Josh Spear blogged Urbana Design today.

Sina met Derek Chen, the founder and designer behind Urbana, at a talk at the California College of Arts and Crafts here in San Francisco. He’s our peeps, largely because his studio is on the same block as Sina’s apartment where we started the company. He was kind enough to loan us his vases and trays for a photoshoot and to display in our DOWNTOWN booth.

People LOVED them. Press LOVED them. I think it’s the colors — they look like candy.

The most common question: “how does he do the color?” The answer: fabric, set underneath a resin. The second most common question: ‘Urbana is Derek’s hometown in Illinois.

See more Urbana.

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Curious what went on during NY Design Week ‘05? Here are four things you might enjoy:

1. Design Public launch. We relaunched Edge*Modern as Design Public! We did this to focus our brand more on fresh new design and community (I’ve written more on the reasons elsewhere). To celebrate the launch and bring our designers and customers together, we threw a launch party in the super-cool DOWNTOWN space. You can view the party photos, featuring some designer cameos, in our slideshow gallery.
2. Apartment Therapy contest. We co-sponsored a party with Apartment Therapy during which they announced the winner of their “Smallest Coolest Apartment Contest”. You can view photos from the party in our online slideshow. The winner? Patrick! Thanks to Maxwell and Paul at AT for including us in their fun event.
3. The DOWNTOWN show. We sponsored DOWNTOWN, NY’s leading alternative design show. We felt that as an online source of fresh new design, DOWNTOWN was close to our mission and a natural partner. You can do a virtual walk-thru of the event online and check out how we built our exhibitors booth. Lastly, if you want more information on each DOWNTOWN exhibitor, be sure to check out our online DOWNTOWN section — we put the whole show online. There’s a lot of great emerging talent there! (Special thanks go out to Erich Ginder, Derek Chen at Urbana Design, Anthony Marshak at Modern Bamboo, Corbett and Jim at Variegated, and Amanda at Gus Design for filling our booth with such cool products!)
4. The ICFF show. We spent a lot of time over at the International Contemporary Furniture Fair. Again, you can view a nice virtual walk-thru of the ICFF online. Tired of slideshows? Then read Becky’s blog posts about her 24hrs at the show (she’s our newsletter editor).

Curious what goes on during NY Design Week/ICFF but don’t want to shell out for the $300/night hotel rooms?

Here’s what you can do: 1. whip up a bacon-egg-and-cheese on a roll sandwich (we ate them five days straight). 2. ride around your town in a cab. 3. view our photo gallery slideshows to get a taste of what happened at Design Downtown (New York’s off-site fringe design show), ICFF, and more. (Flash required)

As part of our sponsorship of DOWNTOWN — New York’s alternative design showcase — during this year’s NY Design Week, we decided to put all of the exciting, new, fresh, emerging designers at DOWNTOWN online on our site. Be sure to check out our DOWNTOWN section for information and bios on all the designers who exhibited, then watch a couple slideshows from the show. It’s just like walking the floor, only less exhausting.

If you want more information on any of the designers we’ve featured, just drop a line.

At this point, Sina and Drew are gabbing with designers so much that Matt and I get into a debate about what is the new bent ply. Felt? Concrete? Resin? Bent Bamboo? This leads to a quick summary of our ICFF experience:

• Felt is the new Suede
• Unbent Bamboo is the New Bent Ply (by the way, it’s great to see a material that spreads and takes over more quickly than kudzu being used so beautifully).
• Modern Kids are the New Design Connoisseurs. Some of the new modern baby and kid stuff is so phenomenal that I was wishing I was still in a crib.
• Flat Pak Homes are the New Double-wides. Blu Dot founder Charlie Lazor’s flat-pack house is amazing. As an added bonus they were giving out free Starburst Fruit Chews, so I kept going back.
• Lime Green is the New Orange
• Alliums are the New Lucky Bamboo
• Concrete is the New Granite
• Carpet Tiles are the New Linoleum
• Rubber and Astroturf are the New Wallpaper
• but, Wallpaper is Cool Again.
• Design Public is the new Edge*Modern

Also, cool architect specs are over the tipping point. They will soon be as hip as trucker hats, as in not hip at all.

