Atlantic Avenue Welcomes Another Design Studio and Gallery

The moment you walk through the door of Signum Collective Art Studio and Retail Gallery, you know you have entered a creative space that transcends the average boxed in neighborhood storefront – you feel, in fact, as though you have walked directly into a Constructivist painting, surrounded by walls and a ceiling of every degree but 90.

Run by husband and wife team Gassan and Gada Noayhad, the gut-renovated space features an architecture and interior design consulting studio in back, as well as a collective art retail gallery and showroom in front.

The couple began Signum Collective Architecture in Beirut in 2006 and expanded it to Brooklyn in 2007 as Signum Design Consultants. They are now bringing their vision and skill to Atlantic Avenue in Boerum Hill - this time with the addition of the Signum Collective Art Gallery - a new venture for them.

Together (she’s the interior design mind, he the architect), through Signum studio, they collaborate to offer affordable design consulting - from redesigns, remodeling, concept designs, redecorating, restyling and custom special events or décor settings – for your home, apartment, office, retail store or restaurant.

“I believe, psychologically, when you change something, it gives you a boost,” explains Gada.

“We accommodate everyone’s budget,” she added. “You can put together a nice package, and not always with a high budget."

Indeed, in addition to their commitment to affordability, the Noayhads also aim to “service all kinds of tastes and styles.” You certainly get the sense that they will, with great passion and sincerity, accommodate their client’s varying sensibilities.

The common thread among the range of styles: “a high-scale standard,” says Gassan.

The addition of the gallery serves both as a traditional retail art space as well as a resource for the design studio, including customization of designs directly with the artists.

A collective and collaborative art space, Signum Gallery features many aspects of design language – furniture, ceramics, jewelry, photography, glasswork and industrial design. The design items range from classical, to mid-50s, to modern, to a “new generation of work.”

“Promoting new artists is very important,” Gada expressed.

In fact, the gallery will have monthly exhibitions of new work, beginning next month with Brooklyn-based photographer Kathleen Creighton.

“I want people to come in and enjoy the exhibit," explained Gassan. "I want the space to be inviting."

Notable pieces currently on display in the gallery are the” Color Therapy” theme works by Nada Debs, a Lebanese artist who studied at the Rhode Island School of Design and currently is exhibited in Paris. Her “Pebble Table,” made up of brightly colored, pebble-shaped tabletops, is connected by joints and actually folds into one. It is whimsical (it reminds me of the colored metal keys of a child’s xylophone), and at the same time utterly sophisticated in its design.

Another artist worthy of mention is Canadian Kino Guerin, whose twisted, wooden “Why Knot” table is deliciously delightful. Check out the similar concept wall shelves to accommodate a smaller budget.

I asked the Noayhads if, with both of their equally impressive backgrounds, they always see eye-to-eye collaborating together on designs.

“Oh no,” laughed Gada. “But I think when we clash it’s to the benefit of the client.”

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Join Signum Collective Art Studio and Retail Gallery for their opening on Saturday, June 3 from 6 - 8 p.m.

373 Atlantic Avenue

(718) 499-5058

contact@signum-ny.com