It's an Outdoor Garden Chair!!!

"Field of Dreams" from Shannon Fricke's Blog

Toast. Always has great photography!

Elle Decor Cover June 2009

Domino Mag May 2007

Domino Mag April 2008. Miles Redd's Terrace

For the first day of class, I was really excited to meet the other nine designers. To be chosen for this class, we all had to be accepted into this program through a fifteen-minute interview and a presentation of our portfolio, so I was excited to meet the other nine talented people that FIDM selected! We went around the room and introduced ourselves, and almost all of us are Professional Designation students, which means that we have some sort of previous degree, and half of us had just graduated this past June. I have a Bachelor's in Business Administration from Point Loma Nazarene University, and I was one that graduated from FIDM this past June! After hearing that we have such diverse backgrounds in staging, biochemics, music, etc, I was anticipating how unique each of these chairs is going to be. Meeting everyone was great; I always look forward to an opportunity where I get work with other talented designers.

During the meeting, Dina, our Interior Design Chairperson and one of the professors for this class, announced that we have a design direction of Outdoor Garden Furniture! I am thrilled by this news. I love the outdoors, gardens, outdoor dinners, candlelight, tea parties, pools, cabanas, and anything relaxing, so an Outdoor/Garden focus was perfect for me. I think I will have a problem of too many ideas. As for the fabric, I am hoping that because there is a clear direction to the furniture, that there will be a clear direction for the fabric. Maybe a specific color palette like blues and greens, or maybe a common motif. We’ll have to see…

I am including some of my favorite outdoor images for inspiration.

Chairing Styles @ FIDM

So it all worked out according to my lovely plan; I graduated from FIDM about a month ago, but got accepted into the school’s Chairing Styles program , extending my involvement with FIDM for another year or so!  I was not ready to be done with my FIDM educational experience, so I am trilled for the opportunity to be included in the Chairing Styles program where FIDM allows for me to design and work with a manufacturer to produce my own chair!  Not only will I be able to say that I am an Interior Designer, but that I am a custom furniture designer as well! 

This class is a unique collaboration between fashion, interior, and textile design.  FIDM partners ten pairs of fashion designers and interior designers to create a coordinating garment and chair that will be sent down the runway of the annual FIDM Debut show.  Two years ago Cotton Inc. , decided to sponsor the event by providing the fabric that the fashion and interior designers would use in the garment and chair.  This allowed for another element of designer involvement allowing a FIDM Textile student to design one of the ten fabrics.  I am including a marketing piece that was created for last years debut show to explain how the Chairing Styles program fits into the event.  I have also included my good friend Caity Hall’s chair as an example of the final product, a chair and a garment designed with the same fabric.  Caity won 2^nd place and received a prize from Cotton Inc. Congrats Caity!  Thankfully I have been able to use Caity as a resource to anticipate all this class has to offer.  This year, the first place winner receives ten thousand dollars and a trip to North Carolina to tour the Cotton headquarters, second place receives six thousand dollars, and third place receives three thousand.  My goal is of course first place, so my next step is to get busy gathering inspiration.

The collage is from TheFashionClub.com.  Caity's chair picture is from The FIDM Magazine.