California has always had its own design language — born out of post-war optimism, cheap land, open space, and a belief that good design shouldn't be reserved for people with money.
Jay Novak started buying and restoring modernist pieces out of his apartment in Santa Monica, and never really stopped. Today, Modernica makes some of the most recognizable furniture in the world. You've sat in their chairs without knowing it — in lobbies, coffee shops, homes you've scrolled past on Instagram. But Jay isn't just running a furniture company. He's one of the last people standing who actually understands why durable design matters — not as a business model, but as a lived philosophy.
What he's done with Modernica — quietly, without a lot of noise — is keep that thread alive.
Brian Gold
Where are we today? Can you tell me a little bit about this space?
Jay Novak
We are in a space above where we build fiberglass chairs, in a poured concrete building that was a prototype in 1948 for tilt-up buildings. It was built by the man who invented — or one of the people who invented — this process of building tilt-up buildings. So it's a Bauhaus-inspired building. We built this studio to have meetings and to hang out with artists, collaborators, and anybody that we like, actually.
Brian Gold
It's such a beautiful space — nice and open, beautiful natural light.
Jay Novak
It's an example of good architecture. Even though this was built as an industrial building, it has diffused light everywhere — lots of windows and ventilation. The people who built this campus about 80 years ago were architecturally astute. Thankfully.
Brian Gold
Can you tell me a little bit about where and how you grew up?
Jay Novak
I grew up in Omaha, Nebraska. Very good schools, good neighborhoods, nice people — very Midwest, with severe weather. I guess a significant thing about where I grew up is that I spent a lot of time at small airports. I was active in all the typical kids' sports and school, but I grew up around small planes. Airplanes are one of the most functional, beautiful objects that humans have created that aren't just fine art. So that was a big influence on me — seeing airplanes taken apart and put back together, flying in them, traveling in them, seeing how the instruments work, learning what makes an airplane fly. This was a big influence starting from when I was maybe five years old.
Brian Gold
Was that your father's passion?
Jay Novak
It was. Other than work and family, his application was as a pilot. He lived and breathed airplanes when he wasn't doing other family things.
Brian Gold
Do you know how to fly?
Jay Novak
I do. I've been a pilot for 50 years.
Brian Gold
Do you fly out of Santa Monica?
Jay Novak
I don't fly anymore — I have other things that take up my time. And flying in the Midwest is a very casual kind of thing. There are little airports all over; you can just take off, you don't have to worry about much. Flying in the Santa Monica and Los Angeles area is very intense and critical — and expensive.
Brian Gold
You were raised in the great outdoors, with lots of beautiful architecture and airplanes. What made you interested in design in the first place? Did that happen early on?
Jay Novak
I really didn't know I was interested in design. I found unusual cars, unusual buildings, and especially airplanes to be intriguing. As it happened, somebody designed those things — they didn't just pop out of a toaster. So it was pretty organic, and I didn't know I was interested in design until many, many years later. When I was very young, my father took me to car races, and we went to one in Wisconsin. A man named Bill Mitchell was there with some very unusual, futuristic cars. As it turns out, he was the chief designer at General Motors for about 20 years, and he really changed the look of cars permanently — everywhere. I met him as a little kid, around 13 or 14. I realized at that time there was a human being behind these emanations of incredible machinery. That got me interested in studying design — not as a formal student, but just as an individual.
Brian Gold
So would you say you were more self-taught? You didn't necessarily go to school for design?
Jay Novak
Well, I studied political science and philosophy, if that counts. As far as formal design training — none. And when we're on that subject, at our factory I'm finding that the people most conducive to becoming designers are those who have studied a craft for decades — maybe even grew up in a family that does upholstery, let's say, or woodworking. They learn proportion, line, flow, and structure — not in school, but just from long-term experience with building things. I envy them, because I don't have any great skills in a craft. The craft itself is a great teacher.
