ICFF in New York 2011: Wrapping up Design Week
Last weekend the 24th annual International Contemporary Furniture Fair in New York took over the Jacobs Javits Center… and even THAT massive space couldn't contain what has become one of the world's premiere celebrations of the most innovative industrial designers and their beautiful, amazing, ridiculous, brilliant, jaw-dropping creations. And so the ICFF has spawned NYC Design Week, with satellite shows and pop-up shops all over town. We managed to catch only a few of the events (and missed the ICFF proper), BUT, thanks to the internet, really cool furniture design is never more than a few clicks away. Here's a look at some of our favorite recent postings inspired by the ICFF and NYC Design Week 2011….
Cool Hunting, no surprise, had a nice rundown of some of the more interesting independent designers and collectives who were strutting their stuff in some of NYC Design Week's alternative venues. Of particular note here: Click Boom Pow's excellent street chairs, and Olivier Dolle's lovely tree-branch shelving.
The flurry of design posts about the ICFF in NYC reminded us how much we love pretty much everything at the Brooklyn manufacturer Areaware, from their spanking-new, retro-cool Alarm Dock (just add iPhone!), to their semi-rubber-coated wicker Bow Bins, to their classic C'Mere Hand Hooks. "If appreciation for beauty is central to what it means to be alive," says Areaware, "then we want to embody this principle in even the simplest of things." Amen.
The insta-bookmark-worthy design-blog newcomer CollabCubed–she has great eyes, good taste, and is as smart and as fun as they come–had a number of excellent NYC Design Week posts, but this roundup of the incredibly creative "seating protoypes" done by RIT seniors really stood out. Our vote, by the way? The beverage-based bench, of course.
The NYC Design Week satellite affair at which we DID get to spend some time was the NoHo Design District show, anchored on Great Jones Street and featuring excellent browsing at the always-a-pleasure retail outfits Partners and Spade and The Future Perfect, as well as a three-story exhibition of new stuff (like the gone-viral Inception Chair by RISD student Vivian Chiu, at top) within the raw space of the Great Jones Lumber Building. What a nice afternoon that was.
Finally, the folks at Apartment Therapy offer a couple of great round-ups and wrap-ups of the ICFF in New York: this dead-on look at 15 must-see young designers and collectives; and this rundown of ICFF Award-winners (don't miss Best Accessories champ Angell Wyller Aarseth).
Posted in NYC Events | Tagged Design Week NYC • ICFF New York • ICFF NYC • ICFF Show • International Contemporary Furniture Fair • New York ICFF
