In the News: Fall Market Foresees Innovation & Reinvention Shape to Design (Part 2 of 3)

Fall Market keynote panelists at the Decoration and Design Building included Beth Brenner, Jonathan Adler, Windsor Smith, Christina Juarez, Peter Sallick, Shane Reilly, Tom Delavan, Michelle Adams, Suysel DePedro Cunningham and Pilar Guzman. The design professionals discussed everything from innovative new platforms to digital interaction with others through Twitter to expansion of business.

Adams spoke about her own innovative adventure, Lonny magazine, an online shelter publication of which she is the editor in chief. “We had zero money, but we had a passion,” she said. “We thought to ourselves, ‘how can we do this without spending any money?’ There are so many fabulous design blogs out there so we didn’t want to do that. So we decided to publish an online magazine, the first of its kind in the shelter category.”

Adams also praised the innovation behind Kelly Wearstler’s new website that combines a blog and an e-commerce component. “I’m so astounded by Kelly Wearstler’s new site – the blog has so much of her voice in it and then while you’re reading you also notice all of her projects and products,” she said.

Adler, who owns multiple retail locations, has a thriving e-commerce site. “My e-commerce portion is larger than my flagship store on Madison Avenue,” he said.

Guzman, editor in chief of Martha Stewart Living, was amazed at what the Internet has done in general for the interior design industry. “What the Internet has done has made stories more personal,” she said. “More and more the demands of designers are to tell a story.”

Check back next week for more on the DDB's Fall Market keynote and why social media has opened up a new world of possibilities in the design industry.