Visiting WilsonArt's Booth At ICFF with #DesignHounds to Learn About Their Student Competition

Collaborating With DesignHounds at ICFF:

First Stop is WilsonArt to View an Innovative 

Design Student Chair Competition

Yesterday I spent the day with Veronika Miller's #DESIGNHOUNDS at my favorite design show in New York City, ICFF.  Not only was it great fun, but a learning experience to boot as we traveled the two floors at ICFF together talking to the brands and artisans!  WilsonArt was one of our sponsors for the day and invited us into their booth to see up-close their projects and materials.  In addition to seeing their state of the art materials, we learned about WilsonArt's annual philanthropic student-driven project, a special chair design competition challenging Detroit design students.  Each chair was showcased in WilsonArt's booth and the students were on-hand to answer questions about their designs.

 Here's the skinny:

Students at the College for Creative Studies were invited to craft a chair for the 12^th Annual Wilsonart® Challenges Student Chair Design Competition. Using materials from Wilsonart® Laminate Collection, these young artists created innovative chair designs.  Wilsonart invited the winning chair and five runners up to debut their chairs in their booth at the 2016 International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF).  Materials, laminate and colors offered by Wilsonart® Laminate offer the students a wide range of design choices. The College for Creative Studies is located in the heart of Detroit, and educates artists and designers to be leaders in the creative professions. 

About the Winner:

Stephen Marchio is the competition’s winner for chair, Prelude.

The form embraces the tension between construction and deconstruction, between fine craftsmanship and that which is “malfatto” or “badly made” in a playful sense.

My Favorite Chair:

Adam Whittaker's En Throne chair is bright and complicated.  It's at once sculptural, graphic and playful.  It is composed of simple shapes and almost has a child-like feel to it at first glance, but the more you spend time sitting upon it and looking at it, the layers of design and composition shine through.  It has a whimsical and dramatic aesthetic and I love the bold blue color!  I took a few photos of different people on the chair and it's graphic nature makes it beautiful to photograph -- it's a wonderful work of art!

Check out the other fantastic chairs..

Kiho Jeong, Root Bench

Alejandra Bucco, Pie Chair

Scott Pancioli, Chair S1

 Zachary Boomer, Geode Chair

About Wilsonart:

Wilsonart is a manufacturer of decorative engineered surfaces, and hosting this unique challenge makes it the longest running student design competition of its kind in the U.S. The program is incorporated into the students’ curriculum, challenging the future generation of designers to go above and beyond form and function to encapsulate a story and project an emotion with their body of work, all the while celebrating the versatility of laminate. 

The exhibit and show runs through Tuesday, so if you are heading to ICFF, 
it's a must see! 

Happy Nesting

XO Tamara