Excellent insights. The desire to make good design accessible to all as opposed to only the wealthy has long created tension. Think William Morris (who wanted it but failed) and the Bauhaus compared to French Art Deco. It’s up to the design industry itself to reward good design as opposed to the “influencer collaborations” industry leaders pursue in an effort to rack up sales that result in work and products that are so often blandly derivative. Interior designers themselves promote the sameness dupe culture with the popularity of remote design and phone consultations. (Eg “The Expert”) Anyone with any knowledge of color theory knows you can’t choose a paint color unless you know the light in the room! Yet designers have flocked to these platforms. Accessibility is laudable in my view but must include foundational education in historical design styles and decorative arts, and not be limited to constant product-hawking and “like grabbing” that you see, even here on Substack.
Gah! I do offer remote consultations! But in my defence I always recommend a few shades based on the material sample I have in hand and tell the consultee ( not really a client) they must sample in the home for just this reason. If I am familiar with the light of the location ( Vancouver island vs Palm Springs) I can take that into account, I actually have this discussion in the call so they can understand light matters.
Omg I wish I had written this - so good!! Two posts ago I also touched on the dupe culture of fashion coming for design, as “fashion people” set their sights on something more interesting and harder to get than their Walmart birkins. And fairs are starting to embrace that world more and more. 2013-19 era for me was such a special time, where one booth at one fair led to the entire world becoming obsessed with millennial pink, for instance, the industry was influenced by emerging design. Now emerging design is hidden by an algorithm of flattened AI rooms being sold to us by big name interior designers (christiane lemieux comes to mind - if that’s not AI I’ll eat my cool new interior design hat).
I loved this article too, I have struggled with how to explain the death of interior design to people who were not here in the 2000’s. I am currently shopping for tile and have 1000’s of options for fake stone and can barley find real ( unless I splurge for WZ/AS etc) where is the real beautiful materials go?
That word “disruptive” you used just perfectly captured the moment. This disruption can be good and terrible… all I know is that right now it feels like lost power and overwhelm to me. Thank you for your essay. We need to take the old with the new and recalibrate often, or else the flow runs away from us.
Hear hear! Love this piece. It really IS so sick. Everything the same same same. All the clients want the same same same. I hate celebrating everything equally. Once in a while you will see a really great project someone did, that achieves a level of artistry clearly head and shoulders over the other crap and it’s received by everyone as if it’s all the same, like it’s equal, which is offensive to artists. And that is not ok. Some strive for art, and others strive to be seen, accepted, celebrated as ‘artists’ and those are very different things. Why reward mediocrity?
Thank you Robin. I believe the responsibility is on us to nurture the design culture we want, as opposed to consuming what 'they' give us. There's more than enough room for varying genres of design storytelling to coexist. Thankfully, we're all finding each other here, in support of a new design dialogue we want to encourage.
Thank you so much for putting into words what so many of us feel and need to hear! I absolutely agree with every word you wrote and you have made a clear and realistic synthesis of the interior design industry today. You perfectly spot on - the need to nurture design culture is vital in this moment for the art and craft of interior design!
All I can say is YES!!! As a student, I am constantly questioning these ideas, both in my conversations with my professors and colleagues and in the internal dialogue of what it means to be a designer with integrity and self-worth. Do you believe this paradigm shift in interior design has also affected the respect and worthiness of an interior designer in the design world? Most of my professors are trained architects, and there seems to be this underlying lack of respect or importance when it comes to the design of our interiors. I am often discouraged from exploring how objects, furniture, and the materiality of what we put into our interiors affect our experience. While wall placement, codes, and structure are just as crucial, why can't the two exist together and be held to the same level of importance? Do you think this shift from exclusion to "mainstream" has something to do with this?
Thank you for reading, and for your feedback. I believe the challenge you are having at school is program specific, as many schools do prioritize design and undervalue decoration. So much of what you’re looking for can be found by working at an established interior design studio. Even PT interning can provide you access into the energy and dialogue you’re looking for. There is so much education of decoration that is a passed down oral history.
