Design Trend-Spotting in NYC

The International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF) and WantedDesign (part of the over 200 events and experiences hosted during the annual NYCxDESIGN Festival) shows are oracles of what's coming next in home design. But it turns out all of New York City — from Lower East Side shops to the Whitney Museum of American Art — is a design trend banquet.

Bold, fun colors and forms worthy of a kindergarten classroom were big at ICFF including these delightful Form Pillows (shown here) from Portland, Oregon-based Thatcher Studio.

Robin Standefer is the multi-hyphenated designer and co-owner (with Stephen Alesch) of the gorgeous RW Guild shop and restaurant in NYC's Soho and the design firm Roman and Williams Buildings and Interiors. Robin says that patina is something her customer's are increasingly wanting in the furniture and objects they bring into their homes. "There is an understanding that things can get better with age, not just by staying inert. This is true with ceramics, leather, wood," says Robin. "Our finishes deliberately age — we call them 'living finishes,' since they are meant to change with time. There's a desire now for a certain kind of 'worn in' feel. It's been fascinating to see that some people who come into the shop actually prefer to purchase the floor model of a sofa — something that has been worn in, that doesn't feel brand new, but instead reflects a history of use and the passage of time. We see this as a bridge from the 'vintage' movement, to something that is living. Another aspect is that the patina reflects nature — it's the natural forces or air and heat and water that develop patinas, and we think that there's a desire to bring nature and its cycles and processes into our homes, rather than sealing it off."

Chicago designer Zachary A. creates outdoor furniture using the increasingly popular design material of resin (which can have both plant and synthetic origins) shaped into objects that have the look of minimalist sculpture.

ECO Solidarity is a union of nine European Union product designers at the International Contemporary Furniture Fair. Portugal-based Susdesign created these chairs made in Portugal from forest floor materials, repurposed cork, mycelium and old cargo pallets.

Surfaces that wipe down and washable materials combined with sustainability are a winning combo in design these days. The sustainable Norwegian company Heymat creates stylish — and functional — doormats and interior rugs that are made from recycled plastic bottles. Their mats and rugs are easy to clean in the washing machine and, in the case of doormats like Sand — designed by Kristine Five Melvær and shown here — efficiently trap outdoor sand, dirt and absorbs water before it gets inside.

The Ethnicraft Objects line bills these as "sculptural, decorative, artistic interpretations." Design blurring the line between decor and art is a growing trend.

Israeli artist Adva Kremer uses Google search frequency for famous oil paintings and renders that alogrithm as woven tapestries that blend design and conceptual art in fascinating new ways.

The funky pastels and graphic shapes of the '80s are back with a vengeance, including in this charming Mesa Vouno wallpaper from Brooklyn-based Grow House Grow.

Goodbye greige. New York designer Mana Sazegara creates delightful home accessories whose blend of black and white stripes, bold primary colors and transparent materials have us returning to the sense of fun and playfulness in '80s style.

Designer John Vieweg at the High Key featured a Glove Couch at the ICFF that exemplifies the trend for curvy, tubular, sensuous forms in design.

Shelves — like these Dipped Shelves from NYC and San Francisco-based design company Our Neighbor — that are also mirrors show how designers are creating multipurpose objects and also creating design that works well in small spaces.

Chinese-American designer Ge Song created this chair “Fortune Fold” to resemble a filled dumpling. We think of nostalgia as Americana or based in European traditions, but other cultures are opening us up to their own comforting global traditions and creating design that reflects that perspective.

Norwegian company Volver Studios and designer Ksenia Stanishevski create high design rugs like this one called "Rose" that looks like contemporary art — so much so that many hang them on their walls instead of placing them on their floors.

Designers like Iliad Design (@iliad_design) — with their Solar Credenza in anodized aluminum and teak and other objects — are expanding the look of what we think of when we imagine outdoor furniture. NYC and Mexico City-based Illiad designers Matt Howard and Mariana Medina say of their new collection of outdoor furniture, "the last couple of years have been so sci-fi that Iliad Design imagined finding pieces of our favorite cities buried in sand like at the end of The Planet of the Apes." For their the “Solar” collection, they blend Deco and Streamline, Art Nouveau and Prairie School influences and combine them with the naturalistic. The pieces marry design decadence with materials like copper and teak that are anti-bacterial and thus well-suited to our COVID-era.

