Bernhardt Design for NeoCon

Creative direction and artwork for NeoCon showroom by Elizabeth Salonen | Mottoform. Photo: Christopher Barrett

Bernhardt Design for NeoCon

“Elizabeth Salonen was a perfect fit for the creative direction and feature artist for Bernhardt Design’s NeoCon 2025 showroom,” says President and Creative Director Jerry Helling. Internationally known for her products, art, interiors, lighting, furniture, and ceramics, the Finnish-Canadian designer art directed the Neocon showroom, and created seven large-scale original artworks for the exhibition. The hand-embroidered artworks were based on her Thread series.

“Elizabeth’s work shares a strong DNA with Bernhardt Design’s furniture and presentation style,” explains Helling. “Her work speaks to human craft, precision, and understatement, with a few small surprises. The art and furniture elevate one another.”

Elizabeth Salonen stands in front of one of her Thread artworks. These hand-embroidred meditations on canvas embody lightness and equilibrium. Photo: Christopher Barrett

Lightness

My vision for the BernhardtDesign showroom is “Lightness.”

This is something I’ve come to value deeply after living in Finland — where the winters are long and dark, and the summer endlessly full of light. I began to notice how light affects our mood and our experience of space. This has evolved into lightness in other ways — in the reduction of visual noise, and in the pursuit of equilibrium in my work.

We live in an overstimulated world. Trade fairs can be intense with so much visual stimulation. I wanted the space to be a kind of palette cleanser. A place to pause. To just be. To inhale…. to exhale. To take a moment with the artwork and the furniture and let go of urgency.

Elizabeth Salonen created seven large-scale artworks for each bay in the showroom. Photo: Christopher Barrett

Embroidery thread detail. Each stitch and the space between can be seen as an inhale... an exhale. The loose threads represent an unwinding of tension.
Broken grid Thread artwork.

Mirror polished stainless steel fasteners were designed to suspend vertical springs and define different areas of the showroom. They act as a counterweight — juxtaposing the lightness of thread with industrial heft. It’s a contrast of materiality: heavy and delicate, visible and barely there.

Mirror-polished stainless steel fasteners act as a counterweight — juxtaposing the lightness of thread with industrial heft.
To define different areas of the showroom, a progression of vertical strings were stretched between polished stainless steel fasteners.

Our vision for the Bernhardt Design showroom is Lightness. The space is meant to act as a palette cleanser. A place to take a moment with the artwork and the furniture and let go of urgency.