Thank you for capturing a moment in time so precisely, and timely. A quarter into this century and we have had a significance rise in good taste but at the cost perhaps of originality. Where do we go from here? Trends will likely only continue to accelerate in faster and faster cycles. The algorithm is made to spot the trend and reinforce it, obliterating local character along the way. Will every home from LA to Beijing this year look like gio ponti sipping iced matcha in Ibiza? Probably. We have been here before. Pattern books diffused gothic and then classical templates, and classical architecture conquered much of the western hemisphere, not without its share of violence. The history of the world is the history of lost things along the way: nations, languages. Globalized culture seems inevitable, and Ai will be its next incarnation. So what role is left for our elites? should they champion the trends or resist the safe? Should they hire a weird designer over a safe Ai? Or a weird Ai, over a safe human? My favorite modernism was always the regional variant, even though when I go home to Milan I’m always looking for an iced latte.
This article spoke to my soul. I have been an interior designer for 26 years and in the last 10 have felt more and more like I am suffocating. When I began my career the world was full of incredible materials and creative potential. Now it is all benign ( like cancer, it won’t kill is but it’s still not good) . Worse than the regurgitation and inferior mass produced replicas ( dear influenced your “linen look“ drapes will never hang like true linen, but you have no idea of the difference) is the death of the craftspeople designers like me and I am guessing the many who read this, relied upon. The Italian family who run my workroom, the sweet Polish upholsterer I genuinely love, the ( also Polish ) master tile setter who created a custom mosaic on site from marble for my last true project. What happens to our industry when they are gone? When Schumacher landed on Wayfair I knew it was ending….
Thank you for sharing your insight and perspective. The world of integral design is still alive and thriving. We as a community just need to be better at calling out smoke and mirrors, canceling out the noise, to seek out who and what is real.
Excellent insights. The desire to make good design accessible to all as opposed to only the wealthy has long created tension. Think William Morris (who wanted it but failed) and the Bauhaus compared to French Art Deco. It’s up to the design industry itself to reward good design as opposed to the “influencer collaborations” industry leaders pursue in an effort to rack up sales that result in work and products that are so often blandly derivative. Interior designers themselves promote the sameness dupe culture with the popularity of remote design and phone consultations. (Eg “The Expert”) Anyone with any knowledge of color theory knows you can’t choose a paint color unless you know the light in the room! Yet designers have flocked to these platforms. Accessibility is laudable in my view but must include foundational education in historical design styles and decorative arts, and not be limited to constant product-hawking and “like grabbing” that you see, even here on Substack.
Thank you for sharing. Love your color theory example 👌
Gah! I do offer remote consultations! But in my defence I always recommend a few shades based on the material sample I have in hand and tell the consultee ( not really a client) they must sample in the home for just this reason. If I am familiar with the light of the location ( Vancouver island vs Palm Springs) I can take that into account, I actually have this discussion in the call so they can understand light matters.
Omg I wish I had written this - so good!! Two posts ago I also touched on the dupe culture of fashion coming for design, as “fashion people” set their sights on something more interesting and harder to get than their Walmart birkins. And fairs are starting to embrace that world more and more. 2013-19 era for me was such a special time, where one booth at one fair led to the entire world becoming obsessed with millennial pink, for instance, the industry was influenced by emerging design. Now emerging design is hidden by an algorithm of flattened AI rooms being sold to us by big name interior designers (christiane lemieux comes to mind - if that’s not AI I’ll eat my cool new interior design hat).
I loved this article too, I have struggled with how to explain the death of interior design to people who were not here in the 2000’s. I am currently shopping for tile and have 1000’s of options for fake stone and can barley find real ( unless I splurge for WZ/AS etc) where is the real beautiful materials go?
Thank you ! Yes love and agree with your insights.
That word “disruptive” you used just perfectly captured the moment. This disruption can be good and terrible… all I know is that right now it feels like lost power and overwhelm to me. Thank you for your essay. We need to take the old with the new and recalibrate often, or else the flow runs away from us.
