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.”
Photo: Kris Tamburello
“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.
Design Miami is open to the public from December 4 to December 8.
Bottega Veneta x Zanotta
Photo: Courtesy of Bottega Veneta
Photo: Courtesy of Bottega Veneta
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
Photo: Robin Hill / Courtesy of Fendi
