For anyone wanting a fresh look at the design scene in the US, we’ll be providing it in May with the fourth installment of WantedDesign.  Started in 2011 with the support and involvement of many NY- and US-based companies and design representatives, WantedDesign is in large part a platform to promote and build the American design industry.
Visitors to this year’s event can discover new initiatives and emerging talent from the full panorama of the American landscape, from Chicago, to Seattle, to Austin, to Boston, to, not least, New York City. Participating will be as well students from various US design schools, major industry names such as Bernhardt Design and Design Within Reach, and prominent American design organizations and museums.

Here is a first overview of what you can see at WantedDesign this May and who you can meet…

In an age where there is an app for everything, individual creativity can be buried under an avalanche of electronic noise. Through an experiential exhibition, Bernhardt Design will introduce two young Brooklyn-based designers whose very human and personal work shows that the human touch is still irreplaceable in our digital world.

This year at WantedDesign, DWR will preview a selection of new, exclusive product from designers such as Egg Collective, Matthew Hilton, Norm Architects, and Chris Hardy and Jens Risom. Representative of DWR’s product development philosophy, these collections possess quality in material and construction without superfluous detail and only get better with time.

Juniper is a New York-based design and manufacturing company founded in 2011. The ethos of the company was formed around the belief that good design is essential and holds the power to change people’s lives. Juniper promotes this ideal by offering thoughtful solutions in lighting, furniture and accessories that address the way people live today. Akin to the Juniper tree, after which the company is named, each product embodies simplicity and naturalism in form and function, while holding durability and adaptability at the root.

Coming from Seattle this year at WantedDesign, seven design studios. From large furniture piece to textile to lighting, there will be a great representation of the Seattle design community. Part of the group: 16th Workshop, Chadhaus, fruitsuper design, Piano Nobile, Seattle Design Bureau, Standard Socket and Urbancase.

Hatch Hub will show that It’s time to shake things up. HatchHub.com is a design meritocracy where the best designs are made and promoted. They provide support for prototyping, manufacture, sales and distribution. They curate great products from talented independent designers and they crowd source design problems to issue as challenges for our community of designers to solve.

First year graduate students designed and developed products suitable for inclusion in Loll’s catalog in consideration of the following architectural context: Entryway. Students utilized Loll’s recycled plastic as a primary material to explore this condition. This course introduced industrial design students to a working relationship with a client using a combination of seminar and workshop formats. The output was framed by the tenets of the Vignelli design philosophy, the teaching tools available from RIT’s Vignelli Archives and molded by the brief set by Loll Designs.

Chicagoland is back at WantedDesign for the second year. Chicagoland will showcase new work by AKMD, Steven Haulenbeek, Sung Jang Laboratory, Chilab, Manifold, Materious, studioBA and Collection WEST. The exhibition is organized by Morgan Walsh, with support from Michael Dreeben and Steven Haulenbeek; graphic design by Michael Savona; exhibition support generously provided by West Supply. More…

ILEX, Architectural Lighting will launch the ILEX Designer Series, a collaborative partnership with six preeminent and emerging American designers: Michael Graves, Laura Kirar, Chris Poehlmann, Mick Ricereto, Kevin Walz, and Michael Wolk. Each designer will present a collection reflecting a distinct aesthetic and unique perspective on architectural lighting suitable for contract and residential settings.

For her third participation at WantedDesign, Debra Folz will certainly surprise us with new creations like she does every year. Debra Folz Design is a Boston based studio realizing furniture, tabletop and home accessories for exhibition and production through material exploration & conceptual curiosity. While blurring the boundaries between disciplines and their assigned material identities, a consistent focus is lent to the incorporation of textile and pattern languages within furniture forms. Motivated by the translation of traditional craft and manufacturing methods into contemporary visual languages and objects, collaboration and the ambition to learn new ways of making is key to her process.

Michael Garman is both the mind and hands behind the boutique design firm Garman Furniture. He creates each prototype in his studio outside of Houston Texas– believing that “Furniture should be lived with and interacted with,” he says. “It should be something you want to touch and kick your feet up on – a piece of interactive art.” Garman honed his artistic eye while earning degrees in fine art and architecture from the Rhode Island School of Design.

For a full list of exhibitors, click here