In design everyone’s always looking for new and original ideas and it got me thinking about what constitutes an ‘Original Idea’. I think a ‘new’ idea in design is how something from the past can be reinterpreted to suit today’s point of view. Yes, nothing is new, but on the flipside, new ideas are always coming out in the marketplace and it’s “Is anybody else doing it right now?” or “Has anyone else seen and old idea and reinterpreted it in a new way”? In being reinterpreted, are you taking that which served one purpose before and is now reinterpreting it with a new use?

I think that one of my strengths have been being able to see something from the past and using it in a new way. Like when I first did picture ledges eighteen years ago, or the first time I leaned a huge mirror for fashion designer Willi Smith twenty eight years ago and presently, with an easel, which was always used to rest art on, but which we now use as a TV stand.

My Easel-as-a-TV-stand idea recently got copied by a major retailer and they are now selling these at a really affordable price across the country. On the one hand it is a flattering thing when your idea gets ripped off, but on the flipside one has to wonder why these manufacturers don’t go to the source of the creative idea and have them create for them, instead of just copying them. I think in Europe it is much more prevalent that manufacturers see someone with a good idea and for the manufacturer to ask the designer to come up with other good ideas in partnership. In this country they just knock you off, which to me is very frustrating.

That does not stop me from trying to be innovative in my work and keeping the hope alive that manufacturers will see the possibilities of working with a creative firm to not just come up with one creative idea, but many.

In this office the way that we bring a job to conclusion is by installing it all at once. Everything is scheduled to be completed and delivered close to one particular date (installation date) and what is finished sooner gets put in storage or kept at the office or sometimes held by the supplier. It is our aim to have it all ready for that installation date.

Suppliers are checked, we go to the upholsterers and cabinet makers to check everything, emails are sent to suppliers to let them know what the installation date is and we all hold that date as the golden day. Prior to installation date whatever construction work is needed is done, the space is painted, floors are finished and then window treatments are done, the carpeting is installed and on a selected day, everything is delivered still wrapped.

The following day everything is unwrapped and placed. Accessories are brought in on consignment along with fresh flowers, candles, the works. We ask the client not to be there when this work is being done and then at an assigned time, the front door opens and the space the client saw in the renderings is brought to life.

Then of course everybody is happy and they all live happily ever after.

Well, that’s the way it is always planned, but the reality with suppliers, as with life, is always very different.

There’s always a truck broken down on a highway somewhere (garage attendants must make a fortune on broken delivery trucks), items that you have checked and rechecked get damaged in waiting, or, like in a particular job that we are installing right now, we saw all the parts of the mirror being put together and approved it, but the mirror got made a foot larger than it was supposed to. So three days before the installation, Moe from my office is waiting for it to come in and we realized that it’s too large. So now we have to call the manufacturer, show a great deal of desperation over the phone, put the mirror back in the truck, send it back to the factory, have it recut and the back refinished and then pray that it will be delivered on time on Monday for installation and Tuesday’s walk-through with the client. Sheets from Restoration Hardware that were supposed to be delivered are lost in transit, those lovely pre-recorded computer generated automated people on the other side of the line really never gets you to the real person you want to talk to, that could maybe solve their mistake and now we have messengers picking up different aspects of the total set from different stores to be able to have the bed made for installation date. That workman who always walks through on carpets with some undefined material stuck to the bottom of his shoe…getting a cleaning person there to take the stain out. The temperamental sound system installer who requires the whole apartment empty before they proceed to mess it up with all their equipment. With today’s flu pandemic (swine or other tsunami), people who were supposed to be at work are off sick, same with suppliers and with Thanksgiving around the corner, we toil and sweat (and we’re not even mailmen!) to get the installation – regardless of rain, sleet or snow – done on time.

These are none of the things that the client sees as one walks through the space, making it seem that all we did was be fairy designers, waving our wand and making their dreams come true. (Bull, we’re not fairies and if somebody has a wand, please, I’ll pay for UPS to pick it up from you and promise to return it.)

Is there a wand out there? Please contact this office ASAP!