Join Us to Talk About Boredom, Driverless Cars, Wayfinding, Food, and More

Join Us to Talk About Boredom, Driverless Cars, Wayfinding, Food, and More

It's all part of Dwell on Design + designjunction's three-day event, featuring a program of talks chock-full of leading figures in design, architecture, urbanism, and beyond—coming up May 13-15 at ArtBeam in New York.
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On May 13-15, Dwell on Design and designjunction are partnering to host New York's most exciting destination during NYCxDesign. Taking place at ArtBeam in Chelsea, the event will feature 20 international design brands, a co-working pop-up, and a vibrant cafe. Plus, over the course of the three days, we'll invite industry leaders to the stage to engage in discussions about everything from branding to landscape design. Don't miss our keynote lecture with the legendary artist, designer, and educator Bob Gill on May 13—make sure to register now for tickets, and check our our full lineup below!
 

Join Us to Talk About Boredom, Driverless Cars, Wayfinding, Food, and More - Photo 1 of 1 -

A view of designjunction's 2015 fair at ArtBeam in New York. For more information on this year's show and our full lineup of talks with leading architects, designers, curators, and more, visit ny.dwellondesign.com.

FRIDAY, MAY 13

11:00–11:45am
Living up to Legacies: Design Work by Dorothy Cosonas and Tim deFiebre
Creative husband-and-wife duo Dorothy Cosonas, creative director of KnollTextiles, and Tim deFiebre, furniture designer and a former assistant to the late Ward Bennett, discuss their experiences as stewards of modern design legacies—and how these legacies have, in turn, shaped and influenced their design approaches, alongside their multidisciplinary backgrounds.

11:50am–12:20pm
Civic Architecture and Access for the People
Richard Olcott and Todd Schliemann, design partners of global architecture firm Ennead Architects, join Gregory Wessner, executive director of Open House New York, to discuss the importance of integrating civic buildings into the public realm, and the role of design as a catalyst for change.

12:25–12:55pm
Making a Difference Through Design
Good design is about addressing problems, delivering practical and convenient solutions where there once were none. Johanna Osburn, executive director of DIFFA, and Sha Hwang, cofounder of Nava, will explore how philanthropists, designers, and others can harness that creative energy to make a positive difference for charitable, civic, and social causes.

1:00–1:30pm
Work and Play: The New Wave of Interiors
Creatives today are constantly online and on-the-go, with digital tools that allow for a more mobile workday than ever before. Paulo Kos, VP Design of West Elm Workspace, and Devin Vermeulen, creative director of physical product at WeWork, will discuss how digital culture is shaping the increasingly fluid boundaries between residential and office design today.

1:30–2:30pm
Public Housing and the Power of Design
The success of affordable housing projects depends on numerous political and economical factors, but good design is equally important in determining whether a project will achieve its goals to create a safe, comfortable, and lasting community for its residents. Two New York architects, Alexander Gorlin and Matthew Bremer, break down their approaches to public housing, sharing how they’ve dealt with challenges of slow-moving policy and limited resources to create projects that will benefit underserved populations.

2:45–3:45pm
Driverless Cars and the Future of Green Space
While the race to the autonomous car has captured our attention, most people have no concept of how dramatically these driverless cars will impact our day-to-day life. Kinder Baumgardner, president of SWA Group, an award-winning architecture, landscape design, and planning firm, will share his vision of the most dramatic shifts to occur in our cities and suburbs within the next century.

4:00–5:00pm
Design Entrepreneurship: How to Become Your Own Boss
Lighting designer David Weeks engages a panel of fellow independent design entrepreneurs in a conversation about the risks and rewards of going it alone. Drawing upon firsthand lessons from each of their own practices, Chad Phillips of Kwambio, Kiel Mead of American Design Club, and Gregory Buntain of Fort Standard will share how they’ve survived, created, and scaled in today’s marketplace.

5:15–6:15pm
Telling a Brand Story Through Design
Differentiating oneself in a space as crowded as office design requires a holistic brand approach—one that considers everything from the logo to the end-product as part of the same story. Three industry leaders—Jeff Miller of Poppin, Shelly Lynch-Sparks of Homepolish, and Mesve Vardar of Humanscale—share how they've succeeded in communicating their companies’ visions.

6:30–7:30pm 
Keynote lecture: The State of the Art Since 1950
With decades of experience as a legendary illustrator, graphic designer, and educator, Bob Gill, 85, will deliver a keynote lecture on his perspectives on art and design over the past 65 years.
 

