress.
Celeste: Exactly.
I learned that when I was designing cars.
Kennyatta: Wait, you designed cars?
Celeste: Haha, for two years, yes.
Kennyatta: Okay, what’s your favorite car?
Celeste: I have many. But you know the Bugatti 57? It’s an old Bugatti really but I love that car. You see it from the outside and you have a wow moment, but then you get closer and you have like three more wow moments together.
Kennyatta: That’s incredible. What carries over from car design into lighting?
Celeste: Designing for the five senses.
So when you see The Historical Collection for example, I didn’t just design for how it looks, but how it feels, how it sounds. The texture is there because I want you to enjoy touching them. Think of the Residence Supply Dimmers, you turn it on and it clicks, you hear that sound and that all adds to the customer’s experience with the product.
In cars, every detail matters. That’s what I’d say I bring into designing lighting.
Kennyatta: When someone brings one of the fixtures from this collection into their home, what do you hope they feel?
Celeste: That they bought a piece of art.
These aren’t just common light fixtures. These are main character pieces that you can just put into your room and it becomes a highlight for your house.
Kennyatta: What makes it an art piece?
Celeste: The form and the movement.
These are also very unique products. You can put a picture of them on Pinterest and you won’t find anything like them elsewhere.
Also, we produce them in limited quantities. That makes them even more special.
Kennyatta: Okay, fun question. If you could only keep one piece from the collection and were banned from owning any of the rest, what would it be?
Celeste: That’s painful haha.
But I’d keep the Circa Lucis pendant. It’s versatile, you can place it anywhere, and when I saw it in person, I fell in love.
Kennyatta: Twenty years from now, someone’s grandchildren see these pieces in their home. What do you hope they feel?
Celeste: The same thing I felt in my grandmother’s home.
I hope they’re curious and want to touch the product, and it becomes synonymous with great memories at their grandparent's home.
If the object becomes part of that memory, then I’ve done my job.
