ICFF 2004: A Fair to Remember

Sad to say, but another edition of the International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF) has come and gone. What did we think about what we saw? Our daily Live@ICFF postings covered many of our discoveries, including work by young talents like Stephanie Forsythe and Todd MacAllen, who received the ICFF editors honor for new designer, and Mikael Hoilund, the man behind the Miima Chair and the architect of the Danish contingent’s award-winning booths. And of course we were impressed by Tord Boontje, the star of the recent Salone del Mobile; design studio Artecnica dedicated a whole stand to his magical Midsummer and Garland Lights and showed his recent paper Tyvek curtains.

We saw a lot of familiar faces at the Fair, too. Angela Adams debuted her Baba Rug, named in honor of her husband’s grandmother, and Sandy Chilewich introduced her new line of ’50s-inspired patterns, including the gently curved Boxes. There were a number of reinterpreted and reissued design classics being exhibited: KleinReid updated Eva Upright Vase by casting it in crystal; Fritz Hansen revamped Arne Jacobsen’s Oxford Chair by slimming its bulk and upholstering it in a Paul Smith fabric by Maharam; and Vitra. continued its George Nelson reissues with the designer’s 1955 Swag Leg Desk.

But ICFF 2004 was not just about product. On the Monday, Metropolis held a daylong seminar, Design Entrepreneurs: The Next Generation II, which featured Jens Risom, Erwan Bouroullec, and Yves Béhar, among others; we also debuted Raw: The Next Generation, an exhibition culled from entries from our Next Generation Design Competition. We mixed and mingled at the scores of parties, including fantastic ones at Vitra, the Terence Conran Shop, and Dune, and learned the back stories of a number of ICFF-related curiosities, among them MMW’s inflatable connector, Harry Allen’s Newsstand, and Maya Lin’s Stones.

Want to relive ICFF 2004 or see what you missed? Click here for our full Live@ICFF coverage.