The second annual Le FRENCH DESIGN 100, a virtual festival celebrating contemporary French design, is currently on view through February 21, 2022. The digital program features 100 French designers, all of whom will have their work gradually unveiled throughout the month. This year, the President of the French Republic, Emmanuel Macron, kicked off the festival ceremony at the Élysée Palace Paris with a message about the importance of design in today’s world:
I am convinced that when the world is tired and weary, it is essential to give it this perspective and basically this magic, to quote the words Sottsass used to describe design. Therefore you have a political role to play, in the most eminent sense of the word. Living in the city means not giving into this weariness, getting stuck in ruts, but boldly and determinedly seeking to reinvent objects we use on a daily basis to make them beautiful and new. Making things beautiful and giving them new meaning.
Hundreds of entries were received for this year’s festival and the 100 designers that were selected for their works were juried by international design professionals including Deyan Sudjic (director emeritus of the Design Museum in London), Jennifer Flay (creative director of the FIAC in Paris), and Christopher Turner (curator of the Victoria & Albert Museum in London). The winners and jury members all reunited at the festival ceremony alongside Monsieur Emmanuel Macron, Madam Brigitte Macron, Madame Roselyne Bachelot-Narquin (France’s Minister of Culture), Hervé Lemoine (this year’s jury president), and Philippe Starck, the guest of honor for the event.
You can view all 100 designers and their works at Le FRENCH DESIGN 100. Here are 10 of our favorites:
Photo: Gaelle Le Boulicaut
India Mahdavi’s That’s All Folks Coffee Table
The coffee table is made in straw marquetry in collaboration with Atelier Lison de Caunes. The straw inlays are assembled in a sun-like pattern using this 17th century technique. The series is named after Mahdavi’s childhood heroes – Bugs Bunny and other cartoon characters – while growing up in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Photo: Gaelle Le Boulicaut
Photo: Jean Pierre Vaillancourt
These seats, with their own rolling locker, are perfect for co-working offices or public spaces.
Photo: SOKOA
Photo: Alexandre Delamadeleine
Samuel Accoceberry Studio’s Rigel Table Lamp
The table lamp is reminiscent of a star with its warm rays of colors. Rigel in his form sculpts light and breaks it down at the same time.
Photo: Alexandre Delamadeleine
Photo: Carpenters Workshop Gallery
A+A Cooren’s Tiss Tiss Collection
Furniture made rigid with aluminum plates covered in fabric on the surfaces highlight the beauty of traditional hand-weaving techniques and the irregularity that comes with it.
Photo: Carpenters Workshop Gallery
Photo: Daisuke Shima
Emmanuelle Moureaux Architecture + Design’s Universe of Words Installation
Inspired by the Japanese star festival called Tanabata, the installation features 46 different characters in “hiragana” that have been cut out in a rainbow of colors and strung from the ceiling, evoking an emotion of stillness through its endlessness.
Photo: Daisuke Shima
Photo: REX ZOU et ALDS
Arnaud Lapierre’s Fractal Installation
Commissioned by the city of Shanghai, Fractal gives visitors the shimmering sensation of water upon walking through the installation.
Photo: REX ZOU et ALDS
The lamp poses the questions: How can light be revealed, appear, or fade? What does light say, mean, or represent?
Photo: Paul Blind
Raphael Le Berre and Thomas Vevaud of Le Berre Vevaud designed a new collection that highlights the “savoir-faire” of French craftsmanship through unique furniture creations. The collection, entirely produced in France, is made in textures that are opposite of each other.
Photo: Paul Blind
Julien Vidame’s Coquillage Shelves
Alone, the collection of shelves look like flat 2D surfaces until you place items onto it. More than just functional shelving, they become displays of “objet d’art” themselves.
Mathieu Lehanneeur’s Inverted Gravity Collection
The collection of furniture highlights the juxtaposition of weight and lightness. The designer shares, “I have dreamed of a world without gravity, like a floating state where the notions of heavy and light have no more meanings.”
To check out all 100 designers from Le FRENCH DESIGN 100 here.
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