“Recalibrate” is a perfect word I should have used. Thank you.
Hear hear! Love this piece. It really IS so sick. Everything the same same same. All the clients want the same same same. I hate celebrating everything equally. Once in a while you will see a really great project someone did, that achieves a level of artistry clearly head and shoulders over the other crap and it’s received by everyone as if it’s all the same, like it’s equal, which is offensive to artists. And that is not ok. Some strive for art, and others strive to be seen, accepted, celebrated as ‘artists’ and those are very different things. Why reward mediocrity?
Thank you Robin. I believe the responsibility is on us to nurture the design culture we want, as opposed to consuming what 'they' give us. There's more than enough room for varying genres of design storytelling to coexist. Thankfully, we're all finding each other here, in support of a new design dialogue we want to encourage.
Thank you so much for putting into words what so many of us feel and need to hear! I absolutely agree with every word you wrote and you have made a clear and realistic synthesis of the interior design industry today. You perfectly spot on - the need to nurture design culture is vital in this moment for the art and craft of interior design!
🙏 thank you Marilena. I’m glad it resonated with you.
ABSOLUTELY F*CKING LOVE THIS.
Thank you my friend 🙏
All I can say is YES!!! As a student, I am constantly questioning these ideas, both in my conversations with my professors and colleagues and in the internal dialogue of what it means to be a designer with integrity and self-worth. Do you believe this paradigm shift in interior design has also affected the respect and worthiness of an interior designer in the design world? Most of my professors are trained architects, and there seems to be this underlying lack of respect or importance when it comes to the design of our interiors. I am often discouraged from exploring how objects, furniture, and the materiality of what we put into our interiors affect our experience. While wall placement, codes, and structure are just as crucial, why can't the two exist together and be held to the same level of importance? Do you think this shift from exclusion to "mainstream" has something to do with this?
Thank you for reading, and for your feedback. I believe the challenge you are having at school is program specific, as many schools do prioritize design and undervalue decoration. So much of what you’re looking for can be found by working at an established interior design studio. Even PT interning can provide you access into the energy and dialogue you’re looking for. There is so much education of decoration that is a passed down oral history.
Brilliant response.
Thank you for capturing a moment in time so precisely, and timely. A quarter into this century and we have had a significance rise in good taste but at the cost perhaps of originality. Where do we go from here? Trends will likely only continue to accelerate in faster and faster cycles. The algorithm is made to spot the trend and reinforce it, obliterating local character along the way. Will every home from LA to Beijing this year look like gio ponti sipping iced matcha in Ibiza? Probably. We have been here before. Pattern books diffused gothic and then classical templates, and classical architecture conquered much of the western hemisphere, not without its share of violence. The history of the world is the history of lost things along the way: nations, languages. Globalized culture seems inevitable, and Ai will be its next incarnation. So what role is left for our elites? should they champion the trends or resist the safe? Should they hire a weird designer over a safe Ai? Or a weird Ai, over a safe human? My favorite modernism was always the regional variant, even though when I go home to Milan I’m always looking for an iced latte.
This article spoke to my soul. I have been an interior designer for 26 years and in the last 10 have felt more and more like I am suffocating. When I began my career the world was full of incredible materials and creative potential. Now it is all benign ( like cancer, it won’t kill is but it’s still not good) . Worse than the regurgitation and inferior mass produced replicas ( dear influenced your “linen look“ drapes will never hang like true linen, but you have no idea of the difference) is the death of the craftspeople designers like me and I am guessing the many who read this, relied upon. The Italian family who run my workroom, the sweet Polish upholsterer I genuinely love, the ( also Polish ) master tile setter who created a custom mosaic on site from marble for my last true project. What happens to our industry when they are gone? When Schumacher landed on Wayfair I knew it was ending….
Thank you for sharing your insight and perspective. The world of integral design is still alive and thriving. We as a community just need to be better at calling out smoke and mirrors, canceling out the noise, to seek out who and what is real.