Be Original Americas: Demystifying the Business and Practice of Design

People often visit design showrooms or fairs and encounter perfectly finished results, often debuted with polished narratives describing unencumbered ideation and seamless production. Because of the nature of today’s consumer culture, potential customers have little appetite for hearing about the mishaps that almost assuredly took place along the way. Rarely are they fully aware of what takes place behind the curtains. There are so many complexities that go into the creative and administrative aspects of running a studio or brand, especially for those autonomous talents that go it alone. 

Held on May 19th during ICFF 2024, non-profit advocacy Be Original Americas hosted the Demystifying the Business and Practice of Design panel. Seeking to develop tools that help independent creatives and established producers alike counteract counterfeit culture (knockoffs), the multi-brand-backed organization supports various initiatives aimed at bolstering and revealing how authenticity can be achieved and maintained; a complementary strategy to retroactive legal action that fosters a culture of individuality and mutual respect from the outset.  

Bringing together perspectives from architecture firm Gabellini Sheppard’s principal Colin Martin, industrial designer Hlynur Atlason, and textile giant Designtex’s outgoing president Susan Lyons, the talk did just that; certainly with the aim of providing budding talents with valuable insights. Each speaker mounted a forthright presentation highlighting the idiosyncrasies of their perhaps not so straight forward professional trajectories.  

Citing his experience growing up among creatives in his native New Orleans but also his training in Finland, Martin noted how valuable collaboration has been throughout his career, even in figuring out how to harness AI as a tool rather than an outcome. “Something I was taught a lot in my upbringing and education was the importance of seeking artists and craftsmen to cooperate with because they expand your capacity and personality,” he said.

Taking a more pragmatic and strategic approach that began in school, Atlason drilled down on the mental and practical advantage of having a clear yet agile vision when looking to achieve a specific goal and run a successful business accordingly. “I have a firm belief that if you design things that people desire, you will succeed in business,” he said. “And so, if you assume for a moment that we’re capable of doing this, the real question and the mystery is sort of how do we get the opportunity ultimately to test if we can actually create things that people want, how do we get in contact with the people? How do we get in contact with companies that ultimately trust us to do that? How do we build that trust?”

For Lyons, her foray into and ultimate ascendency in the design domain was far less predetermined but equally fortuitous. “I would say my journey has been driven mostly by curiosity and a lot of serendipity that happens to all of us where you have a choice of a path to go down and you go down one and it takes you to one place and then you keep going and end up somewhere else,” she said. “So, I feel like my journey has been a very meandering one.”
The ability to have studied art history, worked in performance art, and dabbled in other fields not only afforded her with an unparalleled arsenal of technical and street-smart skills but also the ability to understand the best practices and approaches that transcend traditionally defined disciplines.  

Moderated by Elle Decor Deputy Digital Editor Anna Fixsen, the panel discussion then touched on additional topics she parsed out from the presentations. “I think what strikes me about all of your paths is that none of them are quite linear,” she said. “They zig and zag and all three of you shared moments where you have to be comfortable being uncomfortable, whether that’s fighting for your green card, being in limbo, or designing a pup tent.”

She asked all three panelists how they each addressed the existential question: ‘why am I doing this?’ Atlason noted that even if he struggled with securing his green card, being able to operate in New York was a passion that he never really saw as work and perhaps because of that, was more willing to fight for it. 

“For me, the pup tent as your example, it’s something that maybe when I first started it, it wasn’t the landmark architecture that I imagined doing when you arrive in New York, but looking back on it, it’s this kind of whimsical kind of design problem that you cut my teeth on and learn from but don’t realize what you’ve learned till much later on,” Martin responded. 

Ambiguity is something Lyons champions as a means of further development, especially as she’s most recently ventured out as an independent consultant. “For most of us, design is kind of a circular process, so it feels like, okay, that didn’t work, let me try this, or let me think about it a different way,” she reflected. “Going back to the whole demystifying business thing, I think that’s a tension that I’ve felt in this new role that I’m in because of thinking like a designer, but business really likes clarity and execution. So how do those two things coexist?”

To learn more about Be Original Americas and join as a member, click HERE