ICFF 2008: The Tubes

Pretty much every conversation regarding this year’s ICFF begins: “Did you catch ICFF this year?” and ends: “Yeah, I took a nap in the car too.” Where were our fruit beds this year, ICFF? Our humongous UFO sofas? Even a good old-fashioned box of nothing? Nope. Nada. The place was dry. But apart from boredom, there was at least one trend that stood out as unique to this year…wait for it…

Tubes. Tubes! I know. But hear me out.

I started picking up on this trend somewhere around the EX49 booth. You may remember them from their bags made from inside-out soccer balls and being one of the 175,000 design groups who did a silhouetted cuckoo clock. Well, they also did this bouncy, semi-tubular “Gaucho” seat:

Which to me looks like a fancier version of those big inflatable exercise balls that people tried to use as furniture in the 90’s.

It then dawned on me that the place was positively littered with these things:

What are they, you ask? Well, these are the modular foam walls that ICFF used instead of velvet ropes or riot shields to corral the traffic and keep shlubs like me out of VIP spots. Though I got in anyway. Thanks Sally! Anyway, as you can see, tubes.

Moving right along, we arrive at the Ingo Maurer booth. Now, this guy has done some pretty sweet stuff. He’s about as design-with-a-capital-D as you can get. He’ll do pretty much whatever he wants, which is why I was surprised to see he had jumped right on the tube train:

His tubes are chrome and all bent-up. Do they not look amazing? Like a pipe organ from the future got stuck while it was exploding. Bam!

And it’s not just A-list designers who are unlocking the hidden potential of the tube. The Designboom Mart gave us these babies:

Which are bowls that are made out of twigs and painted steel pipes. We were afraid to touch them at first because they looked like porcelain. I tell you, if your steel looks like porcelain, you’re okay in my book.

The reasons for this trend are still at large. It’s possible that it’s a manufacturing thing – like a few years back when everyone discovered the laser cutter. Maybe everybody was thinking about CFLs, or the internet. Maybe it was the influence of nano- or Youtubes. Whatever the cause, it was impossible not to notice – the tubes showed up everywhere! Sometimes they were in groups…

Sometimes by themselves:

Some held things together…

While others held things up:

There were big tubes and tiny tubes:

Curly tubes and straight tubes:

And some who pretended not to be tubes at all:

And so, there you have it. Tubes – the major trend of the season. Whether or not this makes ICFF Snoozetown 2008 any more exciting is up for argument, but at least now you have something to say to a sensitive exhibitor friend. “Did you catch the show this year?” “Yes, it was tubular!” And only you will know that it’s maybe not entirely in that wholesome, Pauly-Shore-style way.

*Originally written for and posted by the lovely Sally Kuchar at sallytv.com