For me, the best thing about the Brizo event at New York Fashion Week was hearing designers talk about design at the most fundamental level. We were treated to a presentation by Judd Lord and Seth Fritz from Brizo’s product design team, and their excitement over the existing and the future products was just palpable. I suspect that as product designers at Brizo they have one (two) of the best jobs in the world – they get to travel the world absorbing trends and inspiration, and then to see a project through from idea to a product you or I could put in our homes. The task of the engineering team must be a somewhat less enviable one – though no doubt they are people who thrive on challenge. Here is product designer Judd Lord, revealing all the mouth-watering future products that I’m not allowed to tell you about:
Judd reveals all the top secret future products
Yes, they’re under that drape, and that’s all I can say right now. But they’re going to be awesome! In the meantime, there was plenty of excitement to share about the existing products:
Brizo RSVP
I’ve mentioned RSVP before – its silhouette is inspired by a vintage couture fashion illustration – I don’t have the exact one we were shown, in which the flowing lines and simple elegance inspiring this faucet were so clear (the model even had her arm outstretched to one side with a wrap cascading over it) but here’s something to give you the general idea:
French Art Nouveau Wedding Illustration
I’m sure the flowing curves were quite a challenge to the engineering team on their own, but do you notice how this faucet flows from waistline to hemline without a single seam or join, just like the skirts in the fashion illustration? There is no extra ring or plate at the bottom, to break up the line and act as a dirt magnet. Most faucets aren’t made like that, because it is more difficult, and more expensive, to do. Isn’t it great that the team at Brizo are prepared to take the extra trouble to make something like that happen?
I was so happy to hear the designers talk about the concepts and inspirations behind the products, such as the twists of European wrought iron, swan-neck curves, mountain streams, or the drooping arc of a dying flower. I was particularly charmed to find that the handsome Baliza
Brizo Baliza
was inspired by the shape of a Portuguese lighthouse. As soon as you know, it’s obvious, isn’t it?
Baliza is Portuguese for Beacon
They didn’t say which lighthouse – and Portugal as one of the great seafaring nations has plenty of ruggedly elegant examples to choose from – built to endure centuries of the very worst that nature can serve up, a lighthouse is a great metaphor to inspire a kitchen faucet, don’t you think?:
Santa Marta Light, Cascais, Portugal
Guia Light, Cascais, Portugal
Of course, it’s not necessary to know the underlying concept in order to enjoy the product – a good concept is something around which the design coalesces. If a lighthouse is rugged, elegant, and enduring, then all aspects of the faucet should be too – but it’s not going to be as literal as a little model of a lighthouse that happens to spit out water and is perfect for kitschy, beach-house interiors! When the concept is the vintage couture fashion illustration, everything reflects that exclusive flowing elegance, without literally imitating a gown.
I’ll admit that the lighthouse metaphor resonates particularly with me because as a cruising sailor in cloudy Western Europe in the days before GPS and satellite navigation, I appreciate their life-saving function – that, and as a child, it was actually my ambition to be a light-house keeper. Guess I really didn’t like people much back then! So knowing the underlying concept definitely does increase my enjoyment of the Baliza design, but it’s not essential to it.
Sailing at night out of sight of land, we used to look out for the loom of a light – that’s when the beam of light from a beacon is visible in the sky, even though the lighthouse itself is still out of sight over the horizon. There’s something viscerally comforting about that loom, your first indication that you are on the right track. In a complicated way that I am struggling to express, a good design concept works something like that – you don’t have to see it literally, but its presence at every stage makes the journey from idea to finished product a successful one.
Sometimes in kitchen and bath design I feel that the concept gets pushed aside by the details – we spend so much time on fixtures and fittings, appliances and inches of counter space, that the entire conceptual level of design is just assumed or ignored. Now, in the space of a little over a week, I’ve had the opportunity to talk design with the Brizo team, attend Jason Wu’s New York Fashion Week show and meet the designer, listen to master kitchen and bath designer Jim Krengle talking about trends and directions in kitchen design, and to meet the inimitable Johnny Grey and attend his seminar on the post-culinary kitchen. My design cup is literally running over – but as soon as my thoughts settle a bit (and my brain stops hurting) I will attempt to share some of them here.
I got to go to the show – you get to see the youtube – doesn’t really seem fair, does it (no, I don’t know what I did to deserve it, either). Anyway, Saxon Henry of DesignCommotion made a video of the Jason Wu fashion show - and here it is for you to share:
And what do fashion and faucets have to do with each other? Well, Brizo is a young American company, creating fashion for the home. And since 2006 they have partnered with young American designer Jason Wu, and were the sponsors of his New York Fashion Week Show. So tucked in there among the influential fashion buyers and editors were a very fortunate group of design bloggers, including yours truly. A surreal and dreamlike experience for me, at least – which makes perfect sense when you remember Brizo is named after a Greek goddess who was in the habit of appearing to mariners in their dreams.
