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Best of NeoCon 2018

NeoCon has once again come and gone and this year’s show marked the 50th year of bringing the latest and greatest in the commercial design world to Chicago’s Merchandise Mart. The show presented a host of innovative textiles and workspace offerings that can and will change the landscape of offices and other commercial settings for years to come. Brands are spending more time focusing on noise reduction, privacy, and comfort, with aesthetics and ergonomics playing a key role. Check out below to see some of our favorite finds at this year’s NeoCon.

KnollTextiles also launched a new collection of wallcoverings by Trove. The Atmosphere Collection comes in several variations, each with a watercolor-like feel, including Cascade (below).

Ghislaine Viñas launched her first-ever textile collection – the Curious Crowd collection with HBF Textiles where she was inspired by sea slugs and jellyfish. The colors, patterns, and shapes are reflected in the collection of six designs, which include Ms. Quilty, Captain Bubble, Sir Stripe-A-Lot, Sister Solid, Madam Dottie, and Mr. Dimple.

Left: Mini samples of the carpet tiles \\\ Right: Examples of the many possibilities

Shaw Contract partnered with Form Us With Love on Inside Shapes, a collection of carpet tiles that go in a whole new direction. The collection comprises four tile shapes that come in 12 colors, which means the possibilities are endless. If coming up with your own pattern is too much, you can always go with one of the 17 premixed options available.

Another release from Shaw Contract is their PET Resilient product line of sustainable flooring that’s made from 40% post-consumer PET plastic, which means there are 16 recycled plastic bottles per square foot. Palette is the first collection and it features digitally printed surfaces, including the terrazzo-inspired one above.

The Scandinavian Spaces showroom was designed by Ghislaine Viñas and it was a visual delight, especially this custom wallpaper she created for the back of the space.

Five Cities by Ellie Malin for Designtex 5×5

The Designtex 5×5 collection was made in partnership with Crypton and it featured five contemporary artists who were asked to design a pattern to be digitally printed on Crypton fabric. Each of the five patterns comes in five colorways.

CrissCross by Kapitza for Designtex 5×5

BitDrift by Phillip David Stearns for Designtex 5×5

Social Dance by Elizabeth Atterbury for Designtex 5×5

Line Variations by Arturo Guerrero for Designtex 5×5

Herman Miller is set to launch the Cosm task chair this summer. It was designed by Studio 7.5 and it’s just as comfortable as it is visually appealing. We especially liked this coral-ish/red color.

We also loved this vignette in the Herman Miller showroom which featured some of their iconic pieces wrapped with their new Overlay sub-architectural walls by Birsel + Seck.

BuzziSpace launched Cory Grosser’s BuzziMood – living moss wall panels that help absorb sound while bringing greenery inside.

Cross Cut is a rug from Maharam that was designed by Hella Jongerius who brings a new approach to rugs with geometric cutouts.

Equilux is a new textile series from LUUM which features layered grid patterns that were inspired by light that passes through geometric facades.

Arc-Com presented a lot of new textiles with geometric patterns in striking color palettes and we couldn’t choose just one favorite.

Benjamin Hubert designed this privacy chair for De Vorm with a compression molded shell made from PET Felt, a felt made from recycled plastic bottles.

DARRAN unveiled ThinkingQuietly, a 4-person workstation made from an acoustic material comprised of recycled plastic bottles.

Teknion will be launching the tn Storage Collection in the Fall and it consists of a series of desktop and wall-mounted storage organizers in fun colors.

Danish firm Norm Architects designed a series of furniture for Allsteel that includes sleek seating with curvaceous silhouettes.

In addition to new commitments to sustainable practices, Interface launched a collection called Visual Code, which includes this high-pile tufted design called “Overedge” that gives the look of a homey throw rug but with easier installation, and the durability and safety of a carpet tile.

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.