Where Design Innovation Rules

“How did they come up with that idea? What in the world possessed them to use this material in that way? Where did that concept germinate from?”

These are all questions you ask yourself as you wander through the annual International Contemporary Furniture Fair, or ICFF, at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in Manhattan. Falling down the ICFF rabbit hole can be a delightfully freeing and expanding experience at this yearly exhibition. Visualize a painter’s canvas casually leaning against the wall. Silkscreened on this flat canvas is a Victorian tufted Belter chair. Now go sit on it! The canvas stretched and cradles your derrière perfectly—and yes—you are sitting on a two-dimensional chair!Visualize the expandable paper honeycombs in the forms of ornaments or Disney characters that you hang from the ceiling for your children’s birthday parties. Now, imagine this paper honeycomb amplified in scale and height and used to define walls, rooms and architecture!

Visualize your outdoor umbrella above your outdoor dining table on a darkened East End night. You need light beyond your wind-blown candles. Now, imagine every spoke of your umbrella illuminated like a carousel, yet dimmable to a romantic murmur simply by sliding your hand down the post. Though these may sound like gimmicks, at the same time they can be beautiful, visionary and applicable to future design creations.

The juried and curated ICFF show demands of its exhibitors a unique vision. For instance, a company name took the idea of the outdoor garden stool and reinterpreted it in sculptural gray and charcoal concrete. Albeit hefty in weight, these organic forms, reminiscent of the great Sir Henry Moore’s minimalist bone series, will stand sturdily next to your chunky teak chaise lounges. Not your typical garden stool!

Speaking of weight, CTO Lighting sculpted a ravishing lamp and lampshade out of white alabaster with a texture resembling a loofah sponge. The soft light, radiating from this astonishing piece, was ethereal. The shade, elegantly carved out of a single block of alabaster, was minimally clutched by a thick, blackened, steel bracket. Minimalist yet complicated, this lamp suits both the seashore and the city.

Wüd Furniture Design constructs deceivingly simple furniture with exquisite materials. Exploiting the trove of first-growth wood on the often inaccessible hillsides of New Hampshire, Wüd’s solid wood surfaces are studies in complexity and variation. With clever joinery in bronze, richly leather-clad shelves and intricately grained wooden structures, these bookcases, sideboards and tables are the perfect centerpieces for the Hampton abode. Shaded in bleached gray, cotton white and charcoal bronze, these furnishings can either stand proud or fade tastefully into the background.

The explosion in LED technology has triggered the creative synapse. The selection of innovative applications of this technology and magnification of its attributes flooded the ICFF. I might suggest renaming the event “The International Contemporary Lighting Fair”! With the low heat temperature, bright output and tiny diode bulb, designers have gone to town. I have divided them into three categories: the hanging stellar, the horizontal crawlers and the wall-mounted blinders.

The hanging stellar fixtures simulate sparkling constellations with multiple suspended orbs of glass, or rods of acrylic, floating effortlessly in the air. Designing the bulb’s source often successfully transforms these light-capturing fixtures. A large metal canopy affixed to the ceiling will have miniature down lights embedded in their surface, which dramatically highlights the transparent forms below. One fixture cleverly capped each acrylic rod with shiny nickel and disguised the bulb. The bulb shone through the acrylic, capturing the frosted inverted cone carved into the base of the acrylic rod. This floating simple elegance captivated the attendees.

The horizontal crawlers are usually some form of globular, glass shield that is affixed to a stem that shoots out light. These stems are attached together in a branching-like format which all crawl above your head, your entry or your dining table. They are striking as sculptural, but often a bit Edward Gorey-like creepy. The many offerings of this format may surprise the attendee—wishing for another format! One tends to evaluate on quality and the lighting designer’s new twist or interpretation on this theme.

The wall-mounted blinders are sconces with the bulb located front, center and showcased. Care must be taken in selecting these because their design revolves around an exposed bulb. The upshot is that these fixtures, frequently displayed with ultra-dim, attractive Edison revival-style tungsten bulbs, give little light. So once you screw in a normal task bulb, you are blinded.

This aside, the ICFF is a sumptuous feast for the designer, the architect and the consumer. With new innovations in metal, tile, glass and electronics, this show is a must-see for the design aficionado. Too bad it is only a few days, as the show keeps growing, and the individual exhibits, so very ingenious, deserve a timely perusal. Be sure to mark the ICFF in your calendars for 2016.