10 Things We Loved at the 2018 Collective Design Fair

There were, to say the least, a lot of changes at Collective Design this year — the largest, of course, being the week in which it was held. But ironically, the year that Collective broke from NYCxDesign's May calendar and moved to coincide with the Armory, Independent, and NADA, is the year it featured the most instances of contemporary furniture yet.
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Fiberglass, Corian, Rubber, and Resin: Welcome to the Materials-Obsessed World of Wentrcek/Zebulon

Brooklyn design duo Kristen Wentrcek and Andrew Zebulon began making work together six years ago as Wintercheck Factory. And while their moniker has recently changed, their work has always derived its impact from the tension between the what and the why — the “what” being a material language that enforces approachability, and the “why” embedded in how it all comes together to elevate the mundane.
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Week of March 5, 2018

A weekly Saturday recap to share with you our favorite links, discoveries, exhibitions, and more from the past seven days. This week: ceramic chainmail becomes a verifiable trend, Hyperallergic not-so-subtly shades The Armory, and the 26-year-old behind the @EttoreSottsass Instagram handle has more covetable furniture than our small staff combined.
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In Artisan-Heavy Guatemala, a Young Maker Forging a New Path in Industrial Design

The last time we featured the work of Sofia Véliz — a two-piece set of folded-steel gallery furniture made for a Diego Sagastume exhibition — we wondered what else the Guatemala City designer might have up her sleeve. Over a year and a half later, we’re finding out: From extracting rubber powder from tires to seeking inspiration from Finnish film sets, to exploring the balance between utilitarian design and the urge to experiment, there’s no question that the 25-year-old designer keeps herself busy.
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Detroit designer Chris Schanck at Friedman Benda

In a New Show, Chris Schanck Debuts Furniture Fit for an Alien King

If you're familiar with Detroit-based designer Chris Schanck's work, you can probably easily conjure an image of it in your mind — primitive yet shiny, lumpen yet somehow slick at the same time. Since 2011, when he was an MFA student at the Cranbrook Academy of Art, Schanck has been developing and refining a technique he calls Alufoil, which is responsible for that shiny, otherworldly aesthetic — it often looks as though Schanck is making executive furniture for an alien king.
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These Colorful Vases Are the Latest Sign that Acrylic Is on the Rise

Remember when we named the California Light and Space art movement one of the top trends to watch in 2017? Well, the evidence just keeps mounting. Seoul design trio Hattern say their new series of two-tone acrylic vases were inspired by the way Impressionist painters tried to capture the effects of changing light quality on nature, but we can't help but see elements of Vasa, Helen Pashgian, and Peter Alexander's work. Is acrylic the new marble?
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In Dreary London, A Mediterranean Eatery Inspired By the Sun

Are there new restaurants out there that aren't inspired by the seaside? First we had the Italian Riviera, then the Sydney coast, and now Omar's Place — a restaurant located smack in the middle of London but inspired by the Mediterranean. The interior was shaped by Sella Concept, a London-based female design duo whose concept for the space started with idea of the sun — the defining element of Mediterranean lifestyle.
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Week of February 26, 2018

A weekly Saturday recap to share with you our favorite links, discoveries, exhibitions, and more from the past seven days. This week: a conversation pit in the wild at The Wing DUMBO, a Mansur Gavriel store with approximately 25 percent less pink than the original, and a highlight from Milan Fashion Week (that did not involve baby dragons).
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The Cape Town Artist Making 3D Renders of Our Personal Paradise

Five years ago, Alexis Christodoulou was a copywriter at an ad agency, hating his job and looking for some sort of creative release. Intrigued by a friend using SketchUp, the 3D-modeling program, Christodoulou taught himself how to use it and a whole new world suddenly opened for the Cape Town–based artist. Obsessed, he began putting all of his time into these renderings — desaturated, pastel worlds full of reflective pools, strong shapes, and the best kind of shadow-making light.
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This London Flat Will Make You Want to Cover Your Walls With Concrete Tile

Darkroom founder Rhonda Drakeford recently launched a studio under own name, Studio Rhonda, for which she creates objects, interiors, installations, and even something like public art. Our favorite project is an interior renovation Drakeford undertook in which the 4x4 tile — once relegated to builder-grade status — gets an upgrade by using pigmented concrete, color-blocked and coordinated with the furniture, to create an interior that might be the most fun we've seen this year.
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Week of February 19, 2018

A weekly Saturday recap to share with you our favorite links, discoveries, exhibitions, and more from the past seven days. This week: a seriously chic restaurant interior in Moscow, a pair of sneakers by one of our favorite ceramicists, and the new Solange interview we all know we needed.
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