contessanally: NYC: ICFF

NYC: ICFF – The Awards. Each year, the ICFF, International Contemporary Furniture Fair, convenes the industry’s top editors and invites them to scout the floor of the Javits Center, to choose the best of the best of the year's design crop. And each year, they do, combing the aisles with their highly trained eyes. Once they’re finished, they put their inestimable seal of approval on the year’s finest designs in 16 categories, including body of work, new designer, craftsmanship, furniture, seating, carpet and flooring, lighting, outdoor furniture, materials, wall coverings, accessories, textiles, kitchen and bath, multiple production, school, and booth.

2012 ICFF Editors Awards Committee:  Arlene Hirst; Elizabeth Pagliacolo, Azure; Amanda Dameron, Dwell; Cristina Bonini, Interni; Chantal Hamaide, Intramuros; Paul Makovsky, Metropolis; Pei-Ru Keh, Wallpaper*.

Above: Iconic furniture designer Richard Schultz with his wife Trudy and son Peter.

ICFF – Knoll Studio. Now, icon designs by Richard Schultz are once again available through Knoll. The knoll Outdoor Collection defines outdoor living with pieces that inspire and endure with distinctive furniture by Richard Schultz, Harry Bertoia, Don Chadwick, Maya Lin and Daniel Stromborg.

Above: Knoll Studio Richard Schultz 1966 Collection. "I designed the collection in 1966 at the request of Florence Knoll, who wanted well-designed outdoor furniture that would withstand the corrosive salt air her home in Florida." Richard Schultz.

ICFF – Multiple Production Award 2012. The Multiple Production Award went to Emeco’s Broom Chair by Philippe Starck “ Imagine,” Says Philippe Starck, “a guy who takes a humble broom and starts to clean the workshop, and with this dust he makes new magic.” That is why it is called the Broom Chair. It is made from scraps; 15% sawdust, 75% polypropylene and 10% glass fiber. By using reclaimed waste instead of raw materials Emeco reduces waste and use less energy.

ICFF – Body of Work Award 2012. The Body of Work Award went to Charles Pollock presented by Bernhardt Design featuring Pollock’s CP1 Lounge Chair. In 1965 Pollock’s iconic chair debuted, instantly becoming the best selling office chair in history and symbol of the modern office. Forty-seven years later after the introduction of this landmark product Bernhardt Design presents the new CP Lounge Collection.

ICFF – Craftsmanship Award 2012. The Craftsmanship Award went to Kaikado. The Chazutsu caddy, above, is a cylinder shaped airtight container of Japanese origin. It is used to protect foodstuff, such as green tea leaves, from moisture and humidity. In Japan many have been used for generations. Chazutsu possesses both function and beauty, is practical and a work of art.

ICFF – Craftsmanship Award 2012. Takakahiro Yagi works with his father Seiji, they meticulously hand craft each caddy in Kaikado’s fifth generation 1875 Kyoto studio.

ICFF: Design School Award 2012. The Design School Award went to Cranbrook Academy of Art for the theme developed in collaboration with Herman Miller, by sixteen students entitled Rest and Concentration in the Workplace. Enabled by wireless tablets and smart phones, today’s offices have adapted to the fluid interactions needed for teamwork, yet rarely provide space for private rest, concentration or ‘personal time’. When individual workers need a moment away from the group, what new furniture types will support their rest and concentration?

Above: Private Rocker designed by Kyle Fleet and Tri-fold Bench designed by Douglas Leckie in the background.

ICFF: Design School Award 2012. Cranbrook Academy of Art’s project lead, Scott Klinker, 3D designer in Residence.

ICFF: Lighting Award 2012. The Lighting Award went to Santa and Cole for the series BlancoWhite designed by Antoni Arola. The series of four models with essential shapes are usable as table-top bookcases, luminous shelves, or lighting composition systems that are destined to play a leading role in our daily life.

ICFF: Furniture Award 2012. The Furniture Award went to De La Espada. De La Espada is a groundbreaking firm in the field of developing powerful brands for high-end home furnishings consumers. The company sees itself as a leading exponent of contemporary craft, with a strong focus on solid wood without ignoring other materials that require the passion of a craftsman or craftswoman. Their expertise in solid wood is renowned and rooted in many years of production at our own facility in Northern Portugal.

