Always embracing the relationship between function and aesthetic in their eyewear, the company adorned their suite in cardboard box-constructed furniture, complete with couches and tables. “It’s obviously an unusual thing to remove all the furniture from a penthouse suite and build your own,” says Caleb Jaquith, general manager of ic! berlin America. “But I think it’s an exposition of the ic! berlin concept—to really break something down to the basics and come up with a new solution by yourself, to put the established solutions aside and explore something new.”
The paper décor, which was reinstated at ic! berlin’s Silmo booth last month, also reflects their eco-friendly values. The invitation to the Vision Expo booth read “ic! berlin does make organic acetate frames… uses fair labor practices and favors bicycles for transportation.” The invite then throws out the question: “Is it an environmental message?”
“The reaction was quite positive,” says Jaquith. “It was interesting to see the evolution of the space over the course of the show, starting from basically nothing and having it grow and change in an organic way… starting from the simplest building blocks and having it turn into something naturally.”
—Melissa Arkin