Brian Gold
Absolutely. I think that's part of why I'm so excited to talk to you today, because so much of our world — at least in my world — is based on the digital. There does seem to be a loss of craft. And when I encounter Modernica, there's this care of craft, this mastery, even the apprenticeship within your departments — which are more like families and cultures with their own skills. It's something I really admire about the work and the business and the culture you've cultivated here. Can you speak a little bit about how things are organized here, from raw materials through to the finished furniture?
Jay Novak
Each department is its own culture. The upholsterers are artists of a sort — they're completely separated from the other shops, typically quiet and concentrated and focused. The fiberglass department, the wood department, the assembly department — they're all separated, and they have an inherent culture, and they create more of it and build relationships within that. But everything starts with a design. It can be on a scrap of paper, a cocktail napkin. From that idea, it can turn into a CAD drawing, and then three-dimensional models — cardboard, plywood, papier-mâché, it doesn't really matter — just to see it three-dimensionally. That can be a pretty intensive process of more drawings and more models. Once we have a finalized drawing, the departments have input. We're going to need a fabric that does this. We're going to need wood with this characteristic. We're going to need metal parts we don't have — we'll have to fabricate those. So it's a very involved process.
Brian Gold
So you come up with an idea or a prototype and you get input from all those departments to see how it can be built out. And you have trusted leaders in each department?
Jay Novak
Oh, yeah. Did you meet Miguel in the upholstery department? His father worked here, and his son works here. It's just ingrained in them. Is there any other company in Los Angeles — or California — that has three generations of apprenticeship and mastery? I don't know, but the companies that have that are companies with long legs and long lives.
Brian Gold
Modernica has been in business for over 30 years. Can you tell me how you got started — how did you translate an interest in design into an actual business operation?
Jay Novak
I had an apartment in Santa Monica, and I had bought some cowboy furniture. It didn't take long for me to get tired of it — it was pretty cool and well made, but it was cowboy furniture. So I started buying some modernist furniture. I was raised around modernist architecture and furniture, which I was very fortunate for in that respect. All of a sudden it was very expensive, or relatively expensive. And I'm looking at it, taking it apart, restoring it, and seeing where the problems lie — joints that aren't well made, things that could be improved. I realized I could make these things. Not easily, but they're not that complicated. If you go back to the late '80s, there was a big interest in Los Angeles in modernism, and prices were getting relatively high. So we started making a few things — I started dealing in vintage items and restoring them first. Finding out how they were made, taking them apart and putting them back together, I started to get an idea of the mental process the designers may have been going through. At least I imagined that. And that was some of my training.
Brian Gold
That's such a great way to start. When I look at your designs, the structural integrity is just so sound. You have such an emphasis on how things are put together, from the joints to the way it's modular. It's production-ready, but in a way that's just structurally impeccable.
Brian Gold
I did want to ask — how do you feel about IKEA?
Jay Novak
I have great respect for them. I used to get some of their vintage pieces when they made really high-quality, more crafted furniture. Over the years I've seen a shift. I bought a crib from them for my son about 20 years ago — it's still being used by people in the factory. I put it together myself; it was quite well engineered. Their design is good. They look for the lowest common denominator as far as production values and it's kind of become disposable, which today — with environmental concerns and the energy costs of production — is not really desirable. But they are giving people really good design for very little money. That "best for the least for the most people" ethos — they're kind of in that vein. And I have a social agenda here too. We try to strike a balance between super high quality, super good design, and moderate price. Not inexpensive by any means, but good value.
Brian Gold
And that's so important. As you said, in terms of environmental issues — it's going to be harder and harder to get resources. We need well-made, well-crafted items that last longer.
Jay Novak
Right. Durability is becoming a huge factor. Products that don't last are environmentally criminal. It's resources that are just wasted — whether it's an iPhone, a vehicle, or clothing, they have to have some lifespan, or be truly recyclable. And recycling is also not a great use of energy, as opposed to longevity in a product.
