Earlier this year, the City of Chicago dubbed the second week in June “Chicago Design Week,”a nod to the 50+ year history of NeoCon being hosted at THE MART during that time and to the upstart Fulton Market Design Days, an event started by a growing number of breakaway commercial interiors brands and held concurrently a few miles away.
Last week at the IIDA headquarters in Chicago, design leaders gathered to discuss how Chicago Design Week could be something more than just two commercial interiors events that are loosely connected. Organizers hope Chicago Design Week can rival Salone in Milan, Dutch Design Week in Amsterdam and the London Design Festival, events that bring in hundreds of thousands of visitors who immerse themselves in design.
The meeting in Chicago on a cold snowy day felt weighty; like it could be the start of something truly impactful for design in the Windy City. While there is still much work to be done, IIDA is spearheading efforts to make Chicago Design Days an event that activates the entire city.
“So much of what happens at Fulton and at THE MART is about learning and it’s about product, but we also want to reinforce and validate the connection to the City of Chicago,” said Cheryl Durst, executive vice president and CEO of IIDA, who pushed hard for the Chicago Design Week designation. “It matters. We really want to emphasize that Chicago is perfectly positioned to provide an exquisite experience that is Chicago Design Week. And we want to get everybody really excited about it.”
What will Chicago Design Week look like? Could be just about anything. IIDA wants to act as the conduit for design-inspired events, connecting ideas with people and places that can make them happen. When it comes to NeoCon and Fulton Market Design Days, IIDA is going to stay neutral, but emphasized that design is at the core of all of the experiences they want to encourage at Chicago Design Week. Events like Salone and London Design Festival activate the entire city with central exhibition spaces (like NeoCon and Fulton in Chicago), along with design hubs in galleries and open spaces around the cities. Officially, Salone is held at the fairgrounds; Fuorisalone includes all the other events around Milan. The festivals also attract a wide range of companies interested in design that go well beyond furniture, like Louis Vuitton, Dior, Hermès, Panerai and Prada, along with automakers like Alfa Romeo, BMW and Citroën.
The gathering at IIDA headquarters shows the diversity of design thinking that could shape the event. There were manufacturers with showrooms both in Fulton Market and in THE MART. There were Chicago city and cultural leaders, including a representative from the Obama Presidential Center, along with numerous design leaders who showed up both in person and on a Zoom call that welcomed in participants from around the country.
The gathering also included Tony Karman, president of EXPO CHICAGO, a major art event in the city, who said he is acting in an advisory role to help make connections and explain how the EXPO could be a model for Chicago Design Week.
“The opportunity here for our great city is to reclaim a very important part of our history. It’s no secret what design has meant to the City of Chicago and manufacturing. It’s no secret that you are doing great work that needs to be heralded. And it’s probably no secret — it shouldn’t be a secret to the world — that in June, this is a place that can serve a broad constituency,” he said.
Karman said there’s no question that activities like NeoCon and Fulton Market Design Days are important anchors that can help build Chicago Design Week into something more.
Mark Bryan, senior foresight manager at the Future Today Institute who helped create the IIDA Design Futurist program, said Chicago Design Week is an event that he has dreamed about for more than 20 years. “Designers really need a place where they can explore the future and build new skills and to understand what’s possible. Brands and manufacturers really need a place where they can show their innovation to get people excited about it. And cities really need a moment to project their identity. So when I’m thinking about Chicago Design Week, there hasn’t really been a player in the U.S. that has captured what a design week could be,” he said.
He said Chicago Design Week could act as a living prototype of the future of the design industry and built environment.
IIDA is leading the charge, but the design organization knows they can’t do it alone. They have created logos and marketing materials for Chicago Design Week that are open for everyone to use. The group has also created a community collaboration form where they can gauge interest in the event and collect ideas for design activities in the city.
“If you are a brand and you’re looking to connect with a cultural institution or vice versa, we have a form ready for you so that you can let us know and we’ll be happy to try to help make introductions,” said Cindy Dampier, IIDA’s chief marketing officer.
Chicago Design Week will be led by the ideas that grow out of meetings like the one last week in Chicago, said Durst. IIDA’s role will the as the conductor and convener; the connective tissue between the city and design events during the week. “We don’t have a rule book, we don’t have any policies, we don’t have any can-dos or can-don’ts,” she said. “We have found that most design weeks across the world started as a very organic, grassroots movement. So we want you to do whatever is true to you and to your brand. What we are offering to do is help connect all of those events and activities and activations and initiatives under the umbrella of Chicago Design Week.”