Maker Monday: An aspire Exclusive Interview With Aaron Marx

Aaron Marx is the founder of Marx Et Al, a studio creating lighting, furniture, and decorative objects inspired by a wide range of references, from 20th-century British novels and anime to the ancient arms and armor hall at The Met. The studio began while Aaron was in Colorado helping his brother set up a metal fabrication shop, where time spent around the laser cutter and press brake sparked his interest in using industrial machinery for more romantic, expressive design. He began sketching, taught himself design software, and spent months researching patinas for brass and copper. Through hundreds of experiments with his brother, testing chemical mixes and application techniques, Aaron developed the suite of finishes that would become central to Marx Et Al’s identity. Today, the studio is run by Aaron alongside his wife, Leah Smit, who handles photography and brand identity, and his high school classmate and best man, Chris Howard, who oversees the studio’s digital and operational systems. See lighting in a form you haven’t seen before in today’s Maker Monday featuring Aaron Marx.

The Corot Chandelier brings a moody, almost cinematic presence to lighting, pairing a faceted patinated shade with dark chain detailing and a warm, atmospheric glow.

Andrew Joseph: What inspired you to become a designer?
Aaron Marx: I love beautiful things, and I’ve always felt a visceral desire to participate in the process.

AJ: Can you describe your design philosophy in three words?
AM: Stripped-down romance!

AJ: Can you tell us about a design trend you are excited about?
AM: It feels like we may be in the early stages of a craft revival – demanding skills like marquetry, engraving, hammer forming, and enameling are being incorporated by talented designers in new and interesting ways. Some of this is a renewed appreciation for traditional methods, and some of it is technological advancement, making these techniques attainable for designers who couldn’t otherwise access them. I find both threads equally exciting.

The Legat Sconce turns wall lighting into a sculptural composition, with faceted forms, rich finishes, and a warm backlit glow that feels both medieval and modern.

AJ: What was the last book you read and how did it inspire you?
AM: Among other audiobooks, I’m always listening to Anthony Powell’s towering A Dance to the Music of Time, which I first heard while learning woodworking in southwestern England almost ten years ago. Powell is, to my mind, the best example extant of how a passionate love for and interest in history and the arts can enrich life and the work of an artist.

AJ: What is your favorite thing about being a designer?
AM: Getting to engage thoughtfully with references and culture that I love. I’ll start a design based on something I’m really excited about at that moment – say, ancient Greek mosaics – and spend days on archive.org and Google Arts and Culture doing research. Then, I get to create something that captures what moved me about the source, while still feeling true to the aesthetic world I’m building. That translation is the part I find most rewarding.

AJ: What is your favorite design tool to use?
AM: It’s hard not to get giddy about hot patinas. It wasn’t fun when every other attempt produced a charred brown, but the ability to start with a bare piece of brass and transform it, with a spray bottle of chemicals and a blowtorch, into something that could play marble in a movie feels completely magical.

The Troost Pendant brings an almost relic-like presence to pendant lighting, pairing a warm brass finish with etched detailing, geometric form, and a glow that feels quietly ceremonial.

AJ: What is your favorite design era and why?
AM: Definitely Art Deco – more the historicizing European variant than the streamlined WPA model. The combination of 1920s après la guerre optimism and a passionate interest in history and other cultures produced design that is distinctly modern and distinctly romantic at the same time – something to which I wholeheartedly aspire.

AJ: Style (or design) icon and why?
AM: Ramdane Touhami, who revived Cire Trudon and Officine Universelle Buly. He operates across an enormous range of creative endeavors – branding, retail, interior design – effortlessly dipping into different aesthetic milieus that all somehow feel like they could only come from his hand.

Photography by Leah Smit.

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