Still too many choices!

It is the nature of design centers to offer lots and lots of choices, but I have to ask myself, at what point does it become too much? Recently I was in the Boston Design Center waiting to go to a presentation and looking for inspiration in a showroom. I have to admit, that I couldn't even get myself to pull back the racks, even the brochures of the Fall 2010 introductions couldn't entice me - until I saw the William Yeoward Aranjasa Collection - a refreshingly casual collection of stripes in subtle classic colors inspired by Spain, Norway and Sweden. The color palette and lifestyle photographs in the brochure are what drew my attention.

Did it make me smile because it reinforced one of my trend themes or because it was a beautiful fit for New England interiors? I suspect a little if both, and I will remember it for future projects, with my mind uncluttered by the racks of thousands of fabrics that I didn't bother to even take a look at.

This particular collection may have just touched on my personal taste, but I can't help but think that at least 3/4 of the products in any showroom are superfluous, and that even designers would welcome some type of editing. So many companies are reluctant to discontinue even the most outdated of products. I wonder whether anyone does the accounting on this? Design Centers are not retail stores, but all that excess stuff is confusing to customers that are used to the spare editing of a Pottery Barn or Crate and Barrel. No one wants a fabric or tile showroom to look like these stores or a Home Depot, but being customer friendly is a win-win for all.

Interesting pespective on Materials

Vegans aside, who knew that the designer Christien Meindertsma has created such an interesting take on materials. Her perspective on the "pig" in PIG 0 5049 takes us to material use both in and beyond the built environment. I was hesitant to even look at this video until I realized that her crocheted rug was a part of my recent trend report. This thoughtful, creative and charming designer speaks to us with an interesting voice and her vision is one to watch in the future.

Market insights are now critical

Academic jargon aside, pay close attention to the McDonald's story in the Wharton marketing professor George Day's conversation about his recent book Strategy from the Outside In: Profiting from Customer Value. This conversation is timely, since in recessionary periods, the easy fixes are not as effective as in growth periods. It may seem obvious, but my past experience tells me that this topic needs constant reintroduction. I spent years with pressure to add more outlets to reach that monthly bottom line, rather than the entire management team taking a systemic look at what might create real growth. According to the article in Knowledge @ Wharton, Professor Day's research, the "outside in" approach to marketing is as rare as ever - an idea whose time comes again and again - renewed in every business cycle.

Conversation or noise?

I just attended a informative presentation on "social media" at the Boston Design Center given by the VP of Marketing for Kravet. (Kravet blog) Design fabric houses live in an extremely competitive environment, so I understand their engagement with social media; they are large enough to have a dedicated social media specialist on staff. While, as a blogger, I fully understand that social media is here is stay and will continue to be a more and more important part of every business conversation, I am not sure where the conversation begins and the noise ends. At this point, I perceive Twitter as noise . . . I truly don't get it . . . but the presenter and the panel of young designers spoke it its effectiveness. I suspect we are dealing with a generation gap here.

What is important, no matter who your customer, is not to let a conversation go on about you without you. So, if you are being talked about, be sure to get in on the conversation.

What I can report is the the doyenne's of the profession seated in the front row as well as the "young turks" were all dressed entirely in black. I have been going to this Design Center regularly since it opened and have never seen such a sea of black on the design community in Boston. (New York, always) Is this recession Black? I suspect I am reading this correctly, and that it means continued a traditional color palette in all things home furnishings as well.

Visualizing Color

This month's Wilsonart blog reminded me of my favorite places in New York - the Kremer Pigment store. They have a delightful collection of images on their website: Colors of Nature that communicate the essence of color and help their customers "see" the colors of the pigment collection in context. What a charming marketing tool!

Finding a bargain feels as good as sex

I am sure this headline gets readers, but who doesn't love a good bargain?

The Return of Wisdom and Common Sense

I don't know exactly when wisdom, in academic lingo, and common sense, from my perspective, left our culture. However, I can pinpoint exactly the moment I became aware of it - it was the day someone stood up in a national sales meeting and defined "Total Quality" for all the "dummies" in attendance. Shocked at the time, I had no idea what to make of this concept, which appeared to be common sense to me. Little did I know that things would go downhill from there. The culmination of these ideas was the use of "Six Sigma" for new product development in yet another company.

And now we are legislating for "dummies" as well, instead of encouraging common sense and rewarding wisdom, we are passing a plethora of unnecessary laws - but that is a merely personal musing - outside this blog conversation. It is happening more and more as this recession continues and there is less to take note of concerning the built environment.

Barry Schwartz inspired me with his book, "The Paradox of Choice" and now he is once again in the forefront of bringing wisdom back to its proper place in our culture with this short lecture. A fiasco like the Wall Street meltdown could have been mitigated or avoided if more people had acted on principles of practical wisdom, Barry Schwartz argues. Here he gives diagnosis and prescription for a society that has, in part, lost touch with wisdom.

There are more small signs that wisdom is returning. 3M, the company that both survives and thrives, on new product innovation is featured in an article in Forbes,"3M's Innovation Revival" and mentions how the executive brought in from GE had reduced their sales of new product from 30% to 21% overall in the year's that he ran the company with his heavy emphasis on "Six Sigma." Like ex-GE executives in building materials, his fixes were all short term. George Buckley, the new chairman and CEO has returned new products to their rightful place - back up to 30%. A wise man indeed!

Fashion, Finishes and Art

Fashion Week has moved uptown and is now held at Lincoln Center instead of in a temporary tent. At the first Fashion Week to be held there, no one captured fashion as performance "art" better than Catherine Malandrino and Couture Snob captured the images. Her collection is also featured as wearable art on a Wall Street Journal blog.

What is even more intriguing is the article in the WSJ "Fashion as Art," where Virginia Postrel has an interesting take on the matter: "Fashion is shedding its cultural stigma. It is increasingly recognized as a significant cultural activity—indeed, one of the defining characteristics of our civilization." That all sounds very noble, but what I see happening is the business has co-opted the concept of design with all the incessant talk of "design-thinking." So what are designers to do but designate themselves as ARTISTS.

And this connection to art is not lost on those that intent to stay trend forward in fashion end of the home furnishings business as well. Silestone, the countertop surface manufacturer is sponsoring an exhibition opening this week at the Museum of Modern Art entitled: Counter Space: Design and the Modern Kitchen.(Fast Company's design blog has a story and some great pictures from the show.)