“Testing the waters,” was a phrase echoed throughout town during the second annual NYCxDESIGN week, which ended earlier this month. Included in the 12-day citywide festival — which was highlighted by the 26th International Contemporary Furniture Fair at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center — were hundreds of design events, discussions and of course, parties. (Architizer, an online platform for architecture and design, held a splashy post-awards fête at the Boom Boom Room atop the Standard Hotel.)
This year, cooperative exhibitions along with pop-up shops appeared to be the trend. Independents, design impresarios and like-minded manufacturers joined forces to showcase a wide assortment of innovative and sometimes scrappy home goods which debuted at avant locations including Offsite, Reclaim, Wanted Design, Intro/NY and Kickstarter at MoMA, to name a few.
A diverse group of 60 American and international manufacturers, designers, schools and institutions came together at Wanted Design, located at the Terminal Space on the Far West Side. Founded four years ago by two French women Odile Hainaut and Claire Pijoulat, this year’s installment included big name companies like Italy’s Alessi, who presented Alessi Research Lab, demonstrating how the industrial process physically evolves. Exhibits of up-and-comers from Puerto Rico, Mexico and Quebec were also on view, while interactive programs, discussions and demonstrations were scheduled throughout the four-day gathering.
To coincide with the fairs, online retailer FAB.com opened Happy Modern a pop-up showroom in SoHo, at 151 Wooster St., to debut their private label collection of home furnishings. “Online is our business, it’s what Fab is all about,” says creative director Kiel Mead, who has been with the company since late last year. The former product designer and co-founder of indie design collective American Design Club adds, “Our customer still needs to touch and feel.”
New offerings included the connectable Link beanbag chair by Evan Clabots, as well as sofas, shelves, stools and rugs. The Fab pop-up will stay open until the end of June to gauge whether the touchy-feely approach will help the brand build awareness and sales.
No newbie to retail, American heritage brand Herman Miller launched a temporary gem of a store in the Meatpacking District, at 446 W. 14 St., paying homage to the whimsical mid-century designs of Alexander Girard. Noted for his corporate identity for Braniff Airlines from the 1960s, Girard also created the interiors for the fabled New York restaurant Fonda Del Sol. His colorful fabric panels, pillows, ottomans and accessories were shown juxtaposed next to glass vitrines filled with examples of the designer’s graphic oeuvre. The designer’s playful spirit will be on view through Wednesday, May 28, with licensed products including books, blankets, posters, and dolls for sale.
Monica Khemsurov and Jill Singer are co-founders of the online design magazine Sight Unseen and are the curatorial team behind Offsite, a nomadic design fair they’ve organized for the fifth consecutive year in a row. Fifty makers selected by the women — including New Yorkers Kelly Behun, Ian Stell and Fredericks & Mae — all presented a selection of crafty, colorful and graphic designs in a 20,000-square-foot landmarked building on two floors in SoHo. According to Singer, the New York design community has gained momentum, and she adds, “many independent studios are working together to up their game.”
Other collaborative initiatives included Jean Lin and Jennifer Krichel’s Reclaim 3: Carte Blanche, founded after Hurricane Sandy hit in 2012; it’s a series of three installations to benefit charitable causes. The duo presented designs by Fort Makers and The Principals (also seen at Offsite), as well as UM Makers — all are from Brooklyn. This core group have joined forces with other designers from the borough to form a cooperative that will showcase independent furniture, lighting and textiles in a new permanent Manhattan outpost called Colony at 324 Canal St., second floor.
In nearby Nolita, a group of 12 young global design brands organized by Paul Valentine of Smallpond presented their merchandise in a clean, well-lit space on Mulberry Street called Intro/NY, while furniture and lighting designer David Weeks collaborated with Alex Rasmussen, creative director and grandson of the founder of Neal Feay Studio in Santa Barbara, known for the manufacturing of colored anodized aluminum. Together they produced a series of six faceted trays for an exhibition entitled “Salvers & Paper” that will remain on view until June 20 at Week’s retail store in TriBeCa at 38 Walker St.
In an unusual arrangement, Kickstarter partnered with the MoMA Design Store to create a collection of 24 products by 20 international designers — marking the first time the crowd-funding site has been directly aligned with a retailer. From clocks and watches to LED lights, a number of tech gadgets are also available including the Impossible Instant Lab, a printing system that immediately transforms digital images from your iPhone into a real analog instant photo. “We were inspired to pursue this project because so many of the most impressive, new and innovative products we have been finding lately kept leading us back to Kickstarter,” said Emmanuel Platt, the director of merchandising at the Museum of Modern Art. “It became clear that Kickstarter is an important new way for good design to come into being, and we wanted to celebrate that.”