New York City is a place where corporate might and creative vision reach equal heights. On some subway lines, you’re just as likely to be seated next to a stock broker as you are to an aspiring playwright. If you really want to make it as a designer in America’s most expensive city, you’d do well to take notes from both. Artistic expression is great, but increasingly, you need financial savvy to sustain it. This year, New York’s two biggest furniture fairs had put their suits on. (Figuratively, at least. Soaring temperatures meant that linen was a much more practical choice of garment.)
First up, the team behind the International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF) made an important business decision, announcing that as of 2027, . (It will now be held concurrently with the hospitality-focused BDNY fair, which also takes place at the Javits Center.) The main reason for the move is to give the industry more time to catch its breath during the jam-packed spring schedule of other global design weeks (see: Milan, Chicago and Copenhagen, all within the same six-week window) and to, hopefully, allow for a larger, more global audience to devote its full attention to New York each fall. Time will tell if it’s the savvy play the fair needs to grow its audience and attract more of the big European exhibitors it’s been missing.
Meanwhile, the sophomore edition of the buzzy exhibition Afternoon Light (which has yet to announce the timing of its 2027 edition) set up shop in the WSA Building — an office tower in the heart of the Financial District that now operates as , home to tenants like the fashion brand Bode. Held in the same space that hosted last fall’s show, Afternoon Light spanned two floors that offered impressive views of the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges — not to mention the many neighbouring skyscrapers.
This FiDi backdrop proved especially fitting for the launch of the debut offering from Teknion’s new brand. Dubbed the , it reintroduces (SOM) — an architecture firm best known for its corporate office towers — as an accomplished furniture designer, too. Over the course of its many projects, the studio has secretly created a wealth of custom seating and tables. Working with (a design company dedicated to revisiting legacy pieces) and , SOM is now mining its archives to reintroduce some of these as commercial offerings. Its first launch, SOM 79, epitomizes corporate chic, revisiting a cantilevered steel-framed chair originally conceived for Halston’s New York atelier.
Another standout seat at Afternoon Light was the lounge chair, which arrived courtesy of L.A. designer and west coast brand . The charming statement throne translates the visual language of Klemick’s Bell chair — a made-to-order, wood-framed lounger that originally gained fans through appearances at design gallery shows — into a more accessible form. (The Bell chair starts at $4,620 USD, whereas the new, metal-framed Post Collection lounge chair runs $2,465 USD.) Hopefully, the launch is a sign of more things to come when it comes to U.S. brands commissioning designs from the many talented designers who have otherwise had to focus their energy on the collectible or custom market in recent years. We like this business direction.
Continuing on to ICFF, it didn’t take long to encounter a product that we expect to sell like hot cakes: San Francisco lighting brand new portables. Offered in a full variety of shapes, sizes and colours, the lighting family (which officially launches this fall) recalls Apple’s iPod lineup in its vibrant heyday — and that’s no coincidence. The design studio behind them is Ammunition, which was founded by former Apple Director of Industrial Design Robert Brunner. (Its recent work includes consumer tech like the Polaroid Snap camera and Beats Fit headphones.) During a panel discussion about dupes presented by (and moderated by AZURE), Gantri founder and CEO Ian Yang spoke about the value of delivering good design at an accessible price point (the company’s portables start at $250). If your price is already low, there’s less incentive for someone to develop a knockoff — and while that’s not a feasible strategy for every manufacturer, it’s refreshing to see a design brand dedicated to serving a mass market.
Of course, there’s more to good design than just commercial appeal — sustainability also needs to be part of the conversation. Good news on that front, too: Gantri’s portables are 3D-printed from sugarcane-based PLA. Meanwhile, a visit at ICFF’s Healthy Materials Lab booth (run by the team of the same name from Parsons School of Design) offered a crash course in biomaterials, showcasing everything from (fabricated with 3D-printed earth, fibres, horse manure and algae-derived additives) to (composed of compressed wheat and rice straw) and made from crushed rocks and crystals. Other exciting material innovations were spread throughout the show floor: turns styrofoam into a concrete alternative that can be used to create tables, benches or bollard planters, while Pennsylvania-based introduced a line of hempcrete stools.
