#nucraft

For an event which  for some time been one of my most eagerly anticipated annual milestones, NEOCon fell kind of flat for me this year. Certainly I'm not sorry I went, but I was just kind of underwhelmed.

While there's no getting around the fact that NEOCon is simply a trade show - and trade shows can be fun - even when the stuff being marketed was less than spectacular, at NEOCon you could depend on an abundance of salesmanship and merchandising creativity in displaying the goods. And occasionally the products reflected real innovation and even an edge.

This year, for me, nothing really stood out. At Knoll, for example - where you could always depend on the introduction of something cool, or a new twist on their old favorites, I just didn't see it. The tableau at the entrance underscored this:

What does it say, really, that the Rem Koolhaas-designed "Counter" - introduced at NEOCon 2013 - is still the most interesting item in the Knoll space?

Or similarly that the elegant  chair by a "re-discovered" Charles Pollack that Bernhardt released, also last year at NEOCon

are the most appealing items on display there, too.

And while I've made this observation before, I've never quite understood the economics of the contract furnishings industry. It's just always amazed me that a trade show for an industry that doesn't generate  anything like the kind of dollars that hardware or restaurants do can attract the same crowds as the Hardware Show or the Restaurant Show.

But they do.

What really distinguishes NEOCon from most other trade shows is the venue. McCormick Place - where most trade shows in Chicago take place - is, architecturally, a remarkable complex in many respects.  But it's a convention center, much like convention centers all over the country.

When you live in Chicago you lose sight of how singular the Merchandise Mart is. There are other design centers in other places, but the vastness of the Merchandise Mart - as well as its colorful legacy and its architectural distinction - put it in its own category.  

So one of the highlights of the show was the Herman Miller Company's display of Eames shell chairs, making great use of the Mart's central lobby.

But on to the show.

Again, what distinguishes NEOCon from most other trade shows is that much of it takes place not on some convention center floor but in the show rooms the manufacturers maintain at the Mart [I'm guessing Market Week in High Point is probably similar]. So one of the best things about NEOCon is how the show room spaces transform themselves for the show. 

 If any vendor has consistently provided a distinctive presentation at NEOCon, it would be Maharam. Not that it's changed much in the last few iterations: The showroom space displays lengths of their carefully curated textile offerings  draped over rods suspended from the ceiling, with samples of the most recent Maharam Digital Projects on the side walls. The intention is always to present the merchandise as if it were fine art - and the quality of the textiles the house manufactures and certainly the artistic merit of the MDP works justify the treatment.

This year, they wanted to spotlight a new line of rugs, so they made a conscious decision to go completely minimal with the wall treatment. Instead of showing panels from as many as a dozen different of the MDP works, they've only used one this year - it's called Grid, by the Dutch design team Scholten & Baijings.

I guess part of the idea is to realize how it complements the accompanying textile

but I really missed the experience of seeing the MDP pieces at full size. They're very cool to look at on the firm's website, it's great to stand next to them.

While my impressions of Maharam's installation mirror my experience as a whole, there were plenty of positives.

It's harder to make an artistic impression when the product you're hawking doesn't lend itself to presentation like an art object. But the Interface flooring company managed to do something clever to promote their "Human Nature" brand of carpet tiles.

To reinforce the connection with the natural materials in the product, they've created installations that are huge versions of a diorama you might see at a summer craft fair

Vicki de Vuano, one of Interface's creatives, told me the "biophilic" approach to the installation suggests how nature inspires us - and its tactile nature is palpable. "It's all made of materials that beg to be touched," she said.

One of the things I like best about NEOCon is a certain reinforcement that furniture manufacturing continues to thrive in the midwest. Among the items Nucraft manufactures in Grand Rapids are the designs of Joey Ruiter

His "Kai" table is a really sleek object  -  the  walnut veneer top [here in a "Zinc" color]  really gives the impression of floating on its brushed stainless legs.

But in case the Michigan story isn't strong enough, the super-slick version of the table [below], finished in super glossy automobile paint - is a literal and conceptual allusion to the state's manufacturing legacy- here dazzlingly white, but you probably could do any color.

Similarly glamorous was Prismatique's enormous round conference table of back painted glass.

Molo

As in many previous years, I discovered that there are always personality stories.

I guess I must always have known that there was an actual person named Heller who developed all the Heller items we've seen at certain high design retailers for decades. The company has a tiny little space in the Mart that is only open during NEOCon.

But of course there is. He's a guy named Alan Heller.

What had never occurred to me, though, was the connection to Massimo Vignelli, who died earlier this year.

Heller told me he was selling restaurant equipment in the early 1970s and developed a taste for Italian design. Vignelli's stackable tablewares were first manufactured in Italy in 1964, but the original manufacturer quickly discontinued it. Heller tracked down the original molds and developed a long relationship with Vignelli.

What's interesting is the obvious connection between Heller

and Knoll

and the store which probably sold more of the Hellerware than anyone -