In media res
A dispatch from the middle of so many design things
In media res
A dispatch from the middle of so many design things
Kelsey Keith
Jun 14, 2025
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A few weeks ago, during the ultramarathon that is New York “design
week
month,” I had the pleasure of joining
LinYee Yuan
,
David Michon
of
FOR_SCALE
, and Jean and Madeleine from
Colony
design gallery
for a panel at the newly minted
Shelter
fair. And
that panel
—discussing the future of design media—has been a jumper cable to many of my IRL conversations since then. I shan’t summarize, but am happy to continue that discussion privately or in public anytime!
A quick note on
Shelter
: love the
building
, love the natural light, love the impetus to make design more accessible (and appeal to a certain cross-section of younger cultural consumers,
you know who you are
), and loved
a lot of the exhibitors
. However, if you’re disrupting the design fair model, I think we can do more with all that floor space than individual trade show booths, no? I’d love to see something more unexpected, something more collaborative, something altogether different.
It’s also boring to malign the
Javits Center
(longtime home to ICFF) as much as people do—I personally thank god for that
FXFOWLE
renovation
every time
I schlep over there. The half-billion-dollar curtain wall system with high-performance, bird-safe glass? Don’t hate it! And perhaps trade show floors are depressing, but it
is
possible to design a great booth—
Molo
did it this year by coiling around the interior architecture and working with the show floor’s flat gray color palette.
Molo
’s
Papersoft wall partitions
in action at ICFF
Last but certainly not least, the launch of Herman Miller’s
New Mexico Collection
, an homage to
the friendship among
Georgia O’Keeffe
,
Alexander Girard
, and the
Eameses
. This was one of the last huge projects I worked on at Herman Miller and it was… it must be said… epic. Mega thanks to buds at T List and Blackbird Spyplane for doing
the story
justice
.
Year of the Snake, indeed. Party photos by Kelsey Cherry.
Printed matter
For the
10th anniversary edition
of
AN Interior
,
a grip of thinkers, writers and curators
were asked to respond to the prompt
What—and how—should we be looking at when we view design?
Alongside
Alexandra Cunningham Cameron
,
Carson Chan
,
Dung Ngo
,
Jennifer Dunlop Fletcher
,
Elizabeth Goodspeed
,
Sami Reiss
, and many others, including
photographers
like
my fave
Daniel Everett
), here’s how I weighed in:
George Nelson famously said that design is a response to social change. There are many ways to interpret—and misinterpret—that maxim, but it’s indisputable that the world we design through cities, buildings, interiors, and objects either mirrors or rejects the prevalent culture. I would identify our present, collective need as one that responds to tech dominance, a phenomenon most of us are familiar with, from phone addiction to AI fears to screens, everywhere you look. What we, the people, need from design today is experiential, tactile, and better in person than viewed in a grid of rearranging pixels.
One example of the desire for experiential design is the exploding interest in sauna-building. Mark my words, everyone you know either wants access to a sauna, has built one, or is researching how to do it. Saunas, to me, connect two prevalent cultural moods: this desire to get offline and to live in the world with a rising awareness around health and well-being.
Building a structure isn’t the only move toward the experiential. The notion takes shape through a burgeoning consumer interest in natural, renewable materials over synthetics, valuing fabrics that translate best through touch. I see it in a small but growing coverage area in design media that highlights collecting antiques, vintage, and secondhand—objects with patina—over traditional retail shopping. The feeling is also in the ether (and, contrarily, in our digital landscape) vis-à-vis interior photography that captures mess, weird angles, and lamp cords.
L: AN Interior, spring/summer 2025:
read more from that issue here
. R: I also wrote an essay about
designer houses-turned-museums
for FOR_SCALE’s
second print edition
, launched during design month in NYC. I will
not
be posting this to the internet, but as a preview, I did refer to Luis Barragán a “horse girl.”
Odds and ends
This story
—about a revived textile mill in Connecticut, reported by
Stephen Kurutz
—has taken up permanent residence in my brain. (Read it twice through and immediately texted it to ten people.) The Loro Piana of it all! The Sisyphean belief that manufacturing matters in America! His conclusion that in that in our present age, durability is “luxury.” This quote!
“The low point — and this was a low point — came in 2017 at a trade show in Chicago,” he said. “A suit manufacturer looked at me and said: ‘Jacob, you know what we need from you? We need an Italian-designed cloth offered at a Chinese price point, but made in America.”
Kaitlin Phillips
noted the above, along with a
Financial Times
profile
on the last Irish linen beetler in the world, in
a dispatch on threatened craft
. Beetled linen is an absurdly beautiful,
out-of-time material
… and if I were shopping at Kindred of Ireland I’d go for
one of
the coats
.
Alexandra Lange
’s
recent Pulitzer win
!! I’ve had the honor of working with Alexandra for nearly 15 years, from Dwell to Curbed—where she was the official architecture critic—to Herman Miller. She’s pioneered the design/cities/family beat in modern media and I am beyond thrilled to see her critical contributions recognized, for
a series she did at Bloomberg City Lab
for editor
Kriston Capps
. (Kriston:
drinks on me
, the next time I see you.)
Be still, my heart:
Massimo de Carlo
gallery
published a book
on
Lily Stockman
’s exceptional Minotaur series,
originally shown
at
Fondation Le Corbusier Maison La Roche
. Fun fact about Lily is that she learned to paint in another Corbu building, the Carpenter Center at Harvard, so the story comes full circle.
My review of
The Room Next Door
: Much reclining, great lipstick, excellent pairing of green and red throughout.
Watched the latest
Almodóvar
film on a plane, sound off: clearly not for the plot or dialogue
but for the colors
. Also why isn’t anyone blogging specific costume credits? (
These are
the best
I’ve found
, but I want more.)
Film and furniture
: future issue?!
I’ve been hearing about all the slashed arts funding from museum friends and other non-profit folks (even the
Shaker Museum
has lost its NEA funding…). Sounds like there are
other plans afoot
for that budget. I know you know, but this is propaganda pure and simple.
Speaking of Shakers:
Vitra
worked with the museum as well as the ICA in Philly and the Milwaukee Art Museum to
open an exhibition
exploring the influence of the 18th-century American sect on the world of design.
OK SORRY, one last Shaker thing. Did you know there’s
a musical on the life of
Mother Ann Lee
coming out this year? And it’s (loosely) connected to the production of
The Brutalist
?
A most precious artifact
housed at the Shaker Museum at Mt. Lebanon. This is an 18th-century linen apron remnant believed to have belonged to Ann Lee—later embroidered by Shaker girls and saved as a relic.
Astute pal
Emily Keegin
(AKA “the internet’s favorite photo director”) weighed in on
all that gilded nonsense
in the White House.
Is this the year of
Mark Twain
? If recent magazine pieces by two of America’s foremost essayists count toward that notion, yes:
John Jeremiah Sullivan
for
Harper’s
and
Caity Weaver
in
The Atlantic
.
How to DIY
“art that eats an entire wall for breakfast.”
I’m doing a fun thing with my friends at
Alex Mill
: a summer design series highlighting useful, everyday objects with outsize significance.
Follow along here
.
PSA! I am planning
a full month of SAUNA content for October
, featuring some special guests, buckets of design inspiration, and a plunge into the practical info you need to know. Pertinent questions, project submissions, or sponsorship queries… you know what to do:
Leave a comment
Project to submit?
Email me!
PS. I am unlocking access to some of my older stories for a limited time. If you like what you’re reading, please consider a paid subscription:
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·
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·
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