At the International Contemporary Furniture Fair, big-name manufacturers and up-and-coming designer-makers shared the spotlight, presenting ingenious new products. Nanimarquina, the Spanish rug company, showed off a collection by none other than American graphics legend Milton Glaser; while Norwegian designer Andreas Engesvik won an ICFF Editors award for his Bunad blankets. Pablo, a San Francisco lighting manufacturer, debuted Circa, a flat-panel LED fixture, while Stickbulb, a smaller player out of New York, grabbed attention with its clever lights.
The biggest show offsite, WantedDesign, now in its third year, seems to be growing at an exponential pace. There, the group show Carrot Concept, curated by Harry and Claudia Washington and presented by Bernhardt Design, offered up brightly hued furnishings and fixtures from a motley array of El Salvador designers. Bold colours also shone at the Foscarini showroom, with its shredded plastic bag installation by Stefano Arienti. But the most surprising use of colour was by Alpi. At the launch of its SoHo showroom, an Azure-sponsored event, the Italian manufacturer of reconstituted wood products gave away vibrant door knobs together with Azure-made doortags.