Highlights of the International Contemporary Furniture Fair 2012

This URBIO vertical garden (myurbio.com) is a magnetic modular system that attaches to any surface for indoor or outdoor vertical gardening.

Last week, I attended the International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF) in New York, an annual show at the Javitz Center which attracts designers from around the world to see the most innovative designs and the newest trends in furniture and industrial design. Here’s a sample of the products I liked the most.

Rachel O’Neill hails from Ireland and makes wonderful chandeliers and other installations out of velcro.

She uses various colors and metals to achieve a modern minimal look.

From Valencia, Spain, the company Solisombra (meaning sun and shade) makes furniture and accessories that can be used indoors and out. They designed a modular product that the customer can play with to create a room divider, wall installation, sculpture, etc.

Peteris Zilbers from Latvia designed a lamp that is looks like a broom. Via remote control, you can choose your light color to change the entire mood of a room.

From Taiwan, HAO SHI was such a pleasure to look at, first because everything was all white, but also because they were showing such random types of products— necklaces, rings, wall clocks, and lights—all with an incredible level of detail. Tiny objects like the animal rings were handcrafted of resin and metal.

And speaking of clocks, Diamantini & Domenicone from Italy make wonderful clocks in many different varieties and looks, including the cuckoo.

Another super avant-garde company is INFLATE that makes inflatable structures than can be used as booths, offices, events, and temporary exhibitions. It’s like an “ office in a bag” and can be up and running in less than 10 minutes.

Graypants is a company that makes, among other things, what they call the “scraplight series” made of corrugated boxes cut with a laser. They come in a full variety of shapes and sizes.

Richard Elaver has created a modular system that can be combined to create many diferent forms, structures and shapes.

Molo Design is a company in Vancouver, Canada, that makes kraft paper products that ship flat and then expand into room partions, poufs, and lights.