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2013 Year in Review: Best Design Events and Shows

In 2013 we’ve been able to cover a variety of events, bringing the best of modern design from around the world. We spread out to cover it all and here’s a peek at some of our design-worthy adventures.

January took Katie to IMM Cologne for which she rounded up her top picks from the entire show.

In February, Katie went to the Stockholm Furniture Fair where she narrowed down her favorites and explored design show Greenhouse. Oki Sato, of Nendo, created a lounge for the event that looked like “an invisible landscape of snow capped mountains.”

SXSW happens every March and, Jaime ventured to Austin to experience her first SXSW action and she somehow survived it, all while keepin’ it weird.

April brought forth Milan Design Week and a whole slew of events that allowed us to interview Toan Nguyen and Scott Wilson who worked with Coalesse. Catch the video interview here.

While in Milan, we had the chance to interview lighting designer Michael Anastassiades – watch it here.

Nendo’s founder and Chief Designer, Oki Sato, partnered with Caesarstone during Milan to create Stone Garden, a courtyard that looked as if it grew a garden of tables. We were lucky enough to speak with Sato about this project and more right here.

This year’s Milan Design Week also took us to Ventura Lambrate, Brera Design District, Spazio Rossana Orlandi, New British at Vivienne Westwood, and SaloneSatellite.

What began as ICFF (the International Contemporary Furniture Fair) has now turned into NYCxDesign which has design and events taking over all of NYC for a week in May. We started at INTRO NY, and then headed to our own exhibition and popup shop at Bobby Berk Home called East, Meet West!.

WantedDesign killed it so it was hard to choose our favorites but we managed to narrowed it down here and here. We even went back and shot a video of highlights.

As usual, we spent quite a few days roaming around ICFF. Check out our coverage in parts 1, 2, 3, and 4. We even gathered video of some of our favorites.

The week rounded out with stops to the NoHo Design District, Negative Space, and the Bezalel on Tour student exhibition.

At the end of May, Clerkenwell Design Week happens and this year it was bigger than ever. Check out our favorites.

Dwell on Design was in June and Jaime spent the weekend picking out some favorites.

In September, I headed to Italy to attend Cersaie, the international tile and bath fixture exhibition where there were plenty of trends happening and so many favorites.

Jaime caught the WestEdge Design Fair in Santa Monica, California in early October, full of young independent designers and big names alike.

London Design Festival was a big one which takes about a week to fully cover. First up was 100% Design where we asked our favorite designers to tell us a little something about their products. Check out the interviews in Part 1 and Part 2. Other not-to-miss stops were a tour of the Brompton Design District and Imprint at Craft Central.

Tent London is always a favorite and this year did not disappoint. BRINK was a collaboration with Tent London that featured work from graduate shows. And then there was designjunction and Designersblock.

And last, but certainly not least, there was Young Creative Poland – 4 Year On and Best of 100% Norway.

Dutch Design Week, also in October, offered incredible diversity of disciplines, types of work, and designers.

We had a special guest report from Design Week Birmingham by Adrienne Breaux, where she gives us a small taste of what the city had to offer during its first ever week-long design celebration.

Phew! We hope to go to all these places again next year and more — stay tuned!

Caroline Williamson is Editor-in-Chief of Design Milk. She has a BFA in photography from SCAD and can usually be found searching for vintage wares, doing New York Times crossword puzzles in pen, or reworking playlists on Spotify.