Brian Gold
Things just need to be way more circular and integrated. I just want to commend you and thank you for creating products that really last. Shifting gears a little — what were some of the biggest challenges early on, getting started and then getting off the runway?
Jay Novak
It was many years. And my biggest challenge was that I really didn't know what I was doing — and I think that's not an unusual experience. I had been involved with restoring old cars, so I had some exposure to metal, upholstery, wood, old dashboards — all kinds of things. But that was only modest preparation for building furniture and selling it at a profit. It was many years of finding the right product, the right channels. And there are legal things that come into play too. I had a great lighting product that another company wanted badly, and they found a way to take it — not steal it, they had to buy it, but still. There are patents you either have to get yourself or you can't violate others'. There are trademarks that are critically important — your product needs a strong identity. There's copyright. You can be an artist, you can be creative, you can be a hard-driving business person, but you have to have the legal side taken care of. There are partnerships that need strong agreements and exit agreements. These are things I mostly learned the hard way.
Brian Gold
What are some of the biggest challenges you're dealing with today?
Jay Novak
Supplies. Wood is a precious commodity and it is getting more difficult to obtain legitimately — FSC Forest Service Certified Wood is getting harder to source. Stainless steel, which we use a lot of, takes energy and resources to make, so that's going to get more expensive. On another front — it may be interesting to people — I bought this factory. I don't rent it. That is a saving grace. Anybody who is able to buy the property they do their business on — it can save you. It's also a built-in savings account. It's not design, but it's reality. It's part of my business model.
Brian Gold
Can you tell us a little more about that? Part of the overarching thesis of what we do here is that everything needs to be integrated. Why is the real estate component so important to you operationally?
Jay Novak
If I don't make any money, I have property that goes up in value. If I make money, that's fine too. But what you said is the key — it's an integrated plan. It's not just, "I'm going to make widgets and sell them." Business is much more complicated than that. Again, there are patents, legal agreements, collaborations, partnerships. I used to laugh at people's business plans — "Here's the book, this is what we're going to do." But there's real value in having a plan that covers all the bases. I don't know all the bases even now, but one of them is where you operate from. Real estate is appropriately named — it's real. Everything else is more fleeting. Everything is temporary. During some tough times — the recession, the initial COVID shutdowns — if I had a landlord, I would have been evicted. Owning gives you more control over your destiny.
Brian Gold
Can you tell us a little about how you've cultivated the brand? It has such a distinct identity and consistency — a cohesion and a language. Even after 30-plus years in business, it's still such a strong impression. What are some of your principles around branding?
Jay Novak
If you have a passion for something — which I have for modernist, minimal design and quality — and you focus on that passion, whatever it may be, sneakers or car wheels, whatever — and you have a vision for what that looks like, and then you stick to it and don't follow trends, don't swing with styles — then you'll achieve brand recognition. Otherwise you're just a maker of things, or a distributor of things. I've concentrated on what I have a passion for, and I think any business or craftsperson that does that earns recognition for who they are.
Brian Gold
You also have timelessness.
Jay Novak
That's another thing I reach for — an item that would transcend a decade, transcend styles. A lot of times something comes along and people go, "Oh, that's revolutionary." But really it's new to people, while actually being very classical. And 50 years later, it still looks fresh, whereas everything else from that same era is dated. You can go back to the Parthenon — it still looks pretty fresh. You can look at this fiberglass chair — it looks completely fresh, and it's 70 years old. Or more.
Brian Gold
These fiberglass chairs are almost a definition of timeless. As you know, you didn't design this particular chair originally — but it's clearly something you look to. What made it this way?
Jay Novak
Part of the history of these fiberglass chairs is that they were designed by Charles Eames and his partners.
Brian Gold
What did you take from him and his journey?
