NYCxDesign needs a rebrand.

Hello friends!

If you haven’t seen the news, The New York Times and Business of Home have both reported that ICFF is moving to November, after almost 40 years anchored in May.

As you probably know, TDR is first and foremost a discovery platform for design exhibitions and fairs. We’ve made it our business to understand the industry’s global calendar, visiting major fairs around the world to advise on where to show, and to track how the landscape is changing.

For the past 5 years, we have not made it to New York Design Week (I hate calling it NYCxDesign) because of the bad timing: Milan is in April, and now everyone goes, and Copenhagen is in June, and now everyone goes. As we’ve mentioned before, and as reported by Fred Nicolaus at BOH, covid all but killed trade shows, and European brands (most of which are showcasing in Milan and/or Copenhagen) are less motivated to do three major shows all in a row.

ICFF moving to November is a great call. It gives international brands breathing room to present at the trade show, and gives international trade the space to breathe between shows in the spring. It gives independent designers the option to show abroad.

As you can see TDR’s Design Week listing here: There is nothing significant happening in the USA or EU in November. Dubai is in November, as well as Mumbai. And Design Miami / Art Basel Miami open December 1st and 4th, respectively.

My hot take is that the New York design community deserves better than what NYCxDesign currently offers. The week has changed hands over the years: in 2019, the New York City Economic Development Corporation handed operations of NYCxDesign to Sandow, the media company behind Interior Design, and other design-industry properties.

Should a magazine own a design week? Not sure. Actually, wait, that’s a no from me, dawg, because in a time when magazine survival depends on advertisers, there is a clear influence on what will get the most attention (this is also the reason why pointless Fashion exhibitions get so much press during Milan Design Week).

According to sources close to Sandow, they eventually divested because they didn’t know what they were doing, and NYCxDesign is back to being a nonprofit now. Another NYC-based source in PR told me: “It’s funny because I don’t know who owns it. I think Ilene Shaw runs it. We honestly don’t even formally support it. Don’t use the name, etc. Some clients do things that week, but we don’t even advise it half the time.”

NYC is obviously a Very Cool City, with what I believe is one of the strongest communities of independent designers globally, supported by excellent design schools Pratt, Parsons, and RISD.

NYCxDesign needs a rebrand. The “x” was once trendy because it suggested collaboration, but now it feels dated and techy. The logo looks like a construction barricade. It also feels visually hostile, there’s no elegance. It doesn’t feel like a destination.

In the BOH report, NYCxDesign confirmed it will continue in May - a mistake in my opinion. From my perspective, the trade-show pendulum may be starting to swing back. As the cost of presenting work independently in New York City continues to soar, and as press and foot traffic become harder to capture (ask anyone in PR), the value of a centralized trade platform becomes much harder to dismiss.

However they are perceived alongside the city’s cooler independent exhibitions, trade shows remain essential to the design ecosystem.

Maybe the real opportunity is not to mourn May (I mean, really, who is?), but to admit that New York’s Design Week needs a reset. NYCxDesign can be rethought as something more culturally ambitious and more worthy of the city’s design community.

You have probably seen about 10 round-ups already - but you should know all the best New York Design Week selections are already on TDR!!

Quick tips for using the mobile web app:

Tap the hamburger menu and select Explore Maps, then choose New York City (or tap that link) to see where events are clustered. You can scroll sideways to browse what’s happening.

Create an account to save events by tapping the ❤️. Your saved events will appear on your profile page, where you can keep everything organized.

Click into any event to add it to your calendar, get directions from your current location, or route from one event to the next.

It’s VERY useful. I use it every time I travel to visit local design exhibitions and for every design week. Try it out and let me know what you think.

HOUSE OF SANTAL - all details here
Open House hours are 10am–5pm on Thursday, May 14 and Friday, May 15. RSVP here.

ONE NIGHT STAND EXHIBIT - all details here

DUDD LITE - all details here

And of course, I need to promote the following!!

I’ll be at ICFF the whole run-time (May 17-19) as curator of Look Booth 2026, and within Look Book, Leo and I put together a Leibal booth of independent design.

Last week I previewed the Look Book section, and here is a preview of works on view at Leibal’s booth:

Clockwise from top left: Kalon Studios material studies chair, Mock Studios (stacked tables and stick lamp), Thomas Yang lamp, Kalon Studios materials studies tables, one of HB-AS Berea Sandstone Lamp, Vy Voi lamp, Ramulus floor lamps by Onibi.

(I look forward to sleeping the entirety of summer)

And Look Book has an exhibition at Avroko’s space Host on Howard, with show runtime and opening event details here, and on TDR as well if you want to ad to your calendar.

That’s all! Jumping off to get my chat on with Dennis Scully for Business of Home’s podcast in 15 mins! Tune in on the 14th here.

And see you in New York!

Julia + Leo