A Q+A with Claire and Odile About WantedDesign

For more than a decade, WantedDesign has highlighted the best student and emerging designers from around the world. The platform, founded in 2011 by International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF) co-brand directors Odile Hainaut and Claire Pijoulat, has taken many forms, from standalone show and multi-day festival to brick-and-mortar store and co-located fair within ICFF.

This year, WantedDesign will evolve again. WantedDesign Manhattan—which includes the Schools Showcase, Launch Pad, and Look Book programs, all of which have been ICFF mainstays the past few years—will be renamed Wanted and become a permanent feature under the larger ICFF brand. All Wanted programs will continue to be part of the Fair; in fact, they even will be expanded in 2024.

Hainaut and Pijoulat spoke to us about the WantedDesign brand, its parts, and the shifts that are ahead for it.

What are the origins of WantedDesign?

WantedDesign started as an annual fair that we held at the Terminal Stores building in Manhattan. Its last edition was 2019. From 2014 to 2019, we also hosted a festival, WantedDesign Brooklyn, at Industry City, a renovated shipping terminal in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. WantedDesign Brooklyn was part of the annual city-wide design festival NYCxDESIGN.

In 2019 and 2020, we transitioned to a new format. The show in Manhattan was acquired by Emerald Exhibitions [who own ICFF]; in 2021, it was renamed WantedDesign Manhattan and became a show-within-a-show at ICFF.

In 2024, we are changing the name of WantedDesign Manhattan to Wanted.

What is the difference between Wanted and WantedDesign?

WantedDesign, the organization, is independently owned and run. It hosts programs like the International Residency in partnership with Industry City. It also operates the IC Store by WantedDesign, also located in Industry City.

Why did you change the name of WantedDesign to Wanted?

We wanted to clearly differentiate Wanted, the ICFF feature, from WantedDesign, the organization. Wanted is a main feature of ICFF. Our vision is that ICFF can grow with features like Wanted, The Oasis, and Bespoke.

Is Wanted a permanent part of ICFF?

It is. In fact, Wanted will continue to grow. This year it will include another program, Design Schools Workshop, which we debuted in 2012.

Are Wanted and ICFF two shows or one?

It’s now one. Wanted is a very large and important part of ICFF, but it is fully integrated. WantedDesign, the organization, is an ICFF partner and will continue to promote the Wanted feature.