At Maison & Objet Paris, the Paris-based designer behind Aerea Studio mesmerized visitors with dreamy, gradient-lit forms, blending sustainability, emotion, and cutting-edge technique.
Emerging from Paris’s vibrant design scene, Aerea Studio is the brainchild of industrial designer Camille Lefer. As an “optical-art fan”, her lifelong fascination with curves and perception fuels her futuristic-retro aesthetic Aerea Studio. Based in the city’s 9ᵉ arrondissement, the studio crafts both jewelry and home-ware objects using 3D-printing technologies fused with artisanal sensibility, creating pieces that are minimal yet expressive, functional yet subtly surprising. Each design is born from recycled or bio-sourced materials—be it a pendant, a vase, or a sculptural light—making her work a thoughtful embodiment of sustainable creativity.
We stopped by her booth at Maison&Objet, pulled into the ethereal interplay of organic forms and sunset-inspired gradients that seemed to shift before the eyes. Amid this visual poetry, she shared how she harnesses 3D printing to elevate recycled plastics into sculptural homeware that bridges digital precision and tactile warmth. Moreover, her dedication to sustainable Parisian craft earned her the coveted “Fabriqué à Paris” label this year, a testament to her commitment to local, responsible production.
WATCH our video interview with Camille Lefer on Instagram.
Optical Poetry: From Jewelry to Lighting
When Camille Lefer launched Aerea Studio, she began with jewelry as a way to test the boundaries of 3D printing. Quickly, her curiosity led her to scale up into vases and, more recently, lighting, exploring forms that traditional craftsmanship could never quite achieve.
“I work with optical effects. My goal is to create shapes that are going to question the perception and where you’re going to see something different depending on the point of view,” she explained in an interview with ArchiExpo e-Magazine.
Her pieces are guided by an obsession with optical effects—gradients, textures, and organic curves that play with perception. A vase or lamp may shift colors depending on the point of view, or change the ambience of a room simply by being turned.
Lefer’s dedication to local production was recently recognized with the Fabriqué à Paris award, where Aerea Studio earned first prize after only a year of producing her vases. The label is selecting the winners based on a commission of elected officials and people living in Paris.
Now, as she presents her work with this new label, she displays her new lighting collection at Maison&Objet. The pieces evoke the soft shades of a sunset, where smooth, layered curves give light a painterly quality.
Materials & Sustainable Practice
Aerea Studio’s material choices are as deliberate as its forms. All the lighting and homeware pieces are 3D-printed with PETG, derived from recycled plastic bottles, while other objects incorporate bio-sourced PLA made from cornstarch, sometimes blended with shells recycled by French manufacturers. In her Paris workshop in the 11ᵉ arrondissement, sustainability is not a trend but an ingrained methodology. Lefer explains that it goes beyond sourcing: it’s also about how the forms are designed and printed. By minimizing supports in the printing process, she saves material, reduces waste, and ensures efficiency without sacrificing visual impact.
“The quality, the thickness is super important, so that’s something that needs to be paid attention to,” she emphasized.
It’s a balance of responsibility and beauty—objects that honor both the planet and the eye. This sustainable approach also ensures resilience in a rapidly evolving field. Many designers are experimenting with 3D printing, but Aerea Studio distinguishes itself through both technical precision and aesthetic vision.
“I guess the difference now is how you do it, how you ensure that your product is sustainable, is strong, is going to last, and the way you manufacture it yourself.”
A Studio with Flexibility & Future Vision
Beyond its own collections, Aerea Studio operates as both a brand and a design studio, creating pieces for other labels using the same sustainable processes. This dual approach has made the practice attractive to architects, designers, and retailers alike.
“We are flexible in production because we produce everything ourselves in our studio. We control the lead time, and we can be very flexible with their demands,” Lefer explains.
Since her first pop-up at Printemps Haussmann in 2024, the studio has grown to work with concept stores and department stores, while also developing tailor-made projects. Looking ahead, she intends to continue in both jewelry and homeware, with her organic, poetic design language remaining a constant thread.
“I do have a lot of requests from clients on that, and I think it’s something that I enjoy doing too,” she noted
