A. CITIZEN VOL.06 — A Dialogue in Steel and Stone with Batten and Kamp

A. CITIZEN VOL.06 continues our exploration of the voices shaping the creative landscape. This time, we catch up with a design duo that redefines functional objects by marrying raw, natural materials with precise, engineered steel.

For this feature, we sit down with design duo Dan and Ali, who treat raw materials and open spaces as a playground for total creative freedom. By matching heavy industrial steel with rough, found stone, they throw out standard design rules to build something completely original. This chat breaks down the art of hacking your environment, finding meaning in the details, and the power of designing on your own terms.

Tell us about yourself—how do you define what you do?

"We are artists, designers, collectors, and rearrangers. For us, creation is about exploring relationships between shapes, forms, materials, and ideas. We collect pre-existing elements and find new, unexpected dialogues between them, constantly passing concepts back and forth to create highly engineered, sculptural art that breathes within a space."

Complete the sentence: “I am A. ____.”

Ali: “I'm an artist, I'm a sister, I'm a partner, I'm a daughter, I'm a writer.”
Dan: “I'm an artist, I'm a designer, I'm a collector, and a rearranger.”

On Dan and Ali: DARIAN Wide and Standard in Black with light pink cosmetic lenses.⁠

How do you express your individuality through details, whether in your work or your personal style?

"We express our individuality by combining contrasting elements—like refined steel and unrefined, natural stone. In personal style, it shows up in functional adornments like jewelry, or how we hack and make slight adjustments to everyday t-shirts to completely shift their proportions. Even our glasses carry personal details; one of us wears an engraving of '400 billion' for cosmic perspective, while the other features a light, joyful emoji to signal a move into a brighter chapter of life."

How much do you value customization and individuality, and how do you incorporate that into your daily life?

"To us, customization is the ultimate form of self-expression. We value individuality immensely and are constantly modifying our environment—our studio space is always being rearranged, changed, and redesigned to show the community who we are. Every time you make a new combination of materials, you create an entirely new meaning. It is about creating a visual language that is completely and uniquely our own."