Edgar Blazona

Edgar Blazona (born in Sacramento, California on October 26, 1971) is an American furniture designer best known for his life long work within the modernist movement. He has played a notable part in the prefab housing world with the establishment of his company Modular Dwellings. He founded modern furniture company, TrueModern (a brand under his parent company, Elevate Home).

Edgar’s public contributions to design began in 1993 at age 22 in San Francisco, California, where he spent most of his childhood. After a year at San Mateo College in California, he left to pursue his dream as a designer and fabricator and founded his first company, Blaze Designs.

Specializing in modern minimalism and influenced by the work of Charles and Ray Eames, Donald Judd and other pioneering modernists, Edgar's furniture design career took off a year later when he co-founded the design firm 1994. Several of the pieces from the collection were displayed at the Bergamot Station Arts Center in Los Angeles and the entire line was carried at San Francisco's Limn Gallery.

From 1998-2003, Edgar worked in the product development division at Pottery Barn, where he contributed to design, manufacturing and quality control across several brands including Pottery Barn Kids and Pottery Barn Teen.

In 2001, Edgar founded Modular Dwellings, a company that designs and builds mobile prefab modern structures. He was at the forefront of California's prefab architectural movement, and was one of the first to offer this form of design at an affordable price and an approachable construction level. Building plans were made available to the public and sold through ReadyMade Magazine. His buildings were featured in several books including Prefab: Adaptable, Modular, Dismountable, Light, Mobile Architecture by Alejandro Bahamon, PreFab Modern by Jill Herbers and on the cover of Move House by Sean Topham. Edgar and Modular Dwellings also received national recognition and praise from publications such as USA Today, Los Angeles Times and ReadyMade Magazine.

From 2003-2007, Edgar worked at Thinc, a design firm specializing in consumer products for large retailers, and launched its furniture and hard goods division. Under Edgar’s direction as Vice President and Creative Director, Thinc designed major collections for Target, The Home Depot, Sears, Wal-Mart, OfficeMax and Office Depot.

In 2005, Edgar founded TrueModern, designing and manufacturing a line of affordable modern children's furniture. Today, the company has expanded into other home furnishings and is producing sofas and adult bedroom collections. He and his company have been featured nationally in Fortune Small Business, San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Business Times and was one of 7x7 Magazine's Best of Home + Design 2007.

Other notable achievements include Edgar's chaise lounge that was featured in an installation at Sweden's Ice Hotel.

Today, Edgar resides in Berkeley, California and continues to own and operate TrueModern and Modular Dwellings.

References

Fortune Small Business, October 23, 2006 Los Angeles Times, August 19, 2004 ReadyMade Magazine, April/May 2008 San Francisco Chronicle, October 23, 2008 7x7 Magazine, May 2007 San Francisco Business Journal, July 3, 2009

Official site, TrueModern 1 Official site, Modular Dwellings 2