#icff2016

Design for delight- isn’t this always the main directive behind the act of creating?  Whether developing a building, room, or a single chair, the creative process from concept to reality, should inspire happiness. With happiness, there is a beauty that which all great artists seek to continuously express.

Wilsonart, a Texas-based manufacturer of decorative engineered surfaces, has helped shape young talents for twelve years now. The annual Wilsonart Challenges Student Chair Competition is one that empowers. The competition encourages future designers to reach beyond function and to project emotion into their work through a unique narrative using the versatile Wilsonart Laminate Collection. The results are always refreshing and innovative.

 This year, students at Detroit’s College for Creative Studies were prompted to ‘design for delight’. The winner and runners-up celebrated their chair creations and, indeed, they delighted sitters at the 2016 International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF) in New York City.

We, a select group of Modenus Design Hounds, were there to absorb and share design inspiration and we descended on this particular event with full fervor. As designers and writers, we believe in all that Wilsonart Challenges is about; a student design scholarship program that fosters the careers of emerging furniture designers in North America.  

The winning entry, called Prelude, by Stephen Marchio, is a thoughtful piece that delivers on all points. Its craftsmanship plays between pure abstraction and deconstructivism. The bold statement chair has a certain De Stijl essence in its simplified planes of form and colour and breaks into radical complexities like a Frank Gehry structure.

“The winning chair swept us off our feet,” says the director of Wilsonart Challenges, Grace Jeffers. “The slanting angles of this chair are an optical illusion, which distract us from the fact that the lines of this form are perfect right angles. It’s a visual puzzle that the judges couldn’t stop thinking about.”

 Accompanying Marchio’s design, were five runner-up creations that engaged the audience with post-modernist and whimsical interpretations of a chair. Each expressed a most definite individuality and the emotion was palpable on every surface and angle.

The Geode Chair, designed by first runner-up, Zachary Boomer, represents the raw quality beauty of a geode cracked open. Wonderfully tactile and faceted, this organic-meets-geometric perch is one that many were drawn towards. I suspect it has everything to do with our fascination of nature’s marvels and complexities.

 Alejandra Bucco’s Pie Chair delighted us all. The design is a colourful pop-art rendition that simply brings joy.

 Explore the many ways one can sit or recline on Kiho Jeong’s Root Bench. The modernist form seems to morph and conform at every angle.

 The clean Scandinavian form of Scott Pancioli’s S1 chair takes an elegant stance between positive and negative space. It’s clearly defined and brings a beautiful sense of calm.

And Adam Whittaker takes the art of the chair to another level with his En Throne design. Its strong circular silhouette of intense blue could not be missed. I appreciate its complex simplicity and I see the beauty in that.

This is my second opportunity to experience and write about the creative student works as inspired by Wilsonart Challenges. Two years ago, other challenges were met by the University of Houston students.  A common thread is in their expression of individual uniqueness, and through each story, the young visionaries weave their own happiness and beauty. This year, the students of the College for Creative Studies continue the journey of personal discovery and artful expression as they design for delight.