Quickly gaining the reputation as the classiest contemporary furniture fair in the U.S., the Chicago Design Show opens Thursday for a four-day run at The Merchandise Mart.
For those who have been searching for something different–maybe a cocktail table that looks like a piece of modern sculpture or a revolving bookcase made of brilliantly colored glass or a leather armchair with such sharp angles and lines that it bears no resemblance to anything clubby and proper–this is a show that should not be missed.
Now in its third year, the annual Chicago Design Show, which is open to the public on the last two days of its run, brings together contemporary-minded exhibitors from the U.S. and abroad in a setting that looks and feels more like an enormous gallery exhibition than a trade fair.
For a $15 entrance fee, consumers can expect to see approximately 200 lines of contemporary home furnishings (mostly furniture, but also lighting products, rugs and other textiles, accessories and kitchens) in a total of 150 booths. Exhibitors include manufacturers, distributors, designer and retail showrooms and individual furniture-makers/designers. Although those numbers are about the same as last year, some significant differences exist.
First of all, the show is about 50 percent larger in square footage, thanks to many exhibitors taking out larger booths that will allow them to spread out more products. Because of that sprawl, the Mart has moved the show to its new second-floor Market Suites, which is good news all around. The space is lighter and airier, and the second floor is easily accessed via escalators and stairs, which eliminates the Mart’s nightmarish problems with elevators during high-crowd times.
But even more significant than size is the exhibitor makeup. This year’s show will be decidedly European on one hand, and decidedly Midwestern on the other.
A hefty 40 percent of the exhibitors (up from 25 to 30 percent in the first two years) will be showing European contemporary products–Italian products, in particular. That heavy continental flavor can be explained in large part by the folding of the Italian Design Furniture Show into the Chicago event. Previously held in Las Vegas, the Italian fair, which focuses on companies that are new to the American market, brings 40 Italian furniture manufacturers to the show mix.
Call it the excitement factor in this year’s show, according to G. David Drury, managing director of marketing, design center division, Merchandise Mart Properties Inc.
“It’s tough when you are launching a new show,” explains Drury, of the Chicago Design Show. “In the first year of a show, the novelty factor makes it newsworthy and important. The second year is challenging because it’s a year of growth.
“In the third year, it gets to be really challenging. Continue to grow? Yes, we hope so. But what is going to make it different and exciting and unique?” continues Drury, answering his own question with those 40 Italian makers who will be exhibiting as a group on the western end of the floor.
No doubt, the Italian presence lends a certain prestige to the exhibition. Italy is the world’s leader in contemporary furniture production, a title the U.S. relinquished several decades ago with the passing of the era of Charles and Ray Eames, George Nelson, Florence Knoll and other Midcentury Modernism masters.
In New York last spring at the International Contemporary Furniture Fair, which is the other design show of international scope and merit in this country, the Italian/European contingent also was stronger than ever. Some of Europe’s most important designers (Jasper Morrison, Piero Lissoni, Tom Dixon, Maarten Van Severen) dashed about the show floor, made headline appearances in downtown showrooms, even led seminars and did the nighttime party scene.
To the delight of European furniture makers, Americans are starting to show interest in their products. That guarantees more European furniture designers and manufacturers at U.S. trade shows, hoping to grab a piece of the bountiful American pie.
Which doesn’t seem to upset too many American designers coming to the Chicago Design Show.
“I look at it as a positive because there are so many people interested in that (European) furniture. They are going to come to the show for that (reason), but they will see my furniture too,” says Chicago furniture designer/fabricator Pradeep Shimpi, whose company is called Shiani Inc. “They’ll say, `He does European-style furniture with the extreme lines, and he’s here (in Chicago).’ And on top of that, I can offer customization.”
Shimpi is one of more than 40 exhibitors who hail from the Midwest–and that’s a treat. Midwestern design has been nearly invisible for years–what little was shown was overshadowed by the design consortia that have formed in San Francisco and Los Angeles and by the perpetually hip New York design crowd.
Apparently that crowd doesn’t travel, though. Designers and fabricators from SoHo and Brooklyn are almost completely absent from the show mix.
“I am surprised,” says Angela Adams, a rug designer from Maine, who will be returning to the Chicago show after hitting it big last year with several corporate commissions that came her way via the exhibition. “This is a very sophisticated show.
Indeed, sophistication distinguishes the Chicago Design Show from others in the U.S.
By far the more established event, the ICFF has suffered image problems over its 11 years. Although this year’s ICFF was cleaned up considerably, in the past, the New York-based show has featured a hodgepodge of exhibitors. Craft-oriented exhibitors mixed with beanbag chair-makers mixed with sleek European designers.
From the get-go, Mart officials in Chicago pinpointed that weakness in the ICFF and made it their mission to establish stricter criteria for participation.
For show-goers, all of that translates into a smart, nicely edited selection of home furnishings. And it means a certain high-end price point. Most everything at the Chicago Design Show will command prices in the four digits–even a simple chair.
Unfortunately, the whole matter of prices and salesmanship gets a bit sticky, and Mart officials have done their best to skirt the issue. There is no enforced uniformity among exhibitors in their approach to dealing with consumers–or not dealing with them.
And so, the consuming public–as opposed to designers and architects–should expect a little bit of everything. Some exhibitors will sell directly to consumers. Some will insist that a designer or architect make the purchase. (There will not be designers roaming the exhibition floor to facilitate sales, as there were in past years. Mart officials say very few consumers actually used the service to make purchases.)
Other exhibitors will advise consumers of retail stores or showrooms that sell their products. And still others (notably the Italian contingent who may not have U.S. representation) will take names and phone numbers of consumers interested in their products and contact them later when distribution is established here.
And, finally, any of the above exhibitors might sell consumers a sample from the booth once the show closes.
———-
THE FACTS
Chicago Design Show
– What: An exhibition of contemporary furnishings
– When: Thursday and Friday (to the design trade only), Saturday and Nov. 7 (to the trade and public)
– Hours: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Thursday through Saturday; noon to 5 p.m., Nov. 7
– Where: 2nd floor of The Merchandise Mart, Kinzie and Wells Streets; registration on the ground-floor lobby; conference programs in The Merchandise Mart Conference Center, which is in The Chicago Apparel Center, but just across the pedestrian bridge on the same level
– Cost: $15 on-site (includes a $3 coupon to be used toward admission to SOFA 1999 Chicago, the annual Sculpture, Objects and Functional Art exposition at Navy Pier)
– Highlights:
– Seminars: $20 for most sessions; $10 for a walking tour sponsored by the Chicago Architecture Foundation
– Party: 6 to 8 p.m. Friday on the show floor on The Mart’s 2nd floor; tickets, $35 a person, include cocktails and hors d’oeuvres from 13 Chicago restaurants
– Call: 800-677-6278 or 312-527-7600
– Web site: www.chicagode-sign.com
