On a rainy Monday evening, the New York design community came out in force to the 12th annual Pioneering Design lecture series. The event took place at a new venue this year, the 92nd Street Y in Tribeca. The sold-out crowd of design professionals arrived to hear textile maven Michael Maharam and illustrator Maira Kalman discuss not only their own collaborative work together but deeper issues of connection and community that collaboration addresses.
Moderating the festivities was Chee Pearlman, director of the Chee Company, an editorial and design consulting firm. In her opening remarks, Ms. Pearlman pointed out that in our industry, especially, collaboration is not only relevant and essential, but often the participants may not have a full awareness of the deep interactive nature of their collaboration. Referencing the flurry of construction projects that took place for the Olympics in Beijing in 2008, she noted that the many different design firms all worked with the same engineering firm – Arup. That silent but critical collaboration was a contributing factor in making the event the success that it turned out to be. “The special collaboration that happens between a designer and a client has a unique form all its own. You never really know how that process happens until you do it,” she said.
Starting with the perspective of a client in search of a collaborator, Mr. Maharam described the mechanics of why his textile company does what they are currently doing. Giving a very humorous recount of their 108 year history, he covered Maharam’s evolution from a company that created theatrical textile designs for cat suits, poodle outfits and cowboy gear to a company that, thanks to the success of the high performance wallcovering, Tek Wall, became focused on value, service, relationships and price. “All of the sudden marketing and design became the lynchpins in the industry. Everybody grew up and became much more sophisticated,” he said, “just as my dad was starting to retire.”
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