Design Forum: New Design Education Challenges

The Design Forum at Industry City closed the 12-day exhibitions and programming at WantedDesign Brooklyn. It included the Parsons Festival and schools exhibitions from ENSCI – les ateliers, Pratt Institute as well as from EPFL+ECAL Lab. The forum focused on design education and new challenges in educating design students, in the U.S. and abroad, with presentations from Lego Creative Director Jeremy Brazeal on the “Creative Curse” as well as a panel discussion introduced by Joel Towers, Executive Dean, Parsons School of Design. Special thanks to Keilhauer for supporting the program.
Read “On Design Education” by Joel Towers and “Creative Curse” by Jeremy Brazeal!

Visual Magnetics at WantedDesign 2015: Transforming How We Use Walls

Visual Magnetics’ collection for architecture and design, Dynamic Spaces, was a highlight of this year’s WantedDesign festival. From the opening night, where founders Claire Pijoulat and Odile Hainaut unveiled a transforming magnetic entryway wall that told the story the festival’s five year history, to installations at WantedDesign Brooklyn with Dusen Dusen and the Design Schools Workshop, and Visual Magnetics’ exhibit at WantedDesign Manhattan, the materials innovation company shifted views within the international design community on what walls can do and how they can work better for creatives. More

and the Winner is…

Kjartan Oskarsson is the winner of the WantedDesign Launch Pad 2015
The second edition of the Launch Pad program returned with a group of select market-ready prototypes from 24 international design studios and independent designers, who are looking for manufacturers, retailers, or distributors. On May 18, a jury of professionals reviewed the products and award the best. This year the Icelandic designer Kjartan Oskarsson received the Launch Pad prize, which consists in a free participation at WantedDesign 2016 and at WestEdge Design Fair in Los Angeles in October 2015. Chosen for the originality of his designs and concepts, Kjartan Oskarsson presented lamp prototypes that were innovative and met the quality standards to be put on the market. In addition, Sara Ouhaddou received a special recognition and will participate for the second time next year at the Launch Pad program at WantedDesign 2016. Sara Ouhaddou, who is French and Moroccan, presented a collection of ceramic tiles that stood out for their beauty as well as for the story behind this project. Her collection was created through a collaboration with Moroccan artisans, during which she revisited traditional Moroccan tile making in a contemporary way, while still supporting their local trade. The Jury included: Jaime Derringer, Founder and Executive Editor of Design Milk; Marva Griffin Wilshire, Salone del Mobile, Milano, Founder and Curator SaloneSatellite, International Press Director; Giulio Cappellini, Creative Director, Cappellini; Noah Schwarz, Director of Merchandising, Design Within Reach; and Paul Makovsky, Editorial and Brand Director, Metropolis Magazine.
You can see all the pictures HERE and the DesignMilk report on the Launch Pad HERE.
The LAUNCH PAD 2015 was supported by

Thank You!

We’d like to thank the 16,000+ visitors who came to visit WantedDesign during NYCxDESIGN. This year was special for WantedDesign with the launch of a new platform at Industry City, Brooklyn and with the celebration of our fifth anniversary in Manhattan.
On Saturday, May 9, we were proud to co host the NYCxDESIGN opening night and welcomed more than 4,000 guests at WantedDesign Brooklyn, kicking off all together the 12 days design celebration.
Focused on design education, experimentation, and the maker’s process, WantedDesign Brooklyn hosted a very successful new edition of our Design Schools Workshop around the theme of Design Forever, as well as the Parsons Festival, the Design Forum, design exhibits and large-scale installations.

At WantedDesign Manhattan, we brought back our Conversation Series program, and the Launch Pad, won by Kjartan Oskarsson. For the first time we introduced the American Design Honors co-presented with Bernhardt Design, honoring Egg Collective design trio as first recipient. This year, more than 120 companies and over 22 countries were represented including, Argentina, Colombia, Poland, Norway, Spain, Ireland, Mexico, Canada, New Zealand, Japan, and Italy to showcase their work at WantedDesign Manhattan.

Both platforms brought together international designers, interior designers, architects, retailers, manufacturers, professional design organizations, media, and design lovers making WantedDesign the key destinations during NYCxDESIGN.

Thank you again to all of you, participants, partners, visitors and industry friends who made WantedDesign’s fifth year a huge success. Stay tuned for more events to come starting this Fall.

The Design Forum at WantedDesign Brooklyn

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