The Solis Adirondack chair from Oakland, California, design house Model No. shows how completely designers are blurring indoors and out by creating furniture that could work in either place. The 3-D printed Solis outdoor series is also uniquely sustainable, made from upcycled corn husks and is part of the circular design trend in its ability to be composted after use.

Filipino designer Cheyenne Concepcion, who won an award at ICFF, has recontextualized the classic Peacock Chair. Her design work examines “cultural memory” and migration. Rattan and cane have associations with colonialism that designers like Concepcion and other creatives (including a team of Brazilian designers exhibiting as part of ICFF) are commenting upon in their work.

Makers are combining 3-D printing with indigenous craft traditions like weaving, basket making, leather work, etc. to highlight ancient forms updated through technology. This Lala Armchair by the Brazilian design firm Estudiobola uses a new modern technology to carve the wood, but the use of cane also evokes folk traditions. Craft has traditionally been seen as having less value than design, but furniture makers and manufacturers are taking a more democratic approach and trying to incorporate folk traditions into contemporary design. Many designers are also engaging in radical reclamation. Forward-thinking Brazilian designers are using industrial refuse like nautical rope and aeronautics nets as well as demolition cast-offs and fallen trees to create upcycled and sustainable furniture.

Find out more about Brazilian furniture design here.

Designers are increasingly catering to buyers gravitating toward living in smaller spaces. Designers like David Hwang have created furniture like this Neut stool that offers many possibilities, with stools that can be tables and also stacked for small spaces.

The Black woman-owned design firm OI Studio is helmed by School of the Art Institute of Chicago grad BOA. BOA created this Drop Daybed using fabric by a Haitian designer depicting female revolutionaries. Untold histories — especially women’s stories — and a female-informed approach to design were big themes at ICFF.

The PET lamp featured at WantedDesign takes the leaves of the Paja Tetara palm tree in the Cauca region of Colombia and weaves them into sustainable pendant lights.

Brooklyn woman-owned wallpaper company Grow House Grow incorporates octopuses, monkeys, dandelions and all kinds of silliness into her work. “I want to make happy things. People want to walk into a room and smile,” says artist Katie Deedy at Grow House Grow. Whimsy, play and childhood were all touchstones of ICFF

More cool work from Chicago-based designer Zachary A., these cast resin outdoor chairs are meant to resemble crumpled pieces of paper and stand up to even the harshest outdoor weather conditions.

Brooklyn-based Martin Lenclos has addressed the refugee crisis, BLM and mental illness in his designs. Designers, but also consumers, want design with meaning like Lenclos' “aTypical chair,” which speaks to disability, imperfection and non-conformity.

Design firm Forma Rosa Studio creates light fixtures and other design objects that lean into the extreme and organic. A design trend seen again and again at ICFF, Fantastic Organic is about mutation, wabi sabi imperfection, bodily forms and natural materials.

Atlanta-based design firm Crosland + Emmons create work, like this Tunnel Lamp, made from porcelain that has the look of bones.

Designers and artisans are creating organic forms in strange new shapes that can evoke everything from organs to seed pods. The Soho shop Roman and Williams Guild is a must-see emporium for artisanal one-of-a-kind objects like these.

Great design was not just restricted to ICFF and WantedDesign. Shops like the Lower East Side hipster design and giftware emporium Coming Soon offer real world iterations of cutting-edge design trends.

Perhaps just as people are looking at heritage and delving into their ethnic origins, they are also looking at the origins of humankind, especially in our age of climate change, when what humans have done to the planet is so front and center. Designers like Oakland, California-based Brave Matter have created vessels that look crafted in prehistoric times.

These stunning sculptural pieces from Brooklyn design company Concrete Poetics uses cast concrete to create furniture that suggests objects from an archeological museum.

Objects are beginning to look primordial and ancient in design shops like Roman and Williams Guild where this side table has the look of an architectural ruin.

It's hard not to fall in love with the slightly alien but still earthy ceramic sculptural pieces at the Soho design shop Roman and Williams Guild.

Austin, Texas-based design house urbs studio takes the bright orange surveyor markings of urban development and transforms them into pillows and fabrics that comment upon that transformation of the landscape.

Continuing the trend for outdoor furniture that looks like indoor, the Medellin outdoor furniture line created by César Giraldo from Brazilian design house Tidelli also exemplifies the current trend for bright colors and Art Deco lines.

Is there anything cuter and more covetable than this puppy vase from designer Katie Kimmel? The vase and other colorful, occasionally wacky items are sold at the next-level fun Manhattan shop Susan Alexandra.

