Leonie Lacouette manages to strike a balance between concepts and influences that otherwise might seem like polar opposites-her elegant clocks successfully reconcile the strict geometries of Minimalism with a warm, approachable palette of colored patinas on the copper and nickel that predominate her designs. Created from a basic language of circles, squares, ovals, and rectangles, the clocks are not only beautiful, but often playful as well. In one design, the otherwise hidden movement of the pendulum swings gently back and forth, revealed by a perfectly circular hole punched through the face of the piece to create a dynamic (and unexpected) game of 'hide-and-seek'.

Working from her rural studio in upstate New York, Lacouette contrasts her life today with her youth, spent growing up in mid-town Manhattan. "I like the simplicity of my current work's design. Coming from Manhattan, everything was go-go-go, always accumulating more stuff-stuff-stuff, having lots of things. It feels great to have something simple and beautiful, a style that I can call my own."