Hasta La Ideas

ICFF is a source of inspiration whether you go to collect carpet samples, to show off your revolutionary new line of blond bentwood furniture, or to leave fingerprints all over Tom Dixon’s gleaming display and aspirations of future wealth. Among the sconces and recliners, I was thrilled to see one project that paired the show-standard stylish ambition with a dream of worldly good. Back in Booth 1376, one plywood project stood out bulkily from the crowd. “Out of Failure” is the product of a University of Cincinnati capstone studio course, aimed at designing a better disaster relief shelter.

In cases of emergency, there is often a long, painful gap between the event and the arrival of a FEMA relief trailer. Filling the gap is a vital issue for the health and sanity of affected populations, and most interim options are both lackluster and relied on for much longer than intended. Using Haiti as a test case, students aimed to create a cheaply produced, easily constructed, permanent-feeling structure that could house six people with dignity, AND meet the varied needs of daily life in the region. They did a swell job.

(more…)

A shorter version of this article was originally published in the C77 Design Daily, Vol. 1, Issue 2, on May 17, 2014.

There was a kind of carnival atmosphere at the opening party of Reclaim 3: Carte Blanche—the inaugural exhibition at the new Colony co-op / showroom space—which was Jean Lin and Jennifer Krichels’ goal, perhaps, when they commissioned the three wildly disparate interactive installations from Brooklyn’s Fort Makers, The Principals and UM Project by Françoise Chambard. The sheer spectacle of the work belies the fact that proceeds from sales (of related objects and accessories) goes towards charities of the designers’ choice, and, if nothing else, it’s a refreshing change of pace from the more commercial shows.

The Principals’ “Space Trash,” pictured at top, was a personal favorite, although you really have to see (and try) it in person to get what it’s about. More on each project below.

– UM Project presents “Maypole,” an ensemble of 16 new LED lamps based on the acclaimed Craft System series, connected around a center pole by colorful cords and synchronized together. All proceeds from UM Project’s fundraising will be donated to the High School of Art and Design in New York City. UM Project’s installation is made possible with the generous support of Acces I/O, BAGGU, Color Cord Company, Dolan & Traynor, Lenovo, Nooka, and Parallel Development.

(more…)

Now that our friends at Matter have firmly established themselves as purveyors of some of the finest contemporary furnishings this side of Houston St., they’re looking to expand their house label. They launched MatterMade in 2010, partnering with designers to produce a new collection for every NY Design Week since (we took note in 2011). For this year’s MatterMade Collection, Creative Director Jamie Gray called on New York’s Roman and Williams to design a line of furniture and lighting.

At its core, the Roman and Williams for MatterMade collection is a marriage of two entitites with a shared vision of the American design landscape. The first commercially available collection of lighting and furniture by Roman and Williams, the line includes: Woodrum, a family of lighting, Hub, a coffee table and side table, and Reader, a sling chair and foot stool. The unifying theme within the collection is an emphasis on superior materials and exceptional craftsmanship. Standard wood species offered are reclaimed white oak, teak, and walnut, each with a simple and pure finish that highlights the wood. Custom unlacquered brass hardware adorns each piece and provides an extra touch of luxury and elegance.

After a decade of creating award-winning bespoke spaces, such as the Ace Hotel and the glamorous Boom Boom Room at the Standard Hotel, this line of furniture and lighting presents a gateway for bringing the unique world of Roman and Williams into a broad spectrum of interiors. Whether ultra minimal, contemporary, or the most classic of spaces, the Roman and Williams for MatterMade collection adds a necessary hint of familiarity, articulation and decandence.

(more…)

All photos by Kathryn McElroy

It’s been quite a year for the MFA candidates in the School of Visual Arts’ Products of Design program, not least because the first-year students are also the first ever students in the fledgling program. This past weekend, the first half of their graduate studies culminated with ALSO!, a winsome design intervention at WantedDesign, which the tight-knit cohort of 16 students realized in the three weeks leading up to NY Design Week. They’d originally developed the concept for Sinclair Smith’s five-week Design Performance studio intensive, and the NYCxDesign festival (which wrapped up just two days ago) was a felicitous opportunity for them to put their studies into practice.

Through a roving set of mobile interventions, visitors to the show participate in an unfolding narrative around celebration, sustainability, digital mediation, storytelling and scale, each expanding the conversation around design beyond form, function and materiality.

Broadly speaking, each of the six stations (two wearable, three carts and a single immobile station) offered a different perspective on not only the work on view at WantedDesign but also one’s fellow attendees and the venue itself. From the uniforms—white short-sleeve button-down (with the logo emblazoned across the back), dark denim, white plimsols and orange socks—to the seamlessly constructed equipment, which remain as the tangible artifacts of the experience, the students crafted a thoughtfully executed body of work.

(more…)

We’ve seen plenty of excellent work by Washington, D.C.-based Jonah Takagi here and there at various exhibitions and venues over the years, but we finally crossed paths during NY Design Week at a pop-up shop/exhibition for his new-ish retail venture Field. Although he launched the company with childhood friend Daniel Thomas last year, Here & There marked first major event in New York, a collaboration between the D.C.-and-Chicago-based brand and NYC’s Various Projects, who stock some of the carefully curated goods at their flagship store in the Lower East Side, Project No. 8.

Billed simply as “an exhibition featuring an array of artists and designers invited to create objects on the theme of travel,” the exhibition was a highlight of this year’s design festivities.

Posters by Timothy Colmant

(more…)