It is still the Midwest’s most significant exhibition of contemporary home furnishings. But the sixth annual Chicago Design Show, which opens Thursday at The Merchandise Mart for a four-day run and welcomes anybody with $15 for an entrance ticket, will differ significantly from its five former selves.
Gone will be the strong Italian presence that Mart officials dutifully have cultivated over the years. The 40 or so Italian manufacturers that have wowed showgoers in the past with a group exhibit of ultraslick furniture (which was largely unavailable in this country, but sure was fun to look at) will not be crossing the Atlantic.
Nor will more than a handful of young, hip furniture designers from the West Coast be making the trip to Chicago.
And also not coming are several local anchors that have taken huge booths in the past. Holly Hunt (who runs one of the largest and most venerable showrooms in The Mart) won’t be bringing her beautiful Christian Liaigre (French modern-primitive) furniture to the show floor. Neither will Luminaire (one of the country’s premier importers of modern European design) haul over from its River North showroom an always-spectacular presentation of minimally minded chairs and tables.
Instead, showgoers should expect a strong Midwest focus.
They should expect an emphasis on smaller companies.
And they should expect furniture that is accessible to the average consumer right here, right now (in stores or showrooms, by special order). This is not the trade-show expo of past years, where a good number of exhibitors were fishing for distributors and had little interest in selling to the general public.
“We were transitioning toward a show like this last year. . . . how to be more consumer oriented,” says Kim Daley, a spokeswoman for The Merchandise Mart. Daley insists it wasn’t Sept. 11 that gave the show its new focus, but that it was a natural evolution.
Although Mart officials still tout the significance of the Chicago Design Show to the trade (interior designers and architects), it clearly has evolved into an event that is tailor-made for homeowners and apartment dwellers who want to see a whole load of contemporary furniture in one place–and then, perhaps, buy.
(The Mart is even offering exhibitors extra storage space within the building, so that they can stock tabletop items and smaller pieces of furniture to sell from their booths.)
Homegrown and handmade
In all, there will be approximately 95 exhibitors, and more than half are from the Midwest and, likely, the Chicago metropolitan area. They include small design firms, individual artisans, trade showrooms, a few manufacturers and a hefty number of retail furniture stores that are scattered about the area’s hotbeds of design (River North, Bucktown, Gold Coast).
Among them: AETA; The Golden Triangle; Primitive Art Works; Mig and Tig Furniture; No Place Like; Sawbridge Studios; Thos. Moser Cabinetmakers; The Morson Collection; and Stitch. Their interpretation of “contemporary” ranges from Asian modern to hip-and-cool with solid wood craftsmanship and European chic in between.
But, no doubt, what will make or break this year’s show and determine its relevance in the future, will be the quality of individual artisans and small design firms that Mart officials have mined primarily from the Midwest. These are the folks the average consumer and trade professional cannot find readily on the street. And they will inject that all-important element of surprise onto the show floor.
Among them is Flux Design of Milwaukee, a consortium of 12 artists and designers–many of them graduates of The Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design–with an average age of 26 and a zeal for making uncommon furniture, concrete countertops, dancing cages (for a nightclub in Milwaukee), a 3-foot-diameter crown of thorns made of hand-bent steel bar (for an Episcopalian monastery), you name it.
“We want to do Chicago,” says Jeremy Shamrowicz, Flux’s enthusiastic president and co-owner, who notes that the company’s goal is to expand beyond its Wisconsin roots. The artists and designers work in a variety of materials (the office manager is a sculptor who also likes to blow glass; one of the welders has a degree in illustration) and can do everything from graphic design for a restaurant menu to sinks and countertops that look like marble but are actually Flux’s own concrete cocktail. (The process could involve grinding up bronze, iron, leaves or seashells and then inlaying those powders or liquids into or onto the concrete and, perhaps, coating the result, Shamrowicz says.)
Flux will be bringing many of those concrete samples plus a selection of its sculptural furniture in wood and metal–including a spectacular glass-topped table whose base is composed of many thin rods of steel, hand-bent cold and welded together into the shape of a tree.
Not to be overlooked
And then there’s the Shalaby Design Crew, a relatively new design firm from Oklahoma City, which wants to redesign “overlooked objects”–like doorstops and air-conditioning grilles.
“You might as well make the ceiling look interesting,” says Sherif Shalaby, co-owner of the two-man firm, in referring to the new grilles. They come in bright colors and could be round with cutouts inspired by the uneven pattern of bar codes or the word “air” written in Braille.
And finally, a perennial highlight: Berthold Schwaiger.
The German-born, Forest Park-based master woodworker and his seven students at the BauHaus Apprenticeship Institute are assembling an Artisan’s Home within their booth.
It contains a kitchen, bedroom and living and dining room and showcases at least 16 pieces of exquisitely crafted furniture (all made from Northern Illinois hardwood) and complemented by other handmade linens and art, including a modern quilt by Weeks Ringle and Bill Kerr of FunQuilts. The Oak Park-based quilters also will have a booth at the show.
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Chicago Design Show 2002
What: An exhibition of contemporary furnishings; 95 booths; many from the Midwest
When: Thursday through Nov. 10
Hours: 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Thursday through Saturday; noon to 5 p.m. Nov. 10
Where: 2nd floor of The Merchandise Mart, Kinzie and Wells Streets; registration in the ground-floor lobby; seminars in The Merchandise Mart Conference Center, 2nd floor
Cost: $15 (ticket is good for all days of the show); seminars free with entrance ticket
Special exhibitions/features:
– “CloudNine,” 600 square feet of suspended spaces, furniture and objects–floating motionless, held by stainless-steel cables–in which to recharge the senses. Designed by Chicago architect Robert Bernstein
– “Future Furniture,” a juried photo exhibition showcasing at least 12 designs by emerging architects and designers from around the world
– “Crave,” three cooking demonstrations a day at the Studio Snaidero Chicago kitchen booth, featuring Chicago area chefs including Don Yamauchi of Le Francais in Wheeling and Spago’s Francois Kwaku-Dongo.
– Designer Consultations, free 20-minute consultations every half hour until 5 p.m. daily. Designers will answer decorating questions, help make sense of a difficult floor plan, etc. Sample work from each designer will be posted. Bring ample supporting materials (photos, floor plans, fabric swatches, paint chips) to facilitate a productive meeting. Available on a first-come, first-serve basis. Sign up at the show or online before opening day. Visit www.merchandisemart.com; click on Chicago Design Show and then on Designer Consultations.
Call: 800-677-6278 or 312-527-7600
Web site: www.merchandisemart.com; click on Chicago Design Show
— Karen Klages
