BKLYN Designs, the New York Design Week fair dedicated to the best and brightest of Brooklyn makers, kicked off this morning in Greenpoint. Focused on showing the world all that Brooklyn has to offer to the world of design, the exhibit is a mixture of your standard design week fare as well as a number of exciting interactive events taking place throughout the weekend. Visitors can buy beautiful objects for the home, learn how to weave a tapestry with the Textile Arts Center, or designers can even have a one-on-one session with experts at Kickstarter to figure out how to bring their design ideas to life. 

Here are a few things not to be missed at this weekend's event: 

Imagination Station

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The event space is filled with exhibitor booths along with plenty of fun installations and pop-ups—this playspace by David Rockwell is soft and modular, and is meant to encourage children to take part in "unstructured free play" and inspire their inner architect.  

Material Magic by Come Out to the Coast

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These planters by designer Serena Chang for her studio Come Out to the Coast are made by creating a mold of plastic wrap and styrofoam, which are are then filled and casted using gypsum concrete and resin. In person, the styrofoam planters are uncannily similar to the original material while the bubble planters remind me of a comfy down blanket. 

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The "Love Seat See-Saw"

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Reclaimed wood company Sawkill Lumber Co. teamed up this year with designer Louis Lim to create this awesome "Rocking PacMan" furniture work, made from reclaimed white oak wooden barrels sourced from an old distillery in Queens. Lim utilized building techniques similar to traditional boat builders to create the piece. 

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Masterful Results

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Plenty of ambitious works by small design teams are sprinkled within the show, like this complex modular vase above, made by Talbot & Yoon, which was casted from concrete and resin to give an almost leather-like consistency. 

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These beautiful, all-natural cutting boards by Den of Thieves are made using different wood species from Africa—the studio also makes knives built using exotic woods and damascus steel. 

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A nice curved bench by Peg Woodworking made out of woven rope and wood. 

Brooklyn Love

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A Brooklyn design event wouldn't be complete without an homage to the city's Style Wars! These lighting pieces are all handmade, one-of-a-kind works customized by Brooklyn artists for Smash Industries and Legion Lighting. 

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BKLYN Designs runs this weekend through Sunday, May 8th—check out the BKLYN Design website to see the full roster of events going on this weekend.