NYC Design Week 2025: A Creative Sprint Through the City

Every May, New York transforms into a playground for design. The NYCxDesign Festival takes over the city with exhibitions, open studios, panels, and parties celebrating the best in industrial design, architecture, interiors, and more. At the center of it all is ICFF—one of the biggest contemporary furniture tradeshows in North America.

I headed down to NYC for a few days to soak up the energy, inspiration, and conversations that only happen when the design world comes together.

I made the most of the trip by exploring the city on a Citi Bike e-bike—hands down the best way to get around. Over three days, I clocked 50+ miles bouncing between events from uptown to Brooklyn.

My first stop after arriving Monday afternoon was Frog’s open studio, WineXDesign. Big thanks to Inna Lobel (Frog’s VP of Design) for hosting a great event.

It was packed with familiar faces and inspiring chats. Always great to catch up with NYC design friends like Jason Belair, Steve Cozzolino, Stu Constantine, Jason Coble, Scott Henderson, Francois Nguyen, Kenny Perkins, and Karim Rashid—and hear how everyone’s thinking and work continues to evolve.

A personal highlight: running into three former Sprout interns—Jake Wyand, Nayan Nanda, and Naman Nanda. We grabbed drinks after the event and caught up. So cool to see where their journeys have taken them since Sprout.

Kicked off Tuesday a little foggy, but a cold plunge at the Brooklyn Bath House took care of that.

Most of the day was spent at ICFF, where I came across some standout work:

• Rarify — Beautiful mid-century inspired pieces and a talented team. One to watch.
• Submaterial — Great use of texture and unconventional materials.
• Morpho Collection — Chairs with intricate lattice work and a subtle sci-fi vibe.

Lighting stole the show again this year. One cool collab: Gantri, the 3D-printed lighting brand from SF, teamed up with Hayward, Rarify, and RAD on a collection of sculptural pieces.

WANTED hosted a great showcase of emerging talent. My favorite was a stunning ambient light concept by RISD student Sam Sherman. Bonus: our former intern Jake Wyand had his light featured in the show too—nice job!

Later that night, I stopped by Aruliden’s open studio for a behind-the-scenes look at projects with Verizon and WHOOP, and caught up with Angie Kim and some of the Ex-Astro crew.

Capped the night at the LIXIL Water Experience Center for the Everything Around Design panel hosted by Advanced Design, moderated by Hector Silva. Ended the evening at a local tavern with the AD crew—great convos and good energy.

Wednesday was all about showroom visits and design discovery. I spent the day with Steve Cozzolino exploring exhibits across the city.

A standout: the Coca-Cola Contour exhibit—an incredible visual history of Coke’s industrial design evolution through never-before-seen photography, archives, and campaign imagery. Beautifully done.

Later that evening, I made my way to Brooklyn for Pensa’s open studio—thanks to Marc Prommel and Marco Perry for hosting. I wrapped up the night at the DUMBOxDesign closing party at Superfine, where I bumped into Dylan Notestine—one of our early Sprout interns from the Clio days back in 2012. Amazing to see him thriving in his role at Calvin Klein’s Global Environments team.

Finished the night at Joe’s Shanghai with Steve for some legendary dumplings and late-night eats.

NYCxDesign always reminds me why I love this industry—the energy, the ideas, the people. Already looking forward to next year.

Next stop: NeoCon in Chicago the week of June 9. If you’ll be at the show, let’s connect—shoot me a note at jordan@sprout.cc.