Drew, Sina, Matt and I trudged the 15 blocks from the DOWNTOWN show to ICFF at the Javitz Center. Javitz is MASSIVE! Right off the bat I got to meet Lotta Jansdotter, Anglea Adams and Madeline Rogers and Paula Buzzard (Mibo), all designers I have admired for a long time. I was completely in awe and tongue-tied. Paula thought I was a fictitious character, as she claimed she emailed me from a newsletter and I never wrote back. This made me mad at Drew, because I never got the email.

If you ever email me and do not hear back, it’s all his fault.

By the way, we will no longer be carrying Angela Adams products, as she assaulted Design Public co-founder Drew in her booth in the middle of everything. He was humiliated. Just kidding, he was asking for it. Seriously, she was a good sport to pose for an action shot! She also has a very cool laid back DJ kind of voice – check out our interview with her.

OK, way too many people out there now have “architect glasses,” yours truly included. I decided that the backlash from this will be that everyone will soon be wearing eyewear modeled after the horrid lenses in Napolean Dynamite.

DOWNTOWN is a great alternative design show – the space this year is like the NYC spaces you see in movies, the kind I could never afford. It is a photography studio with garage doors, great windows and light and high ceilings.

It was so exciting to see the newest designs. I was especially excited about Farm 21’s tables and lighting, Mud dinnerware and of course our booth. We got our new designers some great exposure! Everyone was flipping over Derek Chen’s fabric trays, vase, and Anthony Marshak’s Becca Stools.

I then yawned through a panel discussion that was supposed to be about how designers can get their designs to market but wound up being about sustainability and how Europeans are better at public transportation than Americans. Duh. I think everyone needs more espresso and Krispy Kremes!

I rise out of bed at 4:59 a.m. to a raging thunderstorm and a downpour and immediately decide to splurge for the garage parking at Hartsfield Jackson Airport. I am only half conscious, and the next thing I know, I am in Chelsea at the DOWNTOWN Design Show, and I am exhausted.

Luckily, the place is stocked with dozens of boxes of Krispy Kremes and has an espresso machine. Also, there are a few warm beers scattered here and there – this gives me a clue as to why Drew isn’t even showered yet – the rest of the team had a little too much fun at the Design Public Launch Party the night before.

We’re launching a new site and sponsoring a design show! Here’s the press release that we sent out to everyone who’s anyone. Plus our parents.

DOWNTOWN, New York City’s off-site design event will premiere Design Public, a new concept from the founders of Edge*Modern, during New York Design Week. Design Public is a brand focused on showcasing fresh and innovative products from emerging designers. Through its online catalog, the company will present a continually updated selection of the best in new modern design for the home, including collections from DOWNTOWN participants.

“The most inspiring innovations often bubble up from emerging talent because their ideas are fresh,” said Sina Djafari, co-founder of Design Public. “But emerging and smaller designers can have a hard time getting their product to market. Design Public is committed to introducing them to a wider consumer audience.”

Co-founder Drew Sanocki added that when he and Mr. Djafari decided to create Design Public, they thought of DOWNTOWN as the perfect partner with whom to launch the site. “We’ve been attending DOWNTOWN since it began and are always excited to see what is featured,” explained Mr. Sanocki. “We identify with the producers of DOWNTOWN and share their mission: To support and provide exposure for emerging designers, and encourage them to take their ideas to the next step.”

The third annual DOWNTOWN is experiencing an exceptional year since producers Abe Gurko and Susan Schultz have chosen to move the event its new location at Drive-In Studios in the gallery district. “We are very excited to add such a unique element to DOWNTOWN this year,” said Ms. Schultz. “The partnership with Design Public offers our participants an immediate opportunity to gain valuable exposure with a national audience of design professionals and enthusiasts.”

Links:
DOWNTOWN
Design Public launch party gallery