The nonprofit organization Be Original Americas aims to raise awareness about the negative impact of knockoffs within the design industry by starting conversations about the value of preserving original design. One way the advocacy group achieves this is by spreading the message to rising design talent. Every year, the organization hosts a summer fellowship in which two undergraduate design students embark on an immersive five-week journey to visit a multitude of member brands, such as Emeco, Louis Poulsen, and Gensler, to gain invaluable insights into original design, craftsmanship, and business.

This year, however, was different. The prospect of visiting firms and studios in multiple locations proved impossible due to travel restrictions arising from Covid-19. Instead, the program director, Alyssa Young, suggested going virtual—a crucial way to reach more students while bringing the Be Original Americas mission to the global stage. The group then organized a series of live webinars from 26 member brands, who presented to more than 3,400 students around the world about various stages of the design process while focusing on the intrinsic value of authenticity. Though the fellowship ended on July 17, students will have access to each lecture through a private YouTube channel, which will be made public on September 1.

“The virtual fellowship opened my vision of what design is outside of school,” says Sergio Gabriel Salazar Rodríguez, an industrial design student at Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores in Monterrey, Mexico. “My favorite part was seeing the behind-the-scenes of working in a design studio or factory.” Tanushri Kadam, a furniture design student at CEPT University in India, concurs: “I hope that once things get back to normal that [Be Original Americas] continues doing these virtual sessions for people like me who aren’t able to attend them physically.”

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Martin Laforêt illustrates the intimate relationships shared between materials. A brand-new body of work, inspired by industrial architecture and currently on display at Carpenters Workshop Gallery London, achieves this through unlikely material pairings—by incorporating concrete molds and casts as part of the end result, the Eindhoven-based designer lends a sense of harmony to opposing forces.

When: Until Nov. 30

Where: Nilufar Gallery, Milan

What: The first in Nilufar’s series of six shows that present different bodies of work from Studio Nucleo, “It’s All About Colour” unveils pastel-hued renditions of the Turin-based collective’s celebrated Primitive collection, a geometric furniture series that overlaps handmade resin-finished cubes to create a pixelated effect.

Consisting of a floor lamp, pendant, sofa, armchair, and dining table that were previously only available in all-white, the collection draws inspiration from Le Corbusier and the Russian artists Wassily Kandinsky and Kazimir Malevich. “The return to structure is a 20th-century leitmotiv,” says Studio Nucleo. “The art is free from enslavement to the subject, able to translate the motions of the human soul with pure color or pure form.”

Verdi is a Colombian design studio that, honoring a family tradition, specializes in mixing natural fibers with metals to create contemporary products with an artisanal heritage. Their studio revolves around three pillars—home, fashion and art—and their portfolio of masterfully crafted fabrics includes materials such as wool, baby alpaca, fique, copper, and stainless steel.

Surface Says: The level of care and craftsmanship that Verdi brings to each textile is utterly exceptional. The studio’s artful use of metals, such as copper and steel, serves to accentuate the brilliant colored thread of each piece.

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