Today is my Brizo day in New York – our blogger’s brouhaha has been compressed by weather delays, so today is going to be completely action packed. We’ve already had an amazing training session, where for me the most exciting thing was to hear about the new products, and see the secret (and very exciting) prototypes, but especially to hear about the design process behind the fashion faucets from real, live product designers. I’ve almost no time to say anything, as we are headed to the Jason Wu fashion show in just a few minutes, but when I get back to reality next week, I’m going to have a lot of interesting material for you.
You’ve probably hear just too much about weather this week, but it is now sunny, bright, and breezy in NY – what a difference from Wednesday:
Today finds your intrepid correspondent in New York City, as the fortunate guest of Brizo, for their fashion week events, a brouhaha of bloggers, and the Jason Wu fashion show. You may have heard there’s a little bit of weather affecting travel to, from, and on the East Coast today, so I’m thankful for the amazing foresight (ahem, dumb luck) that brought me here a whole day early.
There was a lull in the snowfall a little earlier, so I ventured out into a city reduced to stark monochrome by leaden skies and fallen snow. I had my trusty Olympus PEN E-PL1 with me, and I was hugely impressed with the innate design sense exhibited by the denizens of this city. Thank you, thank you, New Yorkers, for your demonstration of the power of contrast and emphasis:
Thank you for your little pops of color
Thank you for your red hat and gloves
Thank you for your little scarlet purse
Thank you for your big red brolly ...
... and your purple one
My favorite or all, thank you for those orange boots!
I know you are aware of the importance of contrast to create emphasis in your home environment too – and just so that I keep a little to subject, and as a shameless, but well deserved, plug – what better way to add a little accent to your bath than Brizo’s RSVP faucet? Isn’t that crystal finial the perfect foil to the strokable curves?
Brizo RSVP - a little contrast creates a big accent
Of course my biggest thank you of all goes to those wonderful folks at Brizo who have made it possible for me to be here today, and who are working hard to help the other traveling bloggers fight their way through snow and travel chaos to get here too. Let the brouhaha begin!
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A note from Clarity: Some of you asked if I took these photos, and how I got the special effects. Well, yes, I took them, really they just jumped out at me that day, and my beloved Olympus PEN E-PL1 did the rest. The special effects are just a result of compression for the blog page, because I am shooting in too high a resolution. If you are shopping for a small camera, and are disappointed with your point and shoot, check out the Digital Pen – it has been 30 years since I enjoyed a camera as much as this one!
One word, but what a word it is. This is the holy grail, the word I have been searching for:
photo Fred Perrot at aufeminin.com
What’s that you say – “KITCHEN” not what you’ld think of as the ultimate prize after a long and arduous search? The point, mes cher amis, is that this mundane and even sedentary Anglo-Saxon word is on the wall in a French kitchen – sorry, cuisine. I knew it had to be out there, and here finally, is the proof (via).
I’m sure you know how important it is to select your flooring material carefully if you are a dog owner – you have to consider the damage your floors can sustain when the pooches dance, jump and spin with excitement, and you have to consider the damage your dog can sustain from floors that are hard and too slippery, or from claws caught in carpeting with just the wrong loop size. But then there are other considerations – as a floor owner, you have to select your dog carefully. Do you want him to blend in?
White dog on white floor via Design Therapy
Or stand out, like a living, breathing, accent piece?
Black dog for emphasis in white kitchen
Or you could go even further – as in these serious attempts at complete camouflage:
Black and white on black and white - via CupofJoePowell
All he needs is a red nose - photo Martin Bogren
The practicality of the flooring is important, but as you can see, the aesthetics are really the thing. Not sure what floor matches your pet’s personality the best? You need a professional dog designer – I’m thinking of specializing in it, as there is obviously an unmet need out there!
Aah, touring caravans – those boxy behemoths, the bane of British bank holidays. But I do have such a soft spot for a daintily decorated one, (for example) – just as long as I’m not behind it on a B road on a Saturday morning. So behold, this bonanza of beauties brought to my attention by the bounteous Bedlam of Beefy blog. Lovelane Caravans in Cornwall have a carefully curated collection of caravans each adorned with appropriate accoutrements. And you don’t have to tangle with the tedious towing – your hip holiday hang-out will be set up for you on the site you select, all you need is your towel, your togs and your toothbrush, and your retreat will be ready and waiting.
Tea under the awning
Tea inside
A sophisticated vibe
Location, location. location
For traditionalists too
Just don’t do what those crazy Top Gear kids did on their caravan holiday – these beauties do not deserve this fate!
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Happy Friday (and please accept my abject apologies for all the asinine alliteration – I’ll try not to do it again)
with me, and I was hugely impressed with the innate design sense exhibited by the denizens of this city. Thank you, thank you, New Yorkers, for your demonstration of the power of contrast and emphasis:
A painted what?
It's not a kitchen but I love it
I'm painting the room in a colorful way ...