Neocon 2012 Wrap Up & Prodcut Love

Whew!  It was exhausting- but I conquered Neocon this year and had a blast.  I had hoped to keep my readers in on the action through Twitter and Instagram as a moved through the showrooms, but I swear the Mart is like a black hole for Sprint service!  Photos I thought were posting came up with errors later and my phone was constantly on "E" despite my efforts to fully charge in the evening and plug in throughout the day.

Neocon in a Nutshell:

Furniture: 

• Lots of plug and play furniture/ integrated technology
• More emphasis on  community spaces/ gathering spaces for the workplace
• Modular, multilevel stadium seating seen in several showrooms- great places to gather for casual team meetings

Colors:  

• Bold and bright colors were seen EVERYWHERE- floors, walls, upholstery.  Is this influence of fashion's color blocking trend? 
• Tangerine Tango may be the color of the year, but aqua and turquoise had a big presence. (Is it because blue is complimentary to orange or will aqua blue emerge as the color of 2013?)

If you are interested in living vicariously through my NeoCon 2012 experience, here are my favorite shots and products from the BEST interior design convention in the country.  Enjoy!

KI sent a London Taxi to take us to the Mart (Thank you!).  With all the traffic, we probably could have walked there faster, but we stayed put, knowing we would do plenty of walking soon enough.

I forgot how long the lines for the elevators were.  Thankfully they move fast.

Showroom Display Love

One of the reasons I love attending Neocon is to see the creative displays.  Here are a few that were especially photogenic:

 

Clockwise from Top Left: 1. Momentum Group's colorful window display  2.  Davis Furniture Showroom Flowers 3.  Safco's button pins  4 & 5.  Arcadia Contract :  Recycled Newspaper Puppy & POP themed Mural  6. Izzy+ - Always has bright fun colors and the cutest vignettes  7.  Hon Showroom Flowers 8. Safco's giant suspended paper planes.

Above. Teknion's dimensional wall

 

Clockwise from Top:  FiberArt influenced the displays at the carpet showrooms, I like to call this the Pinterest effect 1. Mannington's window display  2.  Shaw Contract  

 

Above.  Antron's  Showroom 

Above. Textile showroom display-I  wish our textile library looked like this. (can't remember where I was when I took this photo- apologies!)

 Furniture Love

If you've been following my blog, you would know I am more of a material girl than a furniture fiend, but I did snap some of my favorites furniture pieces. And some evidence that great minds think alike (see item 2 &3)

Clockwise from Top Left: 1. Sparkeology Sylvie Chair I loved the plug & play option on this chair.  2.  OFS The Edge see more images on the Showroom Map here, it's item F.1 3.  Allsteel Rise from the Gather Collection proved to be a causal comfy place to kick our feet up, re-charge our phones (power plugs integrated into the seating), and sip a purple martini spirited away from the Bolyu showroom 4.  Izzy+ Trellis see more photos here.

 

 

Clockwise from Top Left: 1. Haworth (Cappellini) Tulip Chair- Traditional + Modern + Elegant (& designed by Marcel Wanders- one of my many design crushes)  2.  Remember Hypercolor?  NunoErin had a heat sensitive vinyl upholstered bench. It's fun and interactive, but not sure I'd want leave butt print behind....  I preferred their Lightning Bench (see video below)  3.  Coalesse- so they were showcasing the Freestand folding table- but I was obsessed the Visalia Lounge. This MidCentury influenced upholstered piece brought sexy to the back of the couch.  4.  Muma showed these fun "Juga" stacking chairs designed by my #1 Design Crush - Karim Rashid.

 

Product & Resource Love

Clockwise from Top Left: 1. Rehab resource  2.  Awesome Wall Panels from Ode Creative (a division of TMCFurniture- they are a great source for Ah-dor-able kids furniture & activity panels for waiting rooms)  3. General Glass Alice Direct to Glass Printing  4. Seeyond's services could prove to be an valuable asset to Architects & Designers.  They use parametric modeling to help create complex forms for non-load bearing walls, wall-mounted structures, ceiling clouds, column wraps and partial enclosures- add them to your Interior Designer's Toolbox!

 

Clockwise from Top Left: I spent a lot of time wandering around and touching everything at the Materials Pavilion curated by Interiors and Sources magazine, these are my top four from their displays 1. Lucem Concrete tiles with Fiberoptics (Like Lucem? See my post about Delight Cloth.)  2.  Moz Metal laminates  3.  Torzo manufactured from agricultural byproducts and recycled wood and just stunning! 4. Kaynemaile- no not Kanye the rapper, Kayne- like sugar cane is a a seamless polycarbonate mesh - not much to look at in this photo- but check out their website- you'll be glad you did.

Parties and Miscellany

2 interior designers + 1 architect + 3 day trip to Chicago = Thankful for a roomy trunk.  Ridiculous right? Note the Schwag Bags from Ghost of Neocon's past.

Hello Willis Tower! This was our view during our Neocon stay.

Walking to the ERG Neocon Kickoff Cocktail Event @ the Wix

Phoenix Lounge & Rooftop @ Wix.  Love the book wraps/display in the Phoenix Lounge - very clever! On a side note: Mini-cheeseburgers made it on the menu of several  parties this year.

Lesson learned on the first night: The Windy City is beautiful at night, but close the blinds. Summer sun comes up early & you'll want to sleep in. 

Michael Graves signing posters @ CF Stinson

Enjoyed the view and a purple martini @ Bolyu's Showroom

Enjoyed a Next Martini and Key Lime Cupcakes at the Daltile Showroom on Hubbard Street. (Best in show for martini's!) Students: check out their $10,000 scholarship!

Sipped a Hepburntini @ Hubbard Inn (Mannington-Amtico Cocktail Party)

Ended the evening at the OFS 75th Anniversary Party @ East Bank Club Sundeck.  (P.S. This is one of the 5 winning shots from KI's Neoconography contest.

Hope you enjoyed my post.  If you want to see more, hop on over to  KI's Neoconography Pinterest board for more Neocon 2012 images- there were more things to photograph than I had battery life.

Until next week- stay inspired!