Student hotshots show furniture designs at NeoCon trade fair

For 42 years, Chicago's Merchandise Mart has hosted NeoCon World's trade fair. Over the course of three days, the show hosts 700 exhibitors making it North America's largest design conference for commercial interiors and contract furnishing.

This year, a group of students and recent grads had the chance to show off their talent to the event's estimated 40,000 design professionals.

The Furniture Revolution Gallery is a new concept which allows select students to display their work. Displaying the work of innovative students to the professional design crowd at NeoCon grew out of the organization's desire to expose student work to the major industry players.

Antonio Larosa served as project chair of the Furniture Revolution Gallery. Along with the Merchandise Mart staff, he helped put together the gallery in less than three months. The display features the work of ten recent grads and student designers from schools like the School of Art Institute Chicago, The Rhode Island School of Design and Cranbrook Academy of Art among others.