Here at UnBeige we were looking for our own special ICFF angle. Instead of sending an insider-y New York industrial design freak to the show, we decided to send the polar opposite: A happily outsider-y San Francisco graphic designer (who also just so happened to study architecture way back when). Eric Heiman, principal at Volume, put together this top ten list of what caught his impartial eye (in no particular order):

1. The new colors for the classic Eames lounge wood chairs in the Herman Miller booth. That yellow looks good enough to eat, gosh darnit.

2. Speaking of which, the Herman Miller booth: What could be more fun than giant interlocking Eames cards? House of cards contstruction by BBK Studio.


3. Doctors (or least people who play them on TV) do have style: Lisa Edelstein, of TV’s “House,” cruising the floor looking for new wares in which to store all those medical journals.

4. Wood veneer bags at Monacca. Mmmmm…Hideo Wakamatsu, our love affair is over.


5. Mike and Maaike‘s juxtaposed: religion bookshelf. Furniture as arbiter of spiritual tolerance. Now that’s California dreamin’ for you.

6. Council–a Bay Area-and-beyond collaboration between Derek Chen, One and Co., Mike and Maaike, Arik Levy, and Khodi Feiz–my favorite new furniture collection of the show.


7. Walking down the British design corridor and hearing all the different United Kingdom accents bespeaking the value of their design wares. “Bloody great, old chap.”

8. Designer foosball tables from RS Barcelona. All that was missing was the global ICFF tournament draw.


9. Botanist’s fusion of bent wood veneer, powder coatings and a little bit of wispy, earthy motifs.

10. Thanks, God, no more of those tacky Tommy the Train bedspreads for the kids: Boodalee’s “big designs for little dreamers.” No, they don’t make them in king or queen-sized yet, so you adults will have to wait.