By: Vogue • Published December 5, 2024
Design Miami—one of the world’s leading design fairs, that takes place in tandem with Art Basel—is about to enter its 20th year. What began as a small endeavor in Miami’s Design District is now a tri-part 
international juggernaut: Design Miami occurs not only in the Magic City, but also Basel, Switzerland, and Paris, France. It’s a big deal, and yet, because it largely focuses on items for the home, there’s a warmth around it that can be harder to sense in the static convention halls of a traditional art fair. Case in point: Design Miami is known for its feel-good verve, and that’s especially true at this year’s edition, which was built around a theme upliftingly dubbed “Blue Sky.”
“It’s the concept of ‘blue sky thinking,’” said Glenn Adamson, Design Miami’s 2024 curatorial director, at a media preview on Tuesday. “Taking the imaginative leaps that are intrinsic to design practice. It’s also the idea of a boundless horizon, and the optimism in that. And the final meaning has to do with universalism. The same sky is above all of us, no matter who we are.” Design Miami’s CEO Jen Roberts also emphasized the optimistic component when speaking about the fair. “There’s a joyfulness,” she told us. “You want to try it out. You want to engage with it. There’s pleasure in it—I think that’s what it is.”
The room—well, mega-tent—was buzzing over that sentiment. Craft, which has returned to prominence in the design world over the past few years, had a strong presence at this year’s edition, along with a touch of the fantastical and a dash of the pragmatic—all of it amounting to something sophisticated and fresh and, perhaps, a little bit youthful. (Twenty is still young, after all.) Below, our highlights from Design Miami 2024.
Bottega Veneta x Zanotta
Mathieu Blazy’s seating at Bottega Veneta’s fashion shows is garnering cult status in the design world, too. For spring 2025, the brand’s creative director tapped the Italian design firm Zanotta to create beanbag chairs in the likenesses of animals (two years before that, the chairs were colorful boxy resin shapes, made with the late Gaetano Pesce). When the fauna are gathered together, as they are in Miami, this capsule is called “The Ark,” which Blazy described as “a joyful world with a sense of wonder” (very fitting for the optimism Adamson mentioned). Before the show had opened, a number of the animals had sold out (there are only 500 in total, in various colorways). Two, a light gray rabbit and a white chicken, are exclusive to Design Miami. If interested, Bottega Veneta can connect you to their dedicated sales team–but, and forgive the pun, there’s a flood of interest in this ark, so act fast.
Fendi’s ænigma by Lewis Kemmenoe
Fendi holds a longstanding presence at Design Miami, and this year, the house tapped the London-based designer Lewis Kemmenoe to create a bespoke lineup of pieces (with, of course, a handbag included) that blend woodworking production processes, Fendi logomarks, carpentry joinery, timber inlays and metal into something that amalgamates into the organic while also, somehow, feeling meticulously studied and precise. “I appreciate very much Lewis’s work,” Silvia Venturini Fendi told us, via email. “It all looks very natural.” Kemmenoe said: “I love that people interact and live with design. This project has been especially exciting in that regard, because there is a lot of crossover with fashion and furniture… design pieces are useable in the same way a garment is wearable.”
Friedman Benda’s Javier Senosiain-Inspired Show
An element of the earthen could also be felt at Friedman Benda’s booth, too. They’re featuring a group installation inspired by the Mexican architect Javier Senosiain—alongside Senosiain’s first-ever collection of limited-edition furniture. SANGREE, a Mexico City-based duo composed of René Godínez-Pozas and Carlos Lara, complements Senosiain’s colors and curves with two stone and ceramic feline sculptures inspired by pre-Columbian artifacts. Similar to Bottega Veneta and Zanotta’s chairs, there seems to be an almost childlike throughline in certain selections–not in a naive way, but more in a wavelength of wonder and imagination which, again, ties back to the Blue Sky thesis. Also: Congratulations are in order for Friedman Benda, which has been awarded the Best in Show accolade for Design Miami 2024.
Blunk Space’s Rio Kobayashi Commission
Blunk Space, the gallery established by the estate of the pioneering Northern Californian artist JB Blunk, commissioned the London-based designer Rio Kobayashi to channel the late creative’s home. Kobayashi, in turn, created salvaged redwood shelving units and a bench, replete with yet more biological but regimented lines. The rosy glow of their beauty is almost magnetic, and Kobayashi’s output caught the attention of the powers that be: Blunk Space has been awarded Best Curio at this year’s fair.
Mindy Solomon Gallery’s New Prize
The Miami-based Mindy Solomon Gallery took home a new prize created this year by Design Miami’s executives: the Best Thematic Expression Award. Solomon recently took a trip to Patagonia in Argentina, and found the experience eye-opening—and full of deep, boundless blue skies. She prompted her roster of designers to take inspiration, too. “I wanted things that fit this kind of blue, gray, green, craggy energy,” she told us. We love hettler.tüllmann’s animal-esque rope chair (is animal-shaped seating trending?), as well as the arcing, almost haunting hangings by Frances Trombly and Jacqueline Surdell.
