As you’re all aware, this past weekend New York City celebrated everything that is contemporary design with one of the world’s most well-regarded design fairs, the annual International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF).
We had an opportunity to share a few favorites from the show with Marina Cashdan of the Huffington Post Arts. Click here to see the round up!
Whenever I get excited at the start of a trade show, I have to wonder if it’s beginners luck and if I’d have the same joy after having walked the entire floor. After rehashing my photos and press materials, I can still say that one of the booths I was most impressed with was Plumen, and it appeared within the first five minutes of walking in.
Plumen’s the CFL designer solution to the ugly lightbulb. Sculptural from every angle and covered in a colorful cord, these British bulbs have a lasting life of 8,000 hours. Here’s a better picture from their website:
To note the other designs from today’s slideshow, Lara Knut’s miniature woven canvases at the Model Citizens show doubled as art pieces. Back at ICFF, the rain and cloud lighting by DCS-corp, were both delicate and conceptual works of art. Keeping with bulbous shapes, these mini people from Hola Amiglo at Model Citizens mimicked the metaphor of having a bright idea and finally, the chairs created by the team at Idut presented sensory seating. As I sat down, the outer tim lit up.
I have a soft spot for water colors and gouache. When hues bleed into one another within confined boundaries, the results are nearly always stunning. Here are a few branded examples:
Hermes’ latest tableware collection, entitled Bleus d’Ailleurs, is beautifully complimented with light-infused circles. In the soft accessory world, the silk lison pillows from ABC Carpet share a similar whimsy. Simplifying the process, West Elm’s latest collection of Luli Sanchez pillows is a stunning reminder of a collaboration done right. Using wood as the backdrop, this coffee table top from ABC carpet provides soft results from similar color bleeding.
Also, I wanted to share a personal project I did using a similar technique. The above design is a spliced montage of my husband and I. I made it for our wedding party and the girls from You Plus Me Styling enlarged it to 5′ x 5′. While it’s a bit scary to stare at, the project was really fun to compile and a made for a great evening of cutting and pasting on the carpet.
Today I made a stop at ABC Carpet to check out the new displays. Aside from terrarium and moss overload (which we’re seeing essentially everywhere), I found the space inspired accessory displays to be quite beautiful.
Using glitter on both glass and mirrored surfaces, abstract shapes mimic and interact with merchandise. These spiderweb discs share a similar vibe and are as unique as snowflakes. Both refreshing and mystical in their own way, these circular spaces are a nice touch for the coming season.
For our readers who relish combining dueling styles, today’s feature is for you. Whether you’re a fine artist, a print and publications designer or simply a reader or creative consumer, it’s hard to ignore the collage-effect that’s been surfacing for a while now.
We’ve all gotten used to seeing Perez Hilton‘s infamous scrawl on celebrity photos. Though it’s easy to discern his mass appeal from the fine art fabrication of Butch Anthony’s curiously eerie skeleton and skull drawings (a few of which are hanging at Stag Men’s store in Austin), it’s important to note the illustrative effect.
or truly literal old meets new product shots, Horacio Salinas and Stellene Volandes recent collaboration for Departures Magazine takes the style to the next level, proving 2D meets 3D can be brilliant when modernized and deconstructed.
Dwell‘s serving up a little pattern competition for all of you up and coming designers out there! Forwarded along by our good friend, Jaye Davis, it looks like Dwell and Lutron® are teaming up for a crowd-sourced experiment with the opportunity to win a nice deal of press and acclaim.
The Challenge: Create a pattern treatment that will seamlessly move with the treatment up and down, all the while maintaining fabric pleats. Get inspired by raucous mid-century prints, Knoll, Day, Eames- anyone! The grand prize winner’s pattern will become a standard offering in Lutron’s collection of fabrics. For more info, click here.