Meet the Blogger: Demystifying Design with Jason & John (Part 2)

Yesterday, we introduced you to Jason Oliver Nixon and John Loecke of John Loecke Inc., and the duo behind DemystifyingDesign. These design demystifiers are two of the several bloggers participating in the DDB's Blogger Lounge during Fall Market. We sat down with Jason and John to learn more about their blog, their design style and what they can't wait to see at Fall Market 2011.

GDG: What are some of your favorite things about your blog?

J+J: We love the immediacy of blogging and the engaged community that Demystifying Design has created. We are crazy for the ability to speak to an excited, active design audience who really gets involved and helps continue the dialogue. We are constantly snapping photos with our digital camera and taking notes, collecting business cards, and distilling ideas and sucking up new experiences, so Demystifying Design gives us the perfect outlet to express our endless musings.

Nothing makes our day more than subscriber comments. We want to create some magical and wonderfully useful and engaging ideas, so feedback makes it all worthwhile!

GDG: What are a few fundamental elements to the style of your space?

J+J: Color, energy, verve, wit and lots of layers—to name a few. We never want to create a space that looks like it was purchased head-to-toe. We want depth, dimension, and a worldview wrapped into a gorgeous, enveloping setting.

GDG: Were there any trends this summer that you especially loved—or didn't?

J+J: We are lapping up all things Indian and Moroccan and moving away from anything too country or too 'Chinese restaurant circa 1960.' We are all about streamlining our collections.

We have been inspired by heavy metal bands of the 80s: Jason is designing a wallpaper called White Lion and a sofette named Scorpion and an ottoman named Janie's Got a Gun. And John thinks that the 80s are coming back in a big, bad way. We see conversation pits in the near future, corduroy and ultra-suede!

GDG: What are you looking forward to seeing during the DDB's Fall Market?

J+J: We love the shock of the new, so bring it on! Bold new colors, groovy fabrics and graphic wallpapers rock our world like a hurricane. We will lap it up like a cat to milk!

GDG: Can you share a fun fact about yourself?

J+J: John likes to wear pink underwear, and Jason has taken to wearing turbans around the house! We collect antique lead garden miniature figurines that we purchase on eBay UK, and we have aspirations to buy a home in New Orleans by the time we are 45. Jason also likes wine in a box while John orders vodka and soda, light on the vodka.

"Light on the rocks," says Jason, rolling his eyes. "Go figure."

Jason is an Aquarius, and John is a Taurus and we both think that Chicago is the new black and India is the new orange. We would walk ten miles in the snow for a frog-shaped side table, and we always choose oil-rubbed bronze door hardware over brass and love a good trucker baseball hat!

Check back with GoDesignGo to meet more of the DDB's Bloggers Lounge roster.

Meet the Bloggers: Demystifying Design with Jason & John (Part 1 of 2)

The DDB's Fall Market 2011 Bloggers Lounge will be the one stop fix for design chatter and we're having a blast introducing you to the fabulous bloggers who will be inhabiting the space. Co-sponsored by GoDesignGo and Editor at Large, the lounge will host 15 bloggers who will be camping out in style covering Market events.

Today we want you to meet the duo behind DemystifyingDesign, Jason Oliver Nixon and John Loecke of John Loecke Inc., a firm whose designs reflect tradition tempered with bold splashes of color and playful patterns.

"Banish the beige and the boring!" said John and Jason. "Saturate your world in color-rich whimsy and sophistication. Most important, have fun with your home! We love glamour and style and are able to bring that passion to the most contemporary of home as well as the ultra-traditional. Frankly, we are all about the ‘F’ words: frisky, fabulous and fun to be around!"

John has been working in the design field for 11 years, opening his namesake New York City firm in 2000. His philosophy? “Banish the beige!” as his idol, celebrated 20th-century designer Dorothy Draper once proclaimed. He believes that good taste need not be expensive, but it should be expressive, and since House Beautiful magazine named John as one of America’s Top 25 Young Designers in October 2004, we believe him.

When not helping clients add whimsy and wonder to their homes, John also works as a design editor, writer, stylist and producer, with his projects having been featured in numerous magazines including Domino, O at Home, House Beautiful, Renovation Style, and Better Homes and Gardens. His work can also be seen on the HGTV television series Small Space, Big Style.

You may already know Jason Oliver Nixon as one of our many favorite Guest Bloggers. Aside from writing Demystifying Design, he can be found sending Facebook updates and Tweets from far-flung locations around the world.

"There’s nothing better than social media for creating an engaged, excited audience," said Jason. "I love connecting with folks who are passionate about fabulous interiors, color, wit, and whimsy."

Stay tuned to GoDesignGo to learn more about Jason and John and what they are each excited for at the DDB’s Fall Market.

Jason Nixon's Little Black Book for Fall

Jason Nixon, Global Lifestyle Editor for Delta Sky magazine and creative director of John Loecke, Inc. (the interior design company founded by his partner, John Loecke), is a prolific writer and commentator on style, design, fashion, food and travel. He always has his finger directly on the pulse of current design trends and directions -- so GoDesignGo asked him about what he sees in the cards for this coming fall.

As a commentator and arbiter of style, fashion, travel, art...what are your must-haves, must-dos, and must-sees this fall.
Lord, I can't own up to being a style arbiter but that's very flattering and would make my Mom proud. But here's what's in my little black book for the season ahead: I am all about my vintage Go-Go's T-shirt from their Vacation tour back in the 1980s and am thinking to use it an inspiration for my bathroom and make it all very Cypress Gardens chic, but with a Schumacher wallpaper for extra oomph. I am so not into permanent tattoos but am having a whole "henna in Jaipur" moment that mixes gorgeous henna tattoo-like images with the jewel tones of that iconic Indian city. Think big, exploded graphics in shocking pink, acid green, and purple upon pillows and on sofas. And I am into Hendrick's gin and saving up money to purchase an MG convertible next summer and reupholster it in a fabulous ikat print from Lee Jofa. And I am throwing lots of Sunday night dinner parties that spill over into movie night with all of us cozied up watching Pedro Almodovar flicks and Douglas Sirk stunners like "Imitation of Life." And I am totally digging Michele Oka Doner's thorn-like sculptures and fish tacos from my local watering hole, Enduro, in Lefferts Gardens, Brooklyn and Popeye's biscuits. And it's all about The Greenbrier, from start to finish.

If you had an extra $10000 to splurge on something for your house right now, what would you buy?
That's an easy one! I would totally build a yurt in my backyard crafted entirely of Manuel Canovas' Calypso indoor-outdoor fabric in some bizarre color, and I'd welt it in an equally nutty tone and would move in and sip lots of martinis and put faux fur rugs on the floor and have a big YSL-at-his dacha moment. I just love those Japanese fish swimming to and fro and fro and to on that Calypso print--it's so Japanese and yet wonderfully graphic and a bit trippy. Any chance you might know a good yurt-maker?

Jason Oliver Nixon
Creative Director
John Loecke Inc.
www.johnloeckeinc.com
jason@johnloeckeinc.com

AND

Global Lifestyle Editor
Delta Sky magazine
www.deltaskymag.com