Spark:03 Conference

I spent the past weekend in San Francisco at the first annual Spark:03 Conference, a 2-day event focusing on "Bringing Modern Design to Market". Created by the fine people at Design Within Reach, the event was well organized and a great excuse to revisit the design scene in SF once again.

There were many big hitters represented, Marketing and Design Directors from Herman Miller, Knoll, IKEA, NIKE and Kartell all made brief 25 minute presentations. These big names attracted the sold out crowd, however I felt that the best presentations were by the founders of smaller manufacturers, namely Alan Heller from Heller and Paul Rowan from Umbra. They both dug deeper into the mistakes and motivations behind their product collections, which is what myself and the crowd were really looking for.

The design community in SF is strong - equal to NYC I'd say - so the cocktail hours were a good scene. The guys I've gotten to know over the years are starting to see some big projects roll into production; a new Airstream design, a line for Birkenstock, to name a couple. I'll use this guest blogspace in the coming weeks to review these and other products that catch my eye...