I just returned from spending the last 2 days at "designBoston 2007" at the Boston Design Center. For 2 days I was treated to inspirational and informative lectures, incredible food and drinks, and a great opportunity to network with local designers. All of this… for free! Yes.. for free! I came home at the end of each day loaded down w/fun freebies from all the vendors and my head spinning with ideas from all I had seen and heard. The first day, Wednesday, I was only able to stay for part of the day, due to other obligations. But… lucky for me, the morning lecture was Patrick Frey, President of Pierre Frey, presenting French Style/Global Influence. Mr. Frey was a most gracious and inspirational speaker with just a wealth of information about fabrics and the history of his company, started by his father. He brought with him, many very old samples of fabrics from his company’s archives and explained how these older designs are reprinted and adapted for today’s current trends. This hour presentation flew by and I came away feeling I had learned so much from this man who is clearly very passionate about his work and company! A big thanks to Martin Group Fabrics who sponsored this lecture.
Today, I returned to the Design Center and was able to spend the entire day there. The morning began with a very fun lecture entitled, "From the Runway to the Hallway, The Way Fashion Influences Color Trends". This was presented by Sherri Thompson, Director of Marketing and Design for Sherwin-Williams. Sherri had a fun slide show which featured current clothes fashions juxtaposed w/the current paint colors. Btw, Sherri is one of the people who gives names to all the paint colors. Haven’t you ever wondered who has that job?! She claims the first few hundred colors are easy to name, after that, a good bottle of wine helps!
These two lectures were the two that were the most benefit to me. I have been exploring using stencils in combination with paint, plasters, metallics, textured materials, etc. to mimic wallpaper and fabric in creative ways. Now I am really eager to get back into my studio to experiment! Ugh… I just remembered what a mess my studio is in at the moment! Maybe this will be inspiration to clean it up! 😉
Did I mention all of the food and drink that was served throughout these 2 days?! I think I gained 5 pounds! Everywhere you turned, someone was offering up appetizers, delicious pastries, ice cream, champagne, wine, etc.!
The last presentation, the keynote speaker, was Dara Caponigro, Style Director of domino Magazine. After some technical difficulties, Dara’s slide show featured shoots from the magazine and her take on the design trends featured in domino. A cocktail reception followed, but I was beat, had clients to call, so headed home.
A big thank you to Marc Bordet, Bordet Interiors, for signing me up for this event and another big thank you to the Boston Design Center for all their hard work!
