ICFF 2017

Last week we returned to the Big Apple; by police escort, to be exact (remember to always carry cash for the toll, kids) for our second year exhibiting at ICFF.

ICFF (International Contemporary Furniture Fair) is known in North America as the go-to showcase for contemporary design. This year marked the 29th edition, which takes place in bustling New York City, with over 750 exhibitors from all over the world.

This year’s show marked the launch of our Design Collection in North America. Our design team killed it once again with an amazing installation which they built in a studio space in North Carolina and trucked overnight to NYC.

The week kicked off to a pretty memorable start. Seriously, Gabriel Hendifar and Jeremy Anderson of Apparatus know how to throw a party. You can find them in their stunning Midtown studio; once a school, then an Afghan rug shop, and for one night, a Werkstatte disco. Dazzling lights swirled above the dance floor, the lobby hosted a custom-built bar, and even the scent of incense wafting through the space had been custom-created for the night.

In SoHo the day after, we marvelled at new glass work created by Lasvit, artisans from the small Czech village of Bohemia, in collaboration with Toronto design studio Yabu Pushelberg. Massive respect for going the extra mile with the food presentation – we’ve never seen charcuterie looking so sculptural!

We met heaps of interesting people from the design world. We visited Billy Cotton at his studio, whose work we love. And we got to speak to emerging talent Samuel Becher from Chicago who made a chair out of packing peanuts! But probably one of the most mind-bending encounters we had was with a rising sophomore whose tender age of 16 did not reflect his unbelievably deep knowledge of the formulae behind our Voronoi designs. We cannot wait to see the places he will go.

In order to cool our design-infused brains for one night, we made the trip to Brooklyn to watch Reverend Vincent Anderson and his Love Choir. Who knew dirty gospel was a thing?!

What’s next? We’ll be back on our own turf for London Design Festival – we’ve got some fun ideas up our sleeves, so stay tuned…