ICFF and WantedDesign Manhattan 2022: Building a better future

In evidence, too, will be the powerful role of nature in design and wellbeing. Crafts old and new drawing on the natural environment include ICFF’s Norwegian exhibitors Figgjo porcelain and Lundhs stone, while many modern makers on WantedDesign Manhattan’s Look Book platform – which facilitates matchmaking between designer-makers from across North America and interior designers and architects – bring a sense of locale to their work. They include Tucson-based Levi Christiansen, whose furniture design is informed by the tones, forms and textures of the Sonoran desert, Mexican tile designer, Alfonso Verduzco, whose black clay designs take textures from local nature, Canadian Simon Johns, whose pieces are contemplations on the ‘pure and raw shapes of his surroundings’, and new Brooklyn brand Concrete Poetics, whose beautifully brutal pieces of sculptural furniture are inspired by nature, land and sea.