14th June 2017

The American Assembly: introducing the US guest pavilion at London Design Fair

Last year, London Design Fair celebrated its 10th birthday by inviting a special guest to the party – Its This is India exhibition brought the best of Indian design to the UK for all the fun of the fair. The show was a hit, giving an unrepresented country an opportunity to showcase the breadth of its design talent to the London Design Festival audience and European market, so the one-off became a regular feature.

For 2017, the second edition of London Design Fair’s guest-pavilion initiative, the spotlight shifts to the United States, which will be taking its place alongside the usual gamut of national pavilions for a special showcase of American talent.

Founders of online design mag Sight Unseen (and its pop-up design fair offshoot Sight Unseen OFFSITE) Jill Singer and Monica Khemsurov have donned the curatorial hats and selected 13 of the most interesting, exciting and ingenious designers and studios currently working in the US.

The Full Assembly

Bower • Chen Chen & Kai Williams • Christopher Stuart • DAMM Design • Earnest Studio • Eric Trine • John Hogan • Iacoli & McAlister • Ladies & Gentlemen Studio • Steven Haulenbeek

• Pat Kim • Studio Proba • Slash Objects

From California to New York, Chicago to Seattle, the selection of people and products offers Fair visitors a unique insight into the ideas, materials, processes and individuals currently animating the resurgent US design scene.

The products in the exhibition line-up are enormously varied in discipline, material and design thinking, but united by a common thread of innovation and individualism. Pieces such as Steven Haulenbeek’s ice-cast bronzes, Jamie Iacoli’s negative-space lighting, Eric Trine’s casual and characteristically Californian furniture, or Christopher Stuart’s function-challenging forms all carry a distinct stamp of their maker’s personality, and often walk a fine balance between design and art.

Assembly will be the biggest showcase of US talent taking place at LDF this year, and the first time in 10 years that fairgoers will have had an opportunity to see the contemporary design story of America told in one place and at such scale.

Assembly occupies the guest -country pavilion of London Design Fair, showing at Old Truman Brewery, Brick Lane on 21–24 September 2017

Post, Earnest Studio. Photography by Pim Top.

U bench, Christopher Stuart.

Sage and Burgundy Chairs, Eric Trine

Stump Sculptures, Pat Kim

Float 1, Ladies & Gentlemen