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New York Style

The author uses the city around him for inspiration. Store windows, construction sites, even Broadway shows provide design ideas for these troubled times.

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All designers are inspired by the world around them. But I live and work in New York City, so the world around me happens to be Manhattan, where the opportunities to become inspired are everywhere I go, everywhere I turn.

Inspiration filters in from sources as diverse as a splash of paint on a job site to the city’s lights at night. Magazines, billboards, labels, giftwrap, stamps, even paper currency – all contribute something to the circulation of ideas that create a concept. Manufactured items contribute, as well. The shapes and colors of home goods in Conran’s, the Muji stores and CB2 have all inspired me to explore new fixtures and furnishings when designing an environment. Even staring at displays of colored pencils in an art store provides clues for the colors on a wall or fabric on a chair. The influences are where you find them.

When I want a jolt of inspiration, I look at the way design weaves into everyday life. In today’s troubled world, with rising gas prices and failing mortgages, economic pain is visible everywhere in the city. It’s not surprising, perhaps, that Pantone’s color of the year is a shade of periwinkle, not a new color but a safe, gratifying and calming one. And you only have to note the record crowds going to time-tested shows on Broadway like “Gypsy” and “Chorus Line” to know how important lasting value has become today. These revivals of shows dating back decades were a source of inspiration for my work with a fashion apparel brand whose essence blends chic contemporary fashion with a touch of retro glam design. The backdrop for the clothing is a paisley pattern that weaves its way through the clothing fixtures and overhead as a ceiling accent. Rippled water-pattern accent walls; light-reflecting, amber-red, clear glass balls; and Moroccan peach-colored carpeting complete the picture. The design targets the younger shopper who wasn’t born when Ethel Merman strode across the Broadway stage as Mama Rose, but our expectation is that she will feel the shopping experience to be fresh, relevant and timeless.

The International Contemporary Furniture Fair at the Javits Center in May had its answer to the troubled world we live in – a movement back to solid value in design. With a short-term future in chaos, consumers want to look back to better times. And that is exactly what the designers did at this show. They used classical patterns on their products. Damask was a favorite and you could see it on fabrics, carpets, acrylic wall panels, wallcoverings – almost anything that could be printed on – but with a twist: black damask on acrylic; micro-sized damask embedded on a surface of metalicized porcelain tile; a damask pattern so big it just reads as shapes until you are 10 feet away from it. It’s the return of the native, but in a new neighborhood. Design can make the contemporary interpretation of the familiar different so that it becomes exciting and relevant to today.

For a recent Macy’s flagship project in California, I included references to art deco trims, polished chrome on furniture typical of the 1970s and rich, warm woods of the 1940s. The effort was to create an experience to which shoppers could connect emotionally to the heritage of the building and use that to reflect back comfortably on their own personal lives. But it also had to be contemporary and fashion-forward. The old and the new, timeless yet modern.

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Design speaks to the creative subconscious of our time, the desire to luxuriate in plush non-shedding microfiber robes, fuel-efficient cars and shoes that breathe. When we are flush with cash, design produces the shockingly gorgeous, the perfectly un-functional and the next step away from now. But in days of challenge, design soothes, smoothes and takes care. Design inspiration has its roots in everyday life experiences. But it is our own creative process that edits and fuses living impressions into new, interpretive work.

Collect your impressions. Savor them. They will take your hand for the steps ahead: invaluable for an eye on the future through the pulse of today. x

Steve Kitezh is director of interiors at Fitch’s New York office.

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