During WCAF national conference, Designer and sought after Marketing Speaker Ginger Hartford, founder of EurDesign Studio, led an all new designer experience and insider’s tour of the Las Vegas Market trend-spotting Art In Design. Gallery & Design retailers were thrilled to take part in a VIP experience and first look at the season’s hottest art, design and styles! This Insiders Tour highlighted inspiring trade showrooms for top art publishers and home furnishings brands driving key design and decorating trends in the marketplace.

The World Market Center in Las Vegas is the largest & most comprehensive Furniture Home Décor & Gift wholesale market from the Mississippi to the Pacific, presenting a cross-section of 4000 resources.

This opportunity afforded art and framing professionals the opportunity to connect with exciting new business resources, meet thought leaders in the art and design industry and top artists of the moment collaborating in product development for new art collections launching at market. Here, I’m sharing my ART IN DESIGN Las Vegas Market Tour highlights:

I’ve long believed the art and design industries work best in parallel and converge quite often in our professions. As a Designer at heart, I specify products and have deep brand relationships within the home furnishings and design industry marketplaces. Leading marketing initiatives for Artful Living Media, an art publishing agency, I also dwell in the business of art.  In fact, I noticed more press and media focus on the artistry of design, that artists were impacting trends and design movements. Brand collaborations are offering the most compelling product lines where art infuses whole collections launching at market. Our touring intention was to navigate top showrooms defining key design and decorating trends, understand the artful product development process, highlight top art publishers and artists to identify key art themes, styles and language that would resonate with consumers. My ART IN DESIGN Tour highlights include:

GLOBAL VIEWS Featuring FORM DESIGN STUDIO

We kicked off my ART IN DESIGN tour in the premier trade showroom for Global Views, known for their impeccable design and decorative accessories by skilled artisans from all corners of the globe. David Gebhart, CEO of Global Views and board director of American Furnishings Hall of Fame Foundation graciously hosted our group. David shared the artful design process they undertook in their distinctive collaboration with FORM Design Studio. We learned how art informed product development, how artists partner with industry brands to develop lifestyle collections and how manufacturers work with skilled artisans to further bring the concepts and textural treatments to life across home accessories. For art and framing professionals, trend details cross over to designing with framing elements such as fine linen and natural tones for matboards, the prominence of organic neutrals in warm cream, ivory, taupe, stone and shades of charcoal. Mineral finishes translate to moulding designs with on trend matte finishes and resins in cream and charcoal. Many attendees found the Global Views home accessories a valuable resource opportunity for adding gallery products to revenues.

FORM Design Studio, founded by Emmy award-winning designer Joshua Rose and Chinese medical practitioner Rafael Kalichstein, is very much of the moment in the design world and strives to be an arbiter of taste and holistic living. Blending the line between what is beautiful and what sustains, FORM Design Studio designs modern art, rugs, furniture, lighting, and accessories.  It was this very collaboration that inspired me to launch the ART IN DESIGN Tour! To see the pure artistry of Rafael and Joshua inform every aspect of their bespoke collection is inspirational; a pleasure to meet them in person.

Joshua Rose of FORM Design Studio shared their design inspiration for the collection, “Our vision was to create a collection that evokes the intangible — a feeling of soulful connection with a new person or place that opens one’s eyes, shifts one’s perspective and enriches one’s life. It’s the electric moment you realize you have met a new and lifelong friend that we hoped to capture as inspiration. Global Views is the perfect partner to help us bring that vision to reality.” FORM Design created a capsule collection with international flair, by design, all originating from art, in most cases original Chinese ink paintings by the designers. FORM Design Studio is presently developing product lines with Global Views / William D Scott, LeftBank Art, Dempsey & Carroll, and Mehraban Rugs in addition to designing hospitality, commercial, and residential projects worldwide.

MODERN NATURALS – FOUR HANDS

A major trend continuing to evolve in mainstream design is Mid Century Modern style. This style is not just for Millennials enthusiasts, we see the influence impacting high/low lifestyle brands across the globe. Four Hands, out of Austin TX, is the category leader and visionary redefining home furnishings including a complimentary art and photography collection curated by Four Hands Studio. The Modern Naturals theme is eclectic and bohemian rustic with a nod to mid-century modern aesthetic, no longer just “industrial modern”. The 2020 Vegas Market design trends include Seventies textures and Eighties-inspired maximalism, natural earth tones with sculptural metals. We noted the Four Hands max factor in tubular forms from the 1980’s inspiring the furniture designs and companion artworks, a nice retro balance for eclectic minded consumers. Natural earth tones compliment on trend, warmer color palettes like wine, olive, green, chocolate brown and yellow ocher. Sculpted metals cross over from lighter furnishings to floated styling in framed art to add personality and post-modernist vibes. Sustainability is key, found in materials from reclaimed woods like eucalyptus, to hand blown glass, repurposed denim and organically shaped forms. Form Hands believes this intensifies an Eco-friendly effect beautifully. All details can translate to art and framing materials by style and design.

Four Hands Art Studio with over 20 artists and photographers, curated compelling new art styles including geometric shapes in bolder statement colors. Otherwise, Photography is picture perfect as a definitive art form that is whimsical, conversational and full of personality! Be on the lookout for statement photography by design that’s influenced by digital and graphic design trends. More on Four Hands Top 2020 