The middle of May marks the return every year of the International Contemporary Furniture Fair to the Jacob Javits Convention Center in New York. Drawing visitors from around the country, it is a showcase and a dialogue between small, local NYC enterprises and sophisticated international companies. Highlighting innovation and style, it did not disappoint this year.
Early on Saturday morning, I joined the LMNOP preview tour hosted by Beth Dickstein of BDE Enterprises. LMNOP is a non-profit organization that focuses on professional development within the architecture and design community. Ms. Dickstein, the chief coordinator and promoter of ICFF, kindly donated her time by giving insights on new product developments this year. Taking advantage of her networking instincts, she introduced LMNOP members to company principals that were exhibiting at the event. In her typical cheerful and insightful way, Ms. Dickstein pointed out the themes and changes happening in the industry in general and ICFF in particular. For this year, she has seen manufacturers put an emphasis on material innovations and push the envelope regarding color. It makes perfect sense; when everyone’s budgets have dwindled to miniscule amounts, designing an interior from scratch doesn’t make sense anymore. By adding just enough sparkle and color, the old can look new again, at least until we all get out of this financial mess.
Two notable additions to ICFF’s roster of manufacturers were Artek and Tom Dixon. Originally founded in 1935 by Alvar Aalto, Artek has only recently entered the US market. Their booth featured a program called Dress the Chair, in which one of Artek’s master upholsterers could be seen covering their Armchair 400 lounge chair with four distinct fabrics by Maharam. Also on display at the Artek booth was an elegantly simple and refined shelving system by Naoto Fukasawa. Coincidentally, Tom Dixon was also engaging in industrial processes before the attendant’s eyes. Flash Factory is the name of Mr. Dixon’s program in which workers who are all dressed in clean white overalls assembled products, like Etch Light, a geodesic construction that was designed specifically for ICFF. This product can house either a candle or an electric light. The idea was for Mr. Dixon’s workers to assemble Etch Lights for purchase directly in the booth or have ICFF visitors do their own assembly after they purchased the item. This “Future Industry” as Mr. Dixon calls it is intended to empower designers to deliver new products to consumers in previously unimaginable time scales. It’s an interesting idea, and I am curious to see if others adopt the intention and where it will take all of us.
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