Officially, the and the fair’s brand directors, Odile Hainaut and Claire Pijoulat, spent their opening remarks reiterating the importance of a well-connected design industry built around healthy international trade. Several global exhibitors offered hope on that front: German brand (which specializes in both licensed reproductions of classic Bauhaus designs, as well as new pieces that build upon that foundation) entered the U.S. market through a partnership with Philadelphia design marketplace . To mark the occasion, Rarify staged a full retrospective of Bauhaus design, complete with pieces on loan from the Bauhaus Archive Berlin. Meanwhile, another European visitor, Poland’s , arrived to ICFF with a circular accordion-style bench made using its signature inflated metal production technique.
And we’re not being biased when we say that Canadian designers played an especially important role at both ICFF and Afternoon Light. From Quebec’s and to Vancouver’s and Toronto’s and , there were plenty of familiar faces to celebrate. (Not for nothing, one of was playing in the pizza parlour I grabbed dinner at, too.) Toronto designer was the busiest of them all. At ICFF, she did double duty, debuting a rug collection with Scott Group Studio while also joining forces with four other Toronto women (, , Sylvia Lee of and lighting studio ) in the group showcase “Soft Structure.” Then, at Afternoon Light, she launched a new furniture collection: , which takes inspiration from the soft, rounded edges of surfboards and skate decks, and introduces soft hits of colour into her lineup for the first time.
To justify the expense of showing in New York, a brand needs to have a product that it feels confident can translate to big sales — but that also requires a supersized audience. If the city’s main design events start spreading themselves across different seasons, it may become tough for international visitors to gauge where to invest their time. ICFF remains the anchor of the city’s design week. Once it shifts to November, fairs like Afternoon Light would be wise to follow suit and consolidate around the same period — at least if they’re looking to attract a global audience. (The broader NYCxDesign festival has so far said it will remain rooted in May, with additional programming planned for fall.) There’s strength in numbers, so let’s keep the gang together. Hopefully that way, come 2027, New York’s design week can really be back in business.
+ A Few More Favourites
— From Afternoon Light —
• allows designers to create custom glazed tile patterns that can be fabricated in as little as six weeks.
• showcased his geometric Ora mirrors, plus new versions of the Popo chair featuring cushions upholstered in tan or spotted cow hide. Yeehaw.
• , our , debuted The Dressing Room collection. Originally developed as display fixtures for a retail space, the pieces would work just as well in a residential setting, too.
• latest introduction, Pleat, combines wood salvaged from New York City’s urban forest with traditional Japanese Kozo paper.
• reimagines hardware as jewelry for the home, with single and double brass wallplates featuring charming sculptural acrylic knobs.
• launched designer MLS-01 Tangent modular lighting system, manufactured in the U.S. from aluminum with plant-based polymer shades, and operating from a standard E26 dimmable LED bulb.
— From ICFF —
• impressed with Beaufort, a range that draws inspiration from arctic icebergs, securing glowing, pill-shaped sandblasted acrylic panels to rounded wooden modules
• teamed up with frequent collaborator Terry Crews for one of his most personal pieces yet: the aerodynamic Crews sofa, inspired by memories of riding in his grandfather’s Cadillac.
• unveiled a new pendant and wall sconce designed by Patricia Urquiola in collaboration with Haworth that has a sporty woven textile sleeve made from recycled polyester.
• expanded upon its already robust catalogue with a host of new pendants, including Triple Glazed, which resembles a stack of donuts, and Ample, which turns the light’s heat sink into a visual showpiece.
• introduced Field, a modular series of gem-like wall sconces that can be customized with one of five ceramic backplates and six diffuser shades in a range of materials that result in different qualities of light.
• Fresh from exhibiting at SaloneSatellite, NYC studio showcased its Till lounge chair, which uses steel to mimic the bends of leaf stems. The studio was awarded with the Be Original Americas Next Generation Originality Award.
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