Launching today, Dezeen's North American Design 2024 series will define the state of independent design in North America, providing a cross-section of a different city each week. US editor Ben Dreith explains more.

Dezeen has zeroed in on cities across Canada, Mexico and the United States, selecting independent furniture and product designers from each who are pushing the boundaries of materials and forms.
Each week over the next months we will feature a different city, presenting a hand-picked selection of designers working in small studios.
We've chosen designers who live and work in these cities, who are committed to innovative forms and materials, and who are involved in their local design communities.
Given the limits of visibility in web searches and competitions, we took a two-pronged approach when choosing the members for these lists. Each designer was asked to recommend a few others, and from these recommendations, we noted repeat mentions and the networks that exist between designers operating as competitors in a market but also as friends, colleagues and collaborators.
The city was a guiding factor
While there are plenty of designers working outside of cities, we took the metropole as the guiding factor in this series, as the city remains a place of gathering and community development and a place of industry. In some cases, we looked outside of the immediate bounds of the city.
Each city has a unique material tradition and economic history that influences the pr...