ICFF 2007
Attended by more than 20,000 design furniture devotees for the past two years, the ICFF now in its 19th year returned to Manhattan this month with top designs from more than 23,000 designers form 33 countries. We'll have a video on New York's biggest design event (with a little help from one of Holland's current renowned designers) later this week, but in the meantime here are the highlights of the highlights uncovered by some of our esteemed colleagues.
Design*Sponge singled out the "Extruded Swarovski" chair developed by the furniture team at Rhode Island School of Design.
The leading manufacturer of cut crystal, Swarovski worked with RISD student designers to collaborate with the student designers to develop innovative furniture from an unconventional material. The results are impressive. (Pictured right.)
Strolling for trends, Manhattan's Metropolis Magazine shone the light on Isamu Noguchi. At the convention center, the reissued Kenmochi Chair and Settee made their North American debut.
We agree with our friends at MoCo Loco that the designer JoeVelluto of Coro's Snow Chair is a worthy addition out of the thousands of exhibits. Perfect for relaxing and daydream, it looks dynamic enough to do some serious sledding down icy slopes. If Coro were generous to send us a test model, we'd have the CH Alpine Bureau give it a go off Monte Bianco. We're not holding our breath.
Of the scores of eye candy on Notcot, we liked "Big Bang & Little Bang" from ModernTots of Brooklyn. They're arresting light fixtures reminiscent of an astronomical event suspended from your ceiling. Here's a link to their website; they say they ship immediately and at less than a hundred bucks and designed to handle energy-saving bulbs, are a practical item for the design conscious without unlimited means. (Pictured below left.)
And finally, Core77 cut through the hype to find the most comfortable piece of furniture inside the 145,000-square foot convention hall. That must've been a lot of test-loafing, but hard work is its own reward. Surprise, surprise, of the thousands of entries the winner goes to a beanbag chair. A what? That's right: a beanbag chair; albeit, a beanbag chair designed in France. Seriously, the French designers Hatch are reinventing the beanbag chair. According to the sales pitch, it's the first beanbag chair to mix reinforced polystyrene beads and plyoflefin foam, these are the same materials used for car security components. Their animated website has the skinny on this amusing product. (Pictured above right.)
