MAY 28, 2008
Current Fashions in Contemporary Furniture
At the International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF), solid surface manufacturers were taking design to a new, three-dimensional level.
3Form showed a sinuous, sculpted wall installation and honeycomb-like “Parametre” divider panels. UK designer Anne Kyro Quinn created another high point of the show with her origami-meets-Swedish aesthetic flower forms, which she describes as “bridging the gap between urban interior and natural landscape.”
At the Essenze Design booth, representing over 30 New Zealand designers, David Trubridge showed a series of spiral-based pieces based on New Zealand’s spiral islands. He describes his work as “an investigation of how a single spiral can be used to create a variety of different forms/structures at different scales.”
Lacey, knit and crochet textures also showed up as the craft trend exerted its influence on lighting and furniture collections.
Stitched and embroidered embellishments continue to be popular this year. Grand Rapids’ own Shelly Klein was at the forefront of this trend, with stuffed, 3D forms incorporating imagery from her paintings.
This bubble series chandelier is from the Lindsey Adelman Studio. Each delicate cluster of “bubbles” is made of clear glass globes with gold flecks floating at their surfaces. Echoing the shapes and colors of the chandeliers, her booth was decorated in simple line drawings and swirls made of round gold stickers.
Even wall covering companies showed elements of stitched, collaged, or other 3D relief elements on one-of-a-kind wallpapers. I saw other coverings using large-scale patterns to create an environmental quality. And the overall popularity of wall coverings is evident in the ICFF directory, which includes 52 vendors in that category.
