Our Favorite Finds at New York Design Week 2019 — Part II

With our OFFSITE show taking the year off, the biggest question we got this week wasn’t “What have you seen that’s good?” but rather “Doesn’t it feel great to do nothing?” And while the latter question was valid (and the answer an emphatic yes), the fact that our schedules were free and easy this year actually allowed us to see even more that was quite good. We attended ICFF and Wanted for the first time in years, and while ICFF has gotten eerily quiet, there were plenty of OFFSITE alums and hypercolorful kitchen and bath fixtures to keep things interesting. (In fact, one of the best things at the Javits was a series of fronts for IKEA cabinets designed by three faves: Muller Van Severen, Note Design Studio, and David Thulstrup for Reform.) Meanwhile, over at Wanted’s Industry City and Manhattan locations, we found two of our favorite solo presentations from the week — a continuation of Ian Cochran’s Jell-O-esque resin series and the results of a glass residency Elyse Graham did in France — as well as a few interesting group exhibitions. For Timber!, curator Hannah Martin asked designers working in Industry City to create a piece from wood, while the students in Pete Oyler and Jonah Takagi’s studio course at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago created objects exploring the concept of obsolescence. Scroll through for some of our favorites from the two big New York shows.