The Best of New York Design Week 2017

Two.Parts, located in Brooklyn, is a studio focused on 3D-printed ceramic lighting pieces with "clandestine" LED sources. The company is led by architect Christo Logan.

Umbra Shift is an extension of Umbra, focused on contemporary influences in the design community. This is the first collection for the company by New York-based designer Harry Allen. 

Esque Studio is led by Andi Kovel and Jeff Parker, who have been collaborating for over 20 years. 

Renate Vos is based in the Netherlands, and appeared in New York as part of the Human Nature exhibition of Ventura New York at WantedDesign.

A frequently featured artist at Colony, Hiroko Takeda spent many years honing her craft working in Japan, Paris, and later, for Jack Lenor Larsen in New York. She runs her own eponymous firm based in Brooklyn. 

Founded in 2003, Matter is an extremely influential design store located in Manhattan. Founder and creative director Jamie Gray collaborates with world-renowned architects and designers, including Pedro Paolo Venzon. 

Oeuffice was founded in 2011 as a collaboration between Nicolas Bellavance-Lecompte and Jakub Zak. Their limited-edition pieces have appeared in top galleries all over the world. 

Spanish lighting company Marset launched in 1946, and has grown to encompass a huge inventory of lighting pieces by a number of architects and designers, including Christophe Mathieu. 

Founded by Zesty Meyers and Evan Snyderman in 1997, R 20th Century is dedicated to the study, appreciation, and preservation of 20th and 21st century design. Their current exhibition on architect Ali Tayar is the first comprehensive survey of the celebrated architect/designer since his death in 2016.

Jerry Helling, president and creative director of Bernhardt Design, has established a long career of cultivating design talent and producing quality furnishings in the United States. He worked closely with Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia on the Neighborhood collection, which consists of 38 separate modular pieces. 

Moving Mountains is a design studio led by Syrette Lew.

Secto Design creates works made of PEFC certified Finnish birch veneers that are form-pressed into blanks. The blanks are cut into slats, which are sanded and finally connected using rings of aircraft plywood. The slats are glued and nailed to the rings. All the work is carried out in Finland. 

A misleading aspect of this shot is the scale of the Bicoca lamps—they are actually quite diminutive. All the easier to take with you on a trek outside! 

It should come as no surprise that we are huge fans of Jasper Morrison here at Dwell. We are also huge fans of Pennsylvania-based Emeco, for their dedication to authentic design, sustainable practices, and inventory of well-designed furnishings. This is a much anticipated collection and collaboration, and we were thrilled to see its Milan AND US debut. 

Lulu Mena, both the company and the person, were recent discoveries for the Dwell team, and we are excited to share more information about Lulu, who is a pioneer in the reactivation process of indigo farming and its use in handmade products, primarily textile dyes. She designs, develops, and commercializes her inventory of sustainable, eco-friendly products that are handmade by Salvadoran artisans under fair trade standards.

We've been following DittoHouse for quite some time, and appreciate their company philosophy as well as their graphic aesthetic. Located in Cleveland, Ohio, Fitzgerald also leads a surface design studio called DittoRepeats. 

These striking pieces were constantly being photographed at WantedDesign NYC, and obviously we were one of the many clamoring for a shot. We think it's pretty safe to say that young artist Ara Levon Thorose, who received an MFA in 3D Design from Cranbrook Academy of Art in 2015, is off to a strong start. 

Located in Edwardsville, Illinois, designer John Beck creates a wide range of custom pieces, including lighting, sliding doors and furnishings. 

Another infinitely talented creative type whom we've been following for many years, Anna Karlin is a designer that never disappoints. Her wide range of creations span medium, from furniture and jewelry to set design and art direction. Anna Karlin is based in New York. 

One of the most constantly knocked-off pieces in the world, the Navy Chair was first designed in the 1940s for use on submarines and is Emeco's most iconic piece. 

We are always looking for smart design solutions that aren't permanent, especially for our many readers that rent rather than own their homes. That's why we were so intrigued by this collection from Mod—not only are the designs extremely eye-catching, the possibilities are truly endless. 

Thank goodness for Jaime Derringer, the founder of Design Milk. We don't know how she does it, but this woman—artist, entrepreneur—is everywhere. At ICFF she curated the Milk Stand, comprised of many enterprising designers and makers. One such talented company, Tiny Badger Ceramics, was on-hand to sell their popular porcelain pieces, which is a good thing—they seem to be completely sold out on their website. The company is in the process of moving their operation to San Diego. 

If you happen to be in New York, be sure to check out the exhibition of Ali Tayar's work entitled Systems and One-Offs at R & Company, before the show ends June 15. 

Rapid prototyping is this Amsterdam-based designer's jam. Dirk van der Kooij has been seriously exploring the limitations of 3D printing since 2010, when he inherited an old machine and started noodling around for his final project at Design Academy Eindhoven. He won the Dutch Design Award in 2011 for creating the first robot that could extrude furniture pieces from 100% recycled material. 

Venezuelan-born industrial designer Pablo Pardo launched his eponymous company in San Francisco in 1993, rising to immediate acclaim with his creations Piccola and Sophie. 

Two Parts has enjoyed an increasing visibility since hitting the design scene in 2016, winning a good deal of respected awards. We appreciate the company's philosophy of experimentation and embrace of technology. 

Smart move on the part of 12th Avenue Iron, an independent studio specializing in large-scale projects led by Stephen Marks and Mark Christiansen, to launch a collection with architect Tom Kundig, principal of the highly respected firm Olson Kundig. Kundig's work in steel is well known and regarded in the industry as among the finest available. We are excited to learn more about 12th Avenue Iron, and were glad to have some one-on-one time with them on the ICFF show floor.

You can always count on Molo to lend an otherworldly look to the otherwise expected aesthetic of a trade show floor. The Canadian studio, led by Stephanie Forsythe, Todd MacAllen, and Robert Pasut, continues to push the possibilities with their core products while at the same time working hard to move forward into new realms. 

We really appreciated the work and effort demonstrated at Designed for the Mind, an collaborative exhibition produced by industrial design students at Pratt Institute, in collaboration with the Cooper Hewitt and CaringKind. It was an important collection of prototype furnishings and products intended for people diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, their families, and caregivers. Glad to see these issues are integrated at the student level, as empathy is surely the most solid foundation to good design thinking.

Both WantedDesign and Site Unseen have established reputations for being incubators and important platforms for emerging, student and independent designers. Without creative outlets of this kind, New York (and the United States at large) would not be able to compete on a global design stage. Through their efforts, New York Design Week has grown stronger each year.