San Francisco takes on an dazzling, expressive vivacity. Art, interior design, graphic arts, architecture fashion and photography – a list that could go on to include the most diverse forms of design -all creating the cultural backdrop against which San Francisco Design Week rises: eight days during which the city clearly reiterates its intense love of art and design, and its inclination towards innovation and the novel. From June 2 to 8, the City by the Bay transforms into the City of Design, thanks to an event that constitutes an ideal bridge between its districts, from Silicon Valley to the Bay Area. This year the event celebrates its tenth anniversary; it began in 2006 when the AIGA SF, one of the 70 local branches operated by the design association nationally, proclaimed the opening of the first Design Week.
Meetings, installations and openings mark the week’s agenda, which features over 150 meetings organized and hosted by studios of design, interior design and architecture, in addition to the Galleries and Showrooms: all provide an opportunity to compare contemporary and innovative themes, the common denominator being design in its expressive versatility and interconnection with a multitude of professional environments, with many opportunities for meetings and forging relations.
A selection of macro events and cultural projects serve as corollaries to this rich parterre of meetings.
Meetings such as the Emerging Bay Area Designers (June 6 and 7) exhibition, where local emerging talent present their creations, from the original concept to the final product in David Whippen’s ShopFloor; or the Open Studios, a two-evening event during which guests can meet the designers and creators of the major Bay Area products and installations, in the place where design is created and lived. The Hub, on the other hand, consists of three days of meetings at the YBCA –Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (Yerba was San Francisco’s original name). Yerba is also the SFD's main partner. An additional highlight of the week was the conference named The History of Design in Silicon Valley, held by Barry Katz, the author of Make It New, a book which recounts how design transformed Silicon Valley into the world’s largest engine of innovation.
Last but not least, the High Up in Milan and SF initiative was conducted in collaboration with Città di Milano. It also involved the San Francisco Italian Cultural Institute; this collaboration resulted in photographic events and themes sprinkled across the two cities (Milan in April, San Francisco in June), including an ad hop competition. For this project combining imagination and creativity in its purest form, a group of Italian and Bay Area designers were selected and placed into teams by Geoff Kaplan (CCA Senior Adjunct professor of design) and Marina Pugliese.
These are the creators: Jon Sueda and Chris Yamamoto with Studio Alizarina, Megan Lynch and Studio FM, Geoff Kaplan and LeftLoft Studio, Brett MacFadden and Scott Thorpe with Massimo Pitis, Bob Aufuldish eand Studio Zetalab.
IFDM reached San Francisco with the Contract&Hospitality Book | SpringSummer, also with the May issue entirely dedicated to American market, distributed at The Hub, inside the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.
