FROM NEW YORK TO MILAN: PARSONS PRODUCT DESIGN STUDENTS
TRANSLATE STYLE INTO GOOD DESIGN

Parsons School of Design Exhibition at Milan Furniture Fair

April 9 – April 14, 2003

Booth # L-21, Pavilion #9

Salone Satelite, Fiera Milano

Chair, Product Design: Tony Whitfield

The Product Design Department at Parsons School of Design is literally buzzing as over 20 talented students prepare to cross the Atlantic from April 9th through the 14th to show their works in Europe's largest contemporary furnishings event, The Milan Furniture Fair. Officially titled the Salone Satelite, Fiera Milano, the event is host to over 175,000 industry operators, manufacturers, journalists and designers. The show is an important maker of market trends, displaying the latest in styles, colors, and materials technology. Parsons was one of the three American design schools invited to present at the Fair.

"Going to Milan is an honor for us at Parsons. It also gives our students invaluable exposure, not just in terms of having their work seen, but in gaining an understanding of this critical event in the design industry," said Product Design Chair, Tony Whitfield.

This year's work was done in response to the notion of "Aura," in which students were asked to consider the effects of "newness" in fashion as it related to product design. For instance, what is product design's equivalent to fashion's color black? Parsons students answered this and many other questions as they deliberated how to recognize, integrate, and orient themselves in a marketplace that encourages new, innovative levels of design production.

Among the exciting products that were developed, Geoffrey Young created a light out of porcelain which reveals provocative text when turned on. Philip O'Sullivan's wall-covering collection, "Overvue," took on the challenge of wallpaper as an essentially decorative device and elevated it to a new level of customization that comments on taste, trends, and architecture. The "Knitty Rocker," by Aaron Ruff, is an exploration into the forms created by stretching knitted material over a steel frame. Sarah Cihat's rehabilitated dishware, "fifty-cents," brings new life to mismatched and out-of-style china patterns by overlaying them with updated colors and imagery, while Johanna Nilsson used water in a most innovative way within the development process to create an incredibly rustic version of tableware.

"We're really proud of the work our students do," said Atim Annette Oton, Associate Chair of Product Design. "The fact that they can hold their own among the 1,600 companies at this trade show is a testament to the quality of their outstanding work."

The students will be located at Booth # L-21, Pavilion #9, at the Salone Satelite, Fiera Milano. Electronic images and more specific information provided upon request.

****

The Product Design Department trains typically over 130 students each year to become flexible, intelligent, innovative, technologically savvy designers. Graduates from this program will be particularly skilled as collaborators and researchers whose interdisciplinary approaches distinguish them among their peers. The Product Design Department is committed to providing students with broad-based options that reflect a spectrum of professional career directions. In a three-year program, students learn to conceive thoughtful and innovative consumer products that address domestic environments, meet specialized needs and facilitate the individual's activities in daily life.

Parsons School of Design, a division of New School University, is one of the largest degree-granting colleges of art and design in the nation. Currently enrolled are about 2,400 undergraduate students, 500 graduate students, and 2,500 non-degree students from all 50 of the United States and from 60 countries. Parsons' main campuses are located in New York City's Greenwich Village and Midtown Manhattan. In addition, Parsons has affiliate schools in Paris, France; Kanazawa, Japan; Seoul, South Korea; and at Altos de Chavon in the Dominican Republic. For further information on Parsons, call 212-229-8910 or visit the Web site at www.parsons.edu.