China International Furniture Fair Gathers Top Designers for Hongqiao Design Forum

SHANGHAI, Sept. 15, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The 40th China International Furniture Fair (Shanghai) (CIFF) has gathered the industry's top designers and opinion leaders from the U.S., Japan and China for its "Witness the Pinnacle" Hongqiao Design Forum (Forum) to identify and discuss the current design trends in the furniture industry.

The forum was held prior to the Asia-Pacific Pinnacle Awards, which was co-organized by the American Society of Furniture Designers, High Point Market and the CIFF. It is the first subcategory outside the U.S. of the most prestigious awards in the American furniture industry.

Keynote speakers and highlights from the Forum include:

• Jonathan Adler, top U.S designer, noted that self-challenge is essential in furniture design to make products unique. Many of his design inspirations come from the heart and one shouldn't pay too much attention to sophisticated workmanship, nor to fashion and trends.
• Masayuki Kurokawa, Japanese pioneer architect and industrial designer, shared his poetry of sitting. He believes that the chair is the starting point of all furniture; it supports the human body and hosts conversations and meditation. He also noted two growing trends in home design, highlighting walls from western culture to separate places where people prefer to sit on chairs to avoid potential injury, and featuring column-beams from eastern culture where the larger and safer space brings a sense of security to sit on the floor.
• Alex Shuford III, president and CEO of Century Furniture Company, believes that design is a tool of creation as well as a way of destruction. Century Furniture Company uses design to break constraints that have existed in traditional furniture concepts. He considers functionality and aesthetics to be the two crucial factors in designing furniture that will be accepted by consumers.

"The participants in this year's Forum exemplify the broad range of talent that permeates the furniture industry," said a CIFF representative. "The ideas and expertise served as a perfect lead-in to this year's Pinnacles, and helped to introduce Chinese furniture to the U.S. and other international markets."

About CIFF

The 40th CIFF Shanghai, held at the National Exhibition & Convention Centre, features over 2000 brands from homedecor, hometextile, furniture machinery, raw materials and outdoor, office, commercial and hotel furniture. With the theme of "Better Life, Better Work", the fair welcomed 91,623 professionals, seeing an 8.18 percent year-on-year increase. http://www.ciff-sh.com/en