Jerome Byron on the Best Design of 2024

GAETANO PESCE (SALA ACCADEMIE AND BIBLIOTECA AMBROSIANA, MILAN)

Gaetano Pesce is a personal hero, and his death has caused me to reflect on the ways that he forged a creative life as a furniture designer. This past spring, an exhibition of his late-career work during Milan Design Week featured objects done mostly in resin, all in crazy candy colors with melty smiley faces, sized for adults and children, and as always, goofy and irreverent. Pesce’s lifelong interest in experimentation, in taking risks with new materials, was so evident here; there was no perfection or mastery, just the relentless playfulness of a designer who loved his work.
“POETICS OF ENCRYPTION” (KW INSTITUTE FOR CONTEMPORARY ART, BERLIN; CURATED BY NADIM SAMMAN)

I tried to attend the opening of this show one February evening, and the line to get in stretched around the block, seeming more like the queue leading into Berlin’s storied clubs than for an art exhibition. I think that speaks to how much some of the included artists and collectives are embedded in a larger culture of internet-based platforms such as podcasts, Twitch streams, and Discord channels. It was compelling to see some of these formats translated into a show that was at once information-heavy and deeply sensuous. As a designer, I particularly loved Kate Crawford and Vladan Joler’s Calculating Empires, 2023, a slick, sterile, yet ruthless infographic-mural on the relationship between colonialism and technology.
CHRISTINE SUN KIM AND THOMAS MADER, HOOHAA AND INEX, BOTH 2024 (WHITE SPACE, BEIJING)

Christine Sun Kim, who is Deaf, and Thomas Mader, who is hearing, collaborate to explore the physical nuances of communication, particularly how the body navigates sound and silence. Tiny, often subconscious physical movements relating to breath control and nasal breathing are essential to both spoken and signed communication and for Deaf individuals. Kim and Mader’s shared attention to these subtle yet powerful details resonates with my own practice as a furniture designer. They serve as a reminder that communication, much like design, is deeply embodied, and even the smallest actions can profoundly shape interaction.
TREVOR CHENEY GALLERY, LOS ANGELES

Trevor Cheney has been such an important part of the Los Angeles design and interiors scene, and I’m thrilled he opened his own gallery this year. In his previous roles as the creative director of well-known Galerie Half and Seventh House, he brought an incredible level of historical knowledge and aesthetic discernment to the region. His new gallery is less focused on modernism and more on works that lean in to the decorative and ornamental. Los Angeles is such a fantasy space for designers, a backdrop where emotion, personality, and narrative are so important, especially for private clients; galleries such as Cheney’s are critical to the kinds of conversations we need to have in order to do our work.
COLORED CRAIG

I’ve been lucky enough to catch many sets by Colored Craig, from his early house party performances to his first Boiler Room set in LA. In Europe this past summer, he championed an unapologetically Black history of dance music, playing vinyl sets of classic vocal and funky house. In LA, he is a regular at dublab as a part of TheyHouse, headlining Black-oriented music events such as Hood Rave. But what you really need to know is that Craig is an insane dancer. Professionally trained, he’s worked as a choreographer for decades, so his live sets are 100 percent the best house music you’ve ever heard and 100 percent the most intense and inspiring dance performance you’ve ever seen.
LEISE-PARK PLAYGROUND, PRENZLAUERBERG, BERLIN

Spending time in Berlin with my toddler this past year has meant thousands of hours logged in playgrounds, and luckily this city is riddled with them. They’re adjacent to cafés and beer gardens, between buildings, in courtyards, and of course, in larger parks. Berlin is known for the adaptive and creative reuse of its own ruins, and Leise-Park (Quiet Park) is a lovely and serene example. A portion of an old but lush botanical cemetery was retrofitted with soft paths, hammocks, and simple climbing structures. It’s just what its name implies, a quiet and contemplative place where my kid and I can lie on a hammock and watch the clouds float by.
BENNET SCHLESINGER (LIGHT SONG EXCHANGE)

I first got to know Bennet Schlesinger some years ago in Los Angeles and have been so pleased to see the way his handmade lighting practice has developed, and the recognition he’s received in the design world as a result. Schlesinger’s lighting works are almost anthropomorphic, with softly thrown ceramic bases and delicate, glowing bamboo and paper shades. They’re all unique, sometimes slender, sometimes bulbous, all made by hand. His work has evolved from a very personal, meditative practice, and I think his pieces bring a quiet mood anywhere they are placed.
FUORISALONE AT DESIGN WEEK MILAN

Fuorisalone is the cool counterpart to the larger Salone del Mobile, which mostly happens in a sterile convention center. In contrast, Fuori spills out all over the city, into galleries and private residences, though it mostly leads the “who’s who” of furniture and interior design back to Bar Basso, the home of the Negroni Sbagliato. I wasn’t prepared for how much I’d love Milan and this design festival in particular; maybe I didn’t realize that so much of the vibe for interior-design style, colors, and furniture I’d established as personal preferences were so deeply Milanese. You will find me here every year from now on.
NEW MODELS PODCAST

With a baby around, you get a lot less screen time but have much more time for passive listening, which leads to unhealthy levels of podcast consumption. New Models has become a favorite—falling somewhere between new-media criticism, futurist speculation, post-left political commentary, and contemporary art review, it feels like being privy to a sped-up conversation between the smartest, most chronically online kids in your art theory class. Some of the episodes this year were incredibly rich, especially the interview with journalist James Pogue on America’s endless entanglements overseas and the conversation with K Allado-McDowell on AI.
MS. RACHEL X ELMO, “THIS IS THE WAY WE GO TO SCHOOL”

As far as collabs go, this one basically set the internet, and most toddler prefrontal cortexes, on fire. It brought the two most wholesome characters ever to grace YouTube together for one epic and achingly brief clip. It’s two minutes and eleven seconds of Ms. Rachel and Elmo singing about getting ready for school, followed by a regular singsong Ms. Rachel joint, but if you haven’t watched this clip 145 times, do you even have a child under the age of three? At the time I’m writing this it has over ninety-one million views.

DESIGN

GAETANO PESCE (SALA ACCADEMIE AND BIBLIOTECA AMBROSIANA, MILAN)

“POETICS OF ENCRYPTION” (KW INSTITUTE FOR CONTEMPORARY ART, BERLIN; CURATED BY NADIM SAMMAN)

CHRISTINE SUN KIM AND THOMAS MADER, HOOHAA AND INEX, BOTH 2024 (WHITE SPACE, BEIJING)

TREVOR CHENEY GALLERY, LOS ANGELES

COLORED CRAIG

LEISE-PARK PLAYGROUND, PRENZLAUERBERG, BERLIN

BENNET SCHLESINGER (LIGHT SONG EXCHANGE)

FUORISALONE AT DESIGN WEEK MILAN

NEW MODELS PODCAST

MS. RACHEL X ELMO, “THIS IS THE WAY WE GO TO SCHOOL”

Most Popular

You may also like