Jay Novak
Charles Eames was my posthumous teacher — in many ways. Not only in observing his body of work, but also in understanding that he said he was no smarter than anyone else; he just worked harder. None of these things happen by a flourish — there's sweat. Lots of sweat. I think he did a thousand prototypes of the fiberglass chair before he was satisfied. He may have been a little overdoing it, because you can obsess on something and what you're going to find out — what I think he found out — is that there is no perfection. You can always change something, and then you have to change something else. You can go on and on. So at some point you have to abandon it. Walk away from the painting. Walk away from the product. Know when it's finished.
Brian Gold
Can you walk us through how you go about designing a product? Do you have a specific person or user in mind?
Jay Novak
It doesn't come from a specific inspiration these days. What I do is very simple — tables, chairs, couches, low tables, high tables. It's pretty rudimentary. The forms have pretty much already been established, and I'm working within those formats. So I think about materials, joinery details, what holds it together. If it's a chair, and I want to make it out of wood — that's kind of the first step. But now I want it to be comfortable too. How can I carve the wood, mold the wood? How can I build the structure so it's nice and simple? There's a lot of decisions and they become second nature, the way riding a bicycle does. And I think simultaneously about all of it. Any designer would. Then you start making lists and little sketches. The joint for this particular table — you're familiar with it — that pretty much came to me in full form just before I fell asleep one night. I had been thinking about it, so these things were on my mind. My head is spinning with design several hours a day, coming up most often with nothing of value.
Brian Gold
You were telling me too that this table we're sitting at is one of the first things you ever designed — the tenon table. It's a masterpiece in material, structure, and joinery.
Jay Novak
It's early, yes — very early. I'm glad you like it.
Brian Gold
I love it. I have one myself — eight feet long. I'll get a longer one if it ever comes out. I hope to raise kids on it. I hope to pass it on to my kids. We talked a bit about Charles Eames as one of your design heroes. Are there any other artists or designers you draw from?
Jay Novak
There are many people I look to. Jonathan Ive, the furniture designers — often they each have some single great characteristic. I love to separate that out and pluck it. Eames was a master. Every country has its selection of them: Finland, Denmark, France — Jean Prouvé, Corbusier. There's just a lot of really good designers. But one person I really admire was a man named Jack Northrop. His company was eventually absorbed by Lockheed. In 1940, he conceived of an airplane that was just a wing — the Flying Wing. He was a man who never went to college. He developed it into a big company, but the Air Force was not willing to work with him, and so it was abandoned — until the stealth B-2 bomber was developed. By this time Jack Northrop was 90 years old and not well, but they used his design. He understood that it was inherently stealthy. And once they had Kevlar and carbon fibers and materials we probably don't even know about, they were able to develop the most advanced plane ever built, based on his early designs. And of course it looked like the future — he was truly a futurist in a big way. Everything I do is very easy and simple compared to that.
Brian Gold
Airplanes and physics don't give you any room for error. But with furniture — when you're designing new products, are you thinking about different living situations, families, types of people? Are you thinking about their comfort, the visual world they live in?
Jay Novak
I don't want to say that's all I think about, but you think about people's environments. You think about the fact that you may make something for them that lasts their whole life and then goes beyond that. So you want it to last and you want it to look presentable. Because really, this is the trail I'm leaving behind me. And I want it to be kind of nice.
Brian Gold
Do you have a personal affinity to a certain time period or style? Obviously modernism — but are you inspired by a certain country or culture?
Jay Novak
Japanese design is very big with me. They're the earliest modernists that I know of — simplicity and integrity. I would say some of the products I've designed carry a little bit of that influence. But the Scandinavians have a wonderful design tradition as well. You know, people say "the '70s — everything was ugly," and that's partly true. But also during the '70s, some of the most beautiful, innovative products across the board — in cars, in clothing, in furniture — were being produced. It was kind of an open season. And people forget that there are different parts of the world, not just America.
Brian Gold
In that regard, do you have a favorite decade?
Jay Novak
When World War II was over, there was a renaissance of design with many sources — Americans wanting to establish their own aesthetic, jubilation that the war was over. And if we think COVID was bad, World War II was something else entirely. That post-war decade was a renaissance of innovation unlike anything I can point to, especially in Los Angeles. There were great designers here — but it was also happening in Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Belgium, the Netherlands. It was everywhere. That period produced some kitschy things, but also some truly innovative, classical design.
