Editing is a chronic task I grapple with when thinking about posts for this site. ICFF + Wanteddesign is probably the most challenging event I regularly attend. I swing back and forth between doing a lot of documenting and being more selective with what capture. There’s a lot to filter through at Javits and the 2025 edition I discovered required the later strategy. So take this as something of a highlights tour. A collection of the distinctive shapes, colors and ideas that caught my eye.
Highlight mentions:
EDM music festival Tomorrowland made their US debut of Morpho, a furniture collection mixing Art Nouveau and naturalistic forms. Morpho isn’t just a one-off limited edition run. Through a production collaboration with Ethnicraft, the brand will be further developed and the line expanded to more pieces. Eagerly awaiting a dj console.
Heller’s product introductions included a new plastic and glass honeycomb modular shelving system. The broader story at the booth was about Heller’s use of worry free plastics. This involves including an organic enzyme during manufacturing. If the product ends up in a landfill or underwater in a zero oxygen environment, micro organisms begin to eat and transform the plastic into soil over the span of roughly 5 years.
Handcrafted lighting maker Larose Guyon presented their sculptural fixtures in a dreamy, etherial booth made from layers of suspended translucent fabric. One of the most visually unique and strongest booth experiences of the show.
OMG(Objects Mathematically Generated) are a sister and brother pairing of designer Chloe Bolton and math wiz Jules. Their line of textiles and prints are derived from programming equasions written by Jules while Chloe edits and develops colorways and oversees production.
Lastly, ceramicist Dustin Barzell wanted to try a different medium from clay. He turned to ChatGPT and learned electronics and programming from scratch resulting in Byte Lights, hyper colorful led animated lighting. He went from zero knowledge to exhibiting at Wanteddesign in under a year.
Photos and Text: Dave Pinter
