Contacts
Parsons School of Design: Carole Schaffer, 212-229-5314, [email protected]
New School University: Gloria Gottschalk, 212-229-5667, [email protected]
Parsons - Product Design: Atim Annette Oton, 212-229-5885, [email protected]
ICFF/GLM Kara Tobin, 212-879-5776, [email protected]

(June 5, 2001, New York, NY) Parsons’ Department of Product Design has won the 2001 ICFF Editor’s Award in the Design School category at the 13th Annual International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF). This highly acclaimed showcase for contemporary designs and trend-setting products ran from Saturday, May 19 to Tuesday, May 22, 2001, at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York City. This is Parsons’ fourth ICFF win in eight years. Parsons is a division of New School University.

Annually, during the Fair, a panel of U.S. and international editors bestows the ICFF Editors Award in 16 categories for design excellence. One of these categories is Design Schools. Fifteen design schools accepted the invitation to submit student concepts for original products with prototypes. The field was then narrowed by a committee of international magazine editors, to four schools that would exhibit at the ICFF, including Parsons School of Design, Art Center College of Design, Rhode Island School of Design, and Savannah College of Art and Design. The ICFF Editors Awards Committee named Parsons the recipient of the 2001 Editor’s Award for its innovative submissions dealing with the concept: Public Life--Private Realm.

The ICFF Editor’s Award Committee included: Silvia Latis of Abitare, Deyan Sudjic of Domus, Elizabeth Sverbeyeff Byron of Elle Decor, Robert Thiemann of Frame, Brooke Stoddard of House & Garden, Elizabeth Mayhew of House Beautiful, Elana Frankel of Interior Design,Gilda Bojardi of Interni, Chantal Hamaide of Intramuros, Susan S. Szenasy of Metropolis, Arlene Hirst of Metropolitan Home, and Thomas Lykke of Wallpaper.

"This year's senior class was involved in an investigation of the vanishing line between private life and the public realm," said Tony Whitfield, Chair of Product Design at Parsons and furniture designer. "Projects dealt with issues of privacy that have arisen from new digital technologies; however, they have opened up into all areas, ranging from health to social interaction to environmental issues."

Of her project "Armor" student Elizabeth Linstrom said, "I'm designing modern-day body armor. We don't face the threat of sword-fighting on the streets, but we do battle things like technology replacing many of the more tactile aspects of our lives, stressful jobs, frightening new advances in science--a whole host of things that still make us very vulnerable."

Other Parsons projects included Brian Lo’s "Urban Cart" a pedal-power utility trike for which he envisions convenient drop-off centers for parking and pick up. Kristofer Edwin Blumberg designed "Compost Project" consisting of a blender storage unit for kitchen scraps and a compost bin for city pick up. "Mobi," by student Shane Butler, is a mobile work surface that is lightweight and easy to assemble on the spot. "Doss Cozy" is an inflatable sleep environment designed by student, Keifer Calkins. Soo-Hyon Kim designed "BSE," a breast self-examination device with a cancer sensor that would eliminate the inconvenience and discomfort of mammograms.

Produced and managed by George Little Management, LLC (GLM), the 2001 ICFF included more than 600 exhibitors from Austria, Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, U.S., and United Kingdom. Furniture, seating, lighting, carpet and flooring, wall coverings, textiles, materials, accessories, kitchen and bath products, or outdoor furniture for residential, home/office filled 110,000 square feet. An estimated 15,000 attendees included retailers, interior designers, architects, facility managers, wholesalers, store design professionals, hotel and restaurant designers, manufacturers, students, and the general public. ICFF is sponsored by Metropolis magazine and internationally sponsored by Abitare, Domus, Frame, Interni, Intramuros, and Wallpaper. ICFF is approved by the International Furnishings and Design Association, and the International Interior Design Association.

The Product Design department at Parsons School of Design prepares students for a broad spectrum of professional career directions. They learn to conceive thoughtful and functional domestic and consumer products to meet specialized needs and make intelligent, responsible use of the latest technologies and materials. While being introduced to a variety of design methodologies and the history of product design, students master the fundamentals of computers, machinery, tools and presentation, research techniques. They also begin to grasp marketing concepts and theories of ethical practices, study the design process through which a product is conceived, developed, fabricated and marketed, and develop an awareness of New York City’s professional and cultural resources.

Parsons School of Design is one of the largest degree-granting colleges of art and design in the nation. Currently enrolled are 2,400 undergraduate students, 380 graduate students, and 2,500 non-degree students from all 50 of the United States and from 60 countries. Parsons’ main campuses are in New York City’s Greenwich Village and Midtown Manhattan. In addition, Parsons has affiliate schools in France, Japan, South Korea and the Dominican Republic.

Undergraduate degrees are offered in Architectural Design, Communication Design, Design Marketing, Fashion Design, Fine Arts, Illustration, Integrated Design Curriculum, Interior Design, Photography, Product Design. Graduate degrees are granted in Architecture, Design and Technology, Lighting Design, Painting, Sculpture, and the History of Decorative Arts.

New School University, with 7,000 matriculated students and 25,000 continuing education students, is comprised of seven academic divisions: The New School, the Graduate Faculty of Political and Social Science, Parsons School of Design, Eugene Lang College, Mannes College of Music, the Robert J. Milano Graduate School of Management and Urban Policy, and the Actors Studio Drama School, as well as the University’s B.F.A. in Jazz and Contemporary Music. New School Online University offers one of the largest selections of online courses in the nation. For further information about admission to New School University, call (877) 528-3321 or go to the Web site at www.newschool.edu.