SATURDAY, MAY 14

11:00am–12:00pm
Designing for Taste: Contemporary Restaurant Design
From the texture of table linens to the shape of a fork, design informs the dining experience in immeasurable ways. Sandy Chilewich, founder and creator of textile brand Chilewich; Stephanie Goto, founder and principal of an eponymous architecture and design firm; and chef Andrew Carmellini, who runs the kitchens of popular establishments Lafayette, The Dutch, Locanda Verde, and more, join us to muse on the intersection of design and food.

12:15–1:15pm
Wayfinding in the Modern City
As new technologies for pedestrian wayfinding, from interactive maps to widgets, continue to emerge, graphic design is reasserting itself as our most fundamental tool for understanding the city. Jesse Reed and Hamish Smyth, cofounders of Standards Manual and associate partners at Pentagram, will address how the art of visual communication can bridge traditional and digital modes of navigation.

1:30–2:30pm
The Power of Research and Human-Centered Design
Architect Matthias Hollwich and Mikael Ydholm, head of research at IKEA, will join us to discuss the ways architects and designers are using humancentered research to identify and address today’s emerging problems, from aging in place to the future of urban apartment living.

2:45–3:45pm
The Benefits of Boredom to the Creative Process
In today’s digital culture, we are so rarely disconnected, with every minute accounted for in the age of social media. How has this behavior shift affected the much-needed "downtime," or boredom, that can enable great leaps of creativity? Rosanne Somerson, president of the Rhode Island School of Design, interior designer Quintel Gwinn, and Constantin Boym, chair of industrial design at the Pratt Institute, will join us to discuss.

4:00–5:00pm
Pioneering the Digital Space
New mediums and platforms are reshaping how designers produce, promote, and exhibit their work. Julia Kaganisky of NEW INC, Jake Levine of Electric Objects, and Meredith Finkelstein of Print All Over Me will reflect on the intersection of design and technology and their own careers in digital entrepreneurship.

5:15–6:15pm
Civics Class: How Architecture Can Engage the Public
Discover the new and imaginative ways architects and designers are creating works for the public user. With projects ranging from a pool in the middle of New York’s East River to a digital museum lab in Paris, principals from Family (Dong-Ping Wong and Oana Stanescu) and PARC Office (Will Prince) will discuss the challenges of designing engaging, active spaces and what the design community can do to open the conversation about architecture to the wider general public.

SUNDAY, MAY 15

11:00am–12:00pm
Online, Offline, and Everywhere In-Between: Navigating Across Platforms
With the rise of online commerce has come a swell of direct-to-consumer business models—but that doesn’t mean tactile products, spaces, and experiences have fallen by the wayside. Bradford Shellhammer of eBay, Maria Molland Selby of Splacer, and Teddy Fong of Capsule will discuss the ways in which digital platforms can engage with users and bridge the gap with a brick-and-mortar presence.

12:15–1:15pm
Artek and the Aaltos: Creating a Modern World
Nina Stritzler-Levine, curator and director of the Bard Graduate Center Gallery, discusses Aino Marsio-Aalto’s work, bringing it to the forefront of public attention, particularly the interior projects that she designed for many of Alvar Aalto’s greatest buildings and independent Artek interior commissions.

1:30–2:30pm
Reinterpreting Legacies: The Future of the Noguchi Museum
Since 1985, the Noguchi Museum in Long Island City, Queens, has honored the heritage and wideranging work of modern artist and designer Isamu Noguchi. Artist Tom Sachs—whose current show, Tom Sachs: Tea Ceremony, marks the museum’s first-ever solo exhibition by an individual other than Noguchi—joins senior curator Dakin Hart to discuss new perspectives on the legendary designer’s continuing, cross-disciplinary influence.

2:45–3:45pm
Landscape and the Role of Cultural Institutions
Caroline Baumann, director of the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, and landscape designer Margie Ruddick come together to discuss landscape as an important discipline and aspect of design, as well as a national museum’s civic responsibility for preserving green space. Baumann will discuss the Cooper Hewitt grounds, which include a historic garden that’s open to everyone—not just museum patrons. Ruddick, a National Design Award–winner, wrote about the Cooper Hewitt garden in the Fall 2015 issue of the museum’s Design Journal and is the author of a forthcoming book about urban green space called Wild by Design.

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