Creative Competition in Furniture Design

Hollywood has agents, the NBA has the draft, and banking has campus recruiting. But if you're a young American furniture designer looking for a big break, you're on your own -- until now.

This year's International Contemporary Furniture Fair, the burgeoning design industry event held in New York each May, will for the first time include a juried program meant to help promising young designers connect with manufacturers. Called ICFF Studio, it provides U.S. designers the support European designers already enjoy -- in the form of government grants and industry advice provided by organizations including the Italian Trade Commission, the Danish Consulate General, and Valorization of Innovation in Furnishing (VIA), in France.