Brian Gold
Where does inspiration strike you? Is it in the shower? Right before sleeping, like with the tenon joint? When is Jay just needing to jot something down on a piece of paper?
Jay Novak
The inspiration I'm looking to cultivate now — I need to train myself a little — it's from nature. Nature has, first of all, structure, and it's had a good amount of time to work at it. Seven billion years, maybe, I don't know. But nature has structure, color, texture, purpose, and effectiveness. It gets done what it needs to get done, no matter how long it takes. And you might find this interesting, but we're sitting in a fiberglass plant here. Fiberglass is fibers embedded and locked in resin. What is wood? Wood is fibers in lignin, which is a resin. It's essentially the same thing — but nature does it far better. We can learn a great deal. An airplane is like a Conestoga wagon compared to a bird. It's so primitive compared to what a bird does. People have been studying birds and trying to fly like birds, but birds do things airplanes could never dream of doing. The articulation of a bird's wing is mind-blowing. And with all the materials we have — all the plastics, all the mechanics — we can't do that in an airplane. We can't even come close. So if we look to nature, we'll find good examples. Lots to learn from and draw from.
Brian Gold
What is one of the best pieces of advice you've ever been given — something that shaped you and that you've held onto?
Jay Novak
I spent an evening with a man named John Neihardt. He wrote a book that was very influential for me — Black Elk Speaks: The Life of an Oglala Sioux Medicine Man. He was the Poet Laureate of Nebraska. There was a group of us and we asked him for advice. He said, simply: "Read world literature." To learn how other people are, how they think, what makes them happy, what makes them sad, where they've been, how they raise their families, what they eat — everything. That influenced me. To some extent I followed that advice.
Brian Gold
I almost forget how many amazing artists you've worked with. Can you speak a little bit to some of your favorite collaborators?
Jay Novak
There are more than I can remember — and I'm really proud of that. Not that I can't remember, it's just that because we treat artists with such great respect, they come to us and trust us with their work. The one I'm looking at right now — Cleon Peterson — I believe he's from Altadena, but he's now world-known. His work carries for me a clear message about the evils of violence and war and how it's unfortunately inherently human. It's something we need to work against. His work can look brutal to people, but we even wove a fabric with his designs in it — not printed, woven. We also did printed versions. It was a pleasure to work with him, and he was a real participant in the process. When we work with an artist, we need their participation because developing furniture is painstaking. Cleon was fully engaged. It was a real pleasure.
Brian Gold
Amazing. I love just looking at his work. I've always thought it was beautiful, but hearing the context behind it gives it such new meaning. You've also worked with — Hayao Miyazaki. These are incredibly highly sought-after artists and organizations. Do they come to you?
Jay Novak
They do. Miyazaki's people at the Academy Museum came to us. And I would say it's the most difficult collaboration we've ever done. All of these people are artists, they're all working with real artistic intention. But Miyazaki is a perfectionist — hence the phenomenal body of work. Getting the four chairs we made for them up to their standards was a tremendous amount of work, on their part and ours. I honestly thought at one point they were going to give up. But we finally got it.
Brian Gold
What was so difficult about the process?
Jay Novak
The chair has compound curves, and that's not conducive to the design they wanted. You get imperfections — faces get wrinkled, warping occurs. But we got it to where they could accept it.
Brian Gold
They're beautiful chairs. I'm a huge Miyazaki fan, so when I saw them I kind of geeked out. Are they available for sale?
Jay Novak
The Academy Museum — the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Museum — has them. We made a hundred of each for them. I don't know if they have any left.
Brian Gold
I noticed the last time I was at your showroom — I saw these beautifully made, welded sculptural pieces. I assumed it was from a professional fine artist, some avant-garde friend you were giving space to. But it turns out it's from your son. Can you tell me a little bit about him?
