NYCxDesign 2017: 15 products that push the boundaries of furniture design

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NYCxDesign is a program of design events and exhibitions running May 3-24, 2017 throughout the city

The "Sight Unseen Offsite" exhibition opens May 19, 2017

New York CNN  — 

A one-stop inspiration shop for design lovers and neophytes alike, the website Sight Unseen (and its highly addictive Instagram profile) has a devoted, international following of the aesthetically inclined.

Since its launch in 2009, the magazine has become a popular destination for discovering independent design talent. Meanwhile, its founders Monica Khesurov and Jill Singer have established themselves as trusted tastemakers credited with helping to reposition New York on the design circuit.

This is in no small part thanks to “Sight Unseen Offsite,” the website’s annual design expo during NYCxDesign, which has become a coveted platform for both emerging and more established designers.

Now in its fourth edition, this year’s Offsite will showcase a slimmed-down selection of 25 designers (compared to 70 last year), in addition to a group exhibition of 21 international names. “We decided to mindfully shrink the show this year,” says Singer, “We wanted to go back to something a bit more pure and focused.”

Khemsurov notes that while the duo has in recent years gained a reputation for having a “young, fun aesthetic, which mingled a bit with this Memphis design resurgence, shapes, squiggles, and bright colors,” they never intended to be exclusively associated with one type of look.

“I think we’re shifting away from that a bit, and this year’s display will indicate that: it’s closer to the aesthetic world we show on the site, which is maybe a bit more elevated and feels more personal to us,” says Khemsurov.

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Ahead of this week’s design festivities in New York, CNN asked Khemsurov and Singer to namecheck the budding talents and more well-known designers who are ones to watch (or keep watching), a mix which includes designers from this year’s Offsite and from further afield.

Sight Unseen Offsite runs from May 19-22: 100 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10013. Sight Unseen will also launch Sight Unseen Presents, a curated event series and a magazine popping up at dozen retail outposts and restaurants in New York, May 16-23.