ICFF: Furniture Award 2012. The designers of Autoban, the Istanbul-based architecture, interior design and product design studio, founded by interior architect Sefer Caglar and architect Seyhan Ozdemir. Autoban, designed the De La Espada collection, is highly influenced by nature, the rituals of daily life and the diversity of Istanbul, playfully reinterpreting the familiar through modern forms and contrasting materials. They are photographed sitting in their Nest Chair.

ICFF: Kitchen and Bath Award 2012. The Kitchen and Bath Award went to Axor for Axor Bouroullec by Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec. The Axor Bouroullec bathroom line is based on imagination, interaction, individual expression and the idea that all should “feel free to compose.” Made up of faucets, washbasins, a bathtub, shower components, and accessories, Axor Bouroullec invites users to think about how they use the space and interact with water to create their own customized bathroom configurations.

ICFF: Seating Award 2012. The Seating Award went to Fritz Hansen’s Miniscule chair by Cecile Manz. The Republic of Fritz Hansen launched Minuscule, a formal chair and table designed for an informal setting by the award winning, Danish designer Cecilie Manz. The name Miniscule represents the informal and understated style that the Scandinavians are truly famous for; why spell it out in capitals when discrete simplicity makes a clear statement.

ICFF: Seating Award 2012. Award winning, Danish designer Cecilie Manz who designed the Miniscule chair for the Republic of Fritz Hansen.

ICFF: New Designer 2012. The New Designer Award went to Egg Collective. Stephanie Beamer and Hillary Petri (above) together with Crystal Ellis make up Egg Collective. “We are a Brooklyn-based design company committed to building American-made furniture that merges heirloom-quality craftsmanship and contemporary design. Our furniture and objects are handcrafted by members of the collective; anything we cannot make ourselves we source out to local and small-scale manufacturers. We design enduring objects. We hope the people who invest in our furniture will pass it on to their children with stories of lives lived around it.”

ICFF: Carpet and Flooring Award 2012. The Carpet and Flooring Award went to Golran. The Memories collection of carpets was designed for Golran by Florentine artist and designer Isabella Sodi. The collection features the colors of nature. It offers a mixture of fibers and weaves; in which deliberate touches of slight imperfection are sparingly used to create carpets that also vaunt the charm of instinct and manual skill. The new Carpet Wear seating collection connects a taste for vintage, for contemporary design and for made in Italy. These unique and unrepeatable interior design pieces of were designed through collaboration between Golran and Filippo Feroldi.

ICFF: WallCovering Award 2012. The Wall Covering Award went to Trove. Trove designers, Jee Levin and Randall Buck have been inspired by artists such as Wim Wenders, Gerhard Richter, and now Cindy Sherman. For August, Portraits of Queens Past wallpaper; Trove references the work of Cindy Sherman who also explores identity through the use of photography. The company employs technology that pushes beyond conventional manufacturing limits. Randall Buck believes these innovations are essential to his evolution as a designer and the possibilities are limitless. Jee Levin, who applies her technique and philosophy of painting to wall covering design, seeks to create wallpaper that breaks all the rules by reimagining the current language of wallpaper from repetitive graphic patterns to organic imagery with less repeat and more of the random. Depth and perspective replace geometry and line.

ICFF: Outdoor Furniture Award 2012. The Outdoor Furniture Award went to Council’s Plank Collection designed by Eric Pfeiffer. The collection contains a lounger and a stacking side chair, and was designed for relaxed outdoor living. All pieces are structured around a frame of white powder coated steel with weather-treated pine slats in a natural, whitewashed, black-stained or gray-stained finish.

ICFF: Accessories Award 2012. The Accessories Award went to Northumbria University’s Designers in Residence’s Tools for Everyday Life. Above are some of the Designers in Residence of Northumbria University who presented their work at ICFF: Danny Duquemin-Sheil, Tatsuya Akita, Ellen Thomas, Colin Wilson, Rickard Wittingham, David Irwin, Neil Conley and Philip Luscombe. The Designers in Residence scheme is a post-graduate initiative designed to support Northumbria alumnae wishing to develop their own professional design practice. It is run within Northumbria University’s School of Design and its professional practice is centered around the activities of furniture and product design. The signature of the scheme is its particular engagement with the design of products that both celebrate the value of traditional craft manufacturing qualities but are also contemporary, rich in narrative and market ready. In short the university wants their graduates to be able to innovate, make and sell great ‘British’ ideas.