LightForm at IDS Vancouver 2026

Design Is Better When You Can Get Close

After a few long days of building, arranging, adjusting, and getting everything ready, there was a particularly satisfying moment when the doors to IDS Vancouver finally opened and people started pouring in.

Or, as LightForm’s Marketing Manager, Grant Matzen, put it the morning after the opening party: “Feeling a little dusty, but the energy in the booth last night was HIGH!”

And of course, that energy continued throughout the show. For this year’s IDS Vancouver, LightForm featured lighting and furniture from J. Adams & Co., Rakumba, a-emotional light, Ferroluce, and Stellar Works, creating a snapshot of the international brands, designers, materials, and approaches we’re excited to represent in Canada. But the real point of bringing all of these pieces together was to give Vancouver’s design community a chance to experience them in person. And experience them they did.

Discover a-emotional light.

Discover Ferroluce.

Discover J. Adams & Co.

Discover Rakumba.

Discover Stellar Works.

A booth made for getting closer

One of the clearest takeaways from the weekend was just how tactile the experience became. Visitors were stopping by, touching materials, inspecting finishes, asking questions, sitting down, and talking to the people behind the brands.

“People seemed genuinely engaged with the products, with lots of interaction, touching, looking closely, and positive comments throughout the show,” said Hampus Danielsson from Marketing.

The booth itself helped make those interactions possible. Positioned with three points of entry, it remained open and approachable from multiple directions, creating a natural flow through the different collections.

Perry Pugh from Sales also noted the range within the presentation: different aesthetics, materials, price points, and stories all sharing the same space. More importantly, representatives from the brands themselves were there to tell those stories.

“The vendor conversations were great,” Hampus said. “I learned something from pretty much every conversation.” The opportunity for direct exchange became one of the most valuable parts of the show.

The lights people couldn't walk past

There were a few clear crowd favourites. From J. Adams & Co., the Apex suspension immediately drew people in. Made in England from solid brass, the fixture gave visitors a chance to get close to the materiality and detailing that define the brand. “People were just… drawn to it,” Grant said.

Having Tracy and Gerda from J. Adams at the booth made that interest even more meaningful. Visitors could hear directly about the manufacturing and design processes behind it.

Over at Rakumba, three oversized Big Glow pendants suspended above Stellar Works’ Pesca One-Seater became another natural gathering point. With their soft, woollen surfaces and generous scale, the Big Glows practically invited interaction.

“People were drawn to it, touching it, interacting with it, and you could see that sense of awe,” Hampus recalled.

For Perry, the Rakumba story stood out for its combination of natural materiality and something that felt genuinely new to the market. The presence of the Rakumba team brought some additional energy to the booth, too. His succinct review: “Plus, they were dancing.”

Colour, ceramics, playful forms, and little reminders of the '80s

If one area of the booth was particularly difficult to walk past, however, it was Ferroluce. Displayed along the exterior wall, the Italian brand's colourful ceramic lighting caught attention before many visitors had even stepped inside.

“The colours and playful designs really captured people's attention,” Grant said. “The fact that they then discovered the lighting was made of ceramics and not plastic or some other material really blew them away.” Someone was even overheard describing the collection as feeling “really '80s,” which, given the colour and exuberance on display, we'll happily take.

The Bum Bum pendant emerged as one particular favourite, but the overall enthusiasm was for the personality of the collection as a whole. Silvana from Ferroluce was on hand to introduce curious visitors to the brand, its ceramic production, and the inspiration behind its latest Deco collection. It was another reminder that so much gets lost when design is experienced only through an image. Seeing the weight and texture of a material, the scale of a piece, and the story of how it came to exist make up the whole constellation of life that makes up an object.

Texture takes centre stage

Materiality was a recurring theme throughout IDS. And in our booth, texture was everywhere. The large black Onn suspension from a-emotional light turned heads with its dramatic scale, but people were equally curious about the mesh material used to create it. Perry summed up the conversations around a-emotional light as being about “unique material, custom, quality and price,” while Grant noticed again and again that it was the texture that initially pulled people closer.

Across the show more broadly, the team saw colour and texture emerging prominently, alongside an appetite for pieces that offered something more expressive and unexpected. The interest in materiality played out differently across each collection: brass at J. Adams, wool at Rakumba, ceramic at Ferroluce, mesh at a-emotional light. The common thread was that these were pieces people wanted to inspect and examine more closely.

And then, there was the sofa

If you can believe it, not everything at the booth was lighting. The Taylor Sofa from Stellar Works, upholstered in deep burgundy, earned the unofficial distinction of being “the most used piece in the whole booth,” according to Grant.

Its comfort and subtle curve turned it into a place for people to pause, sit down, take a breath, and continue conversations. That might seem like a small detail, but it captured something important about the booth. IDS is an excellent opportunity to put products on display, but the space needed to support the conversations happening around them. And after several days on the show floor, a very comfortable sofa certainly didn't hurt.

Showing up for Vancouver's design community

Beyond the individual products, the biggest takeaway from IDS was the value of simply being there. The opening party filled the booth with people. Our fun IDS Contest Card encouraged visitors to move through the space and discover the different brands. Clients, designers, brand partners, and new faces stopped to talk. The team heard repeatedly that people were interested in finding more ways to collaborate.

For Perry, that reinforced something bigger about LightForm's role in Vancouver. “Being a part of the design community is an important project for us,” he said. “Whether showing at IDS, or being a more integral part of Vancouver Design Week, we need to be an active part of the conversation.”

That feeling was echoed by Tage Lee from Sales, who spent much of the show at the booth connecting with Vancouver’s design community. “It was valuable to connect with the design community and hear how interested people are in finding new ways to collaborate,” she said.

And perhaps that was one of the most encouraging things to come out of IDS. The booth gave us a place to introduce new designs and tell the stories of the brands we represent, but it also gave us a reason to spend a few days together in the same room, exchanging ideas and starting conversations about what we might do together next.

Having the opportunity to engage is a big part of why participating matters. A design show like IDS is fertile ground for meeting new collaborators, reconnecting with familiar faces, experiencing new ideas firsthand. It truly is the place to take the pulse of the design community around you.

See you around Vancouver

If IDS reinforced anything for us, it’s that great design gets better when there’s an opportunity to experience it together. We arrived with lighting and furniture from five very different international brands. What made the booth come alive were the people moving through it. To those who came to touch the Big Glow, discover that a colourful Ferroluce pendant was ceramic, learn how an Apex fixture is made, sink into the Taylor Sofa, or stay for a conversation with someone they hadn't met before, we hope you enjoyed your time as much as we did.

As we continue to build LightForm's presence in Vancouver, those opportunities for connection matter. Thanks to everyone who stopped by, spent time with our team and brand partners, asked questions, sat down, touched the lights, took photos, and made the booth feel as lively as it did. See you again soon.