If you want a good reason to text the head-explosion emoji to all your friends, might I suggest you get yourself down to the Brooklyn Museum?
That’s where you’ll find Brooklyn Designs, the annual design event showcasing product designers, artists, architects, and interior designers, whose work will not only blow you away—but remind you of how many pockets of creativity exist in the borough.
Open to the public May 12-13, the survey acts as an egalitarian space for the 50-plus independent designers and longtime design brands, selected through an application and jury process. Metalworkers still in grad school feature their pieces next to decades-old design studios.
There are people making intricate jewelry, intricate light fixtures, intricate coffee tables. Everything is intricate! And awe-inspiring! (And for sale, of course.) Some designers are still working out of their apartments or small studio spaces—others have expanded into giant workshops.
The Brooklyn Museum provides a worthy backdrop to the impressive collections, and the move from the Brooklyn Expo Center to the august institution was spearheaded by outgoing Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce president and CEO Andrew Hoan, who, when spotted at the design show, said he had 12 more hours to go in his Brooklyn post before his eventual move to Portland, Ore.
Here are one dozen of the design pieces, studios, companies, and makers that caught our eye. Say hi to them from 11 am to 6 pm this weekend.