More than one designer testified to how much homeowners are looking for a sense of fun and delight in their homes after the various social issues, COVID and world events we've dealt with. Shown here, an ultra playful wallpaper from Grow House Grow.

NYC boutiques like Susan Alexandra and Coming Soon feature household objects in bold colors and playful designs.

Brooklyn designer Julien Aleksandres' WOW Papers wallpapers are part of an exploding interest in psychedelic design.

Customization is also a growing trend, and WOW Papers designer Julien Aleksandres can render his designs in any scale the homeowner likes for big impact or a lower key vibe.

The multiple locations of New York landmark shop Pearl River Mart feature skincare, food and a plethora of other products created by Asian entrepreneurs. Putting forward the creativity of Asian talent and design was the intent of the original owner Ming Yi Chen and continues as the mission of his daughter-in-law Joanne Kwong, a former attorney who now oversees operations at the Chelsea Market location (pictured here), among others. Supporting AAPI business is Kwong's mission, but it will become increasingly important in the wake of Black Lives Matter.

Vegan products, collagen-boosting jelly drinks and astrology-influenced beauty are all big trends at the Chelsea Market outpost of the iconic Pearl River Mart, which now devotes a section of its store to AAPI beauty products says co-owner Joanne Kwong.

Founded by Chinese Americans inspired by Chinese medicine and techniques like the facial massage self-care practice Gua Sha, Yina is a skincare company founded on cutting-edge ingredients and approaches. Their Hydracloud Cream features Asian medicinal plants like gingseng.

According to Grow House Grow wallpaper and tile designer Katie Deedy (her "Cattail" tile design is shown here), people aren’t afraid of being quirky and trendy and showing their own taste in their homes. With the rise of Airbnb-driven style, people are now seeking out unusual, memorable design as part of their Airbnb experience and then bringing it back to their own spaces.

Product designers are gravitating toward juicy, fun colors and objects with silly, animated faces that recall the oddball style of Pee-wee's Playhouse, as in this silly dish scrubber from Susan Alexandra's NYC shop.

The Lower East Side boutique Coming Soon is a harbinger of trends to come in home design including bright colors, mushroom and organic shapes and delightful household objects with personality like this table.

Design house Tomma Bloom's Meta Ornament features components that blur the line between wall coverings and artworks that homeowners can arrange in any size on their walls.

Whether sampling the color scheme of sinew and bones or evoking the skeletal system in lamps or this modular Ledoux shelving system from Piscina, the body was very much on designers' minds at the ICFF.

Designer Malcolm Majer creates sculptural furniture using reclaimed scrap material to create something utterly new.

Pet owners are no longer content with ugly plastic scratching posts and food bowls for their beloved animals. At ICFF, students from the Rochester Institute of Technology teamed up with the ModKat modern litter box design brand to create inventive, high-design pet beds, scratch pads and other accessories that put good looks front and center.

A scratching post and chill-out space for a cat, this clever, high-design cat jungle gym was created by students at the Rochester Institute of Technology.

The two-tone Benedict Pendant from Brooklyn-based Trella Studio is in keeping with the spirit of fun in color and form driving modern design and also harkens back to the Space Age sense of joy and discovery in a new era.

A woman-owned disruptor in the industry, Erica Hill's Sparrow is a contemporary funeral home with a wellness shop featuring candles, cards, throws and other items Hill calls "comforting goods," as well as beautifully designed handmade urns created by artists. "If someone is grieving, what's a gift that you would want to give them that would feel thoughtful and that they would enjoy — maybe help brighten their day a little bit?" says Hill of the kind of merchandise she likes to curate for her Greenpoint, Brooklyn shop. Sparrow is just one part of Hill's funeral parlor for the 21st century, which features a wellness-centric approach, intentional design with locally made artwork on display, lots of light and soothing pastels and soft florals and a more thoughtful approach to offering comfort. Sparrow is the result of Hill's own early experience with loss and attending funerals for friends where she says, "Whatever I had just experienced didn't at all feel like something my friends would have liked. And the spaces we were in would be very depressing." For Hill, Sparrow is an extension of the wellness trend but at a deeper level. "I think we're working towards [thinking] about how do we continue to care for ourselves and others when loss happens?"

Because of COVID, many people have been reappraising their lives and wanting to break from the usual way of doing things. Mavericks are disrupting all kinds of industries, including the funeral industry where companies like Greenpoint, Brooklyn's Sparrow are offering these beautifully designed, thoughtful alternatives to the usual funeral urn.