Designers and husband-and-wife team Aaron Shoon (born 1974, in Fairfax, Virginia) and Heather Shoon (né Lasche, born 1983, Palo Alto, California) co-founded Pletz, a design studio focused on lighting, in 2014. The studio is based in the Brooklyn Navy Yard in New York City. The Pletz lighting collection blends modernist forms with a traditional sense of material and craft. Pletz lamps combine lathe-turned, hardwood forms, hand-applied finishes, solid brass hardware, and natural linen shades. The designers draw inspiration from the sculptural traditions of artists like Constantin Brancusi and Isamu Noguchi and the seductive surfaces of Art Deco interiors.
Pletz lamps are made from FSC Certified timber, and are finished with traditional materials like shellac, natural linseed oil, and beeswax.
Mr. and Mrs. Shoon met in 2004 while studying at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD); they moved to New York in 2006 and married in 2010. Mr. Shoon earned a Bachelor’s degree in furniture design in 1997 from Virginia Commonwealth University, in Richmond, Virginia. After several years working as a builder, draftsman, and designer, he returned to school, earning a Master’s degree in graphic design in 2006 at RISD. Between 2007 and 2012, he worked on the exhibitions design staff at the American Museum of Natural History. Since 2012, he has worked as a freelance designer and consultant on diverse creative projects ranging from graphic design to furniture and interiors, while maintaining a personal, hands-on studio practice.
Mrs. Shoon earned a Bachelor’s degree in Graphic Design from RISD in 2005. She spent the first half of her final school year abroad, studying in London, at Central St. Martins. She has worked with variety of studios, agencies and clients in New York, with a focus on digital design.
