Sector Focus: North America | 39


SUMMARY


■ Connected was a response to limitations on life and work


■ Discovered involves 20 recently qualified designers in 16 countries


■ Their work will be exhibited at the London Design Museum in September


■ Podcasts will be a regular AHEC communication fixture


VOYAGES OF DISCOVERY


AHEC has found it a challenging but exhilarating year to promote US hardwoods Mike Jeffree reports


Core to the messaging of the American Hardwood Export Council (AHEC) are its product and structural design and making showcase projects. It’s used these not just to demonstrate and develop US hardwoods aesthetic, technical and manufacturing performance potential, but to tell their wider story; to communicate their sustainability, legality and life cycle assessment credentials and to highlight the value, environmental and commercial, of using the range of US species. Core to this activity until 2020, however, has been actual contact, between supplier, specifier and maker and ultimately with the market audience. So needless to say, the constraints of pandemic and lockdown posed a challenge.


At the start of the crisis AHEC acknowledges it considered reining in its creative ventures. But instead it decided to regroup, rethink and push ahead with ambitious international design projects. They’ve involved established creatives and emerging design talent and not only included all the challenge of previous projects, but been informed by and adapted to the exceptional global circumstances. AHEC’s previous association with designers has created market impact and made headlines, but it describes these latest collaborations “as rewarding on a different level”. ►


Left: Benedetta Tagliabue (second left) discusses the making of the Miralles pieces


www.ttjonline.com | May/June 2021 | TTJ


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