Jay Novak
He is, primarily, an environmentalist if you ask him — but he's also an accomplished artist. He's on the autism spectrum; he has Asperger's. He's a very unusual kid — quite verbal, as you've experienced, Brian, but not necessarily on any subject that is appropriate to the moment. He's got his own little wheels turning. He's 23. His work is sought by certain collectors. It's very intricate. The person he works with says he takes these metal parts — random parts that have been run over by cars, bent and broken — and he assembles them very methodically and quickly, and he knows exactly where they all go, for some reason. He's been a huge part of my life, and that's one of the most important things I do.
Brian Gold
When I saw his work, it looked so precise and balanced — to hear you say that when he's working, he knows exactly where everything goes, sounds exactly right. How has raising somebody on the spectrum affected you? What have you learned from him?
Jay Novak
I had to decide what would be best for him, and what would be best is for him to have an occupation, a life. It's no different from what I'd tell any young person — find what you want to do. My wife and I facilitated that as much as we could. Whatever he wanted to do, we would do it with him, for him, and indulge him in different pursuits — sports, the arts, education, travel. We've done all of those with him, in a big way, as much as we could. And it's worked. It's made him a kind of interesting person. He has ideas. Everything has influenced him. So in that way it's no different than any other kid — they have to find something they're passionate about that turns them on.
Brian Gold
Have you two ever collaborated on any art projects?
Jay Novak
No — he's a very independent operator. He works once a week with an art teacher, a quite skilled and accomplished one, who says: "I can't tell him anything. He already knows. He puts these things together, and if I even suggest something, he won't do it. But I see later that I was wrong, and he was right." So we found at least that one endeavor. And it could have been lost. That's another thing my wife and I think about. Because he was not an easy kid — and he still isn't. But with a lack of tolerance for his idiosyncrasies, we could have lost that gift. Now, that's not to say this is some great gift to the world, or that it's going to go anywhere. It might be a hobby for five or ten years and that's it. But the point is — it's fragile. These kids are fragile. All kids are. And it could have been lost. And I think often it is.
Brian Gold
A lot of people say "follow your passions" — which is true — but when I see young people struggling, they often don't know what their passion is, or they're afraid to turn it into something sustainable. What would you say to them?
Jay Novak
If you don't, you'll be right where you are today in 50 years, looking for something to do. It's a struggle to find something that you like, and we have to keep moving. If you like video games, learn how to make those video games. Learn how to sell them. It's not easy. It took me half a lifetime.
Brian Gold
You've done an incredible job. You talked about leaving good design in your wake. But is there a way you want to be remembered?
Jay Novak
Well, that's a different thing. I didn't say great design — just good things. What I need to be remembered as is fair. Somewhat kind. Considerate of the people here in this factory, the people I've shared time and memories with. Just simple things.
Brian Gold
And in terms of the future of Modernica — is there a direction you want to take the brand and the company? Do you have ambitions for what comes next?
Jay Novak
We're in a phase right now where we're developing a lot of new products and new designs. That's the future, as long as I'm here. And the people here who are department heads and principals — I want to nurture them to be able to take over. That would be nice. That may not be their desire, though.
Brian Gold
I'm sure it has to get into somebody's hands. Are there some of those principals you'd like to name?
Jay Novak
I think you've met most of them. Miguel — and Brohas and Gonzales, Richard , Lori. Andrei, who's a man in the wood shop — I think you met him. He's got brilliance all over him. All of them have special ability. They really do.
Brian Gold
I just love how everything comes together here — family-oriented, legacy, craft. I want to thank you for this conversation. It's just been an amazing insight into your life, where you are today, and your ambitions. Thank you so much, Jay.
Jay Novak
Brian, you're welcome. You've made me stop and think about things that I don't necessarily always think about. That's a real pleasure. Anytime.
This interview was recorded at Modernica's HQ and factory in Los Angeles and has been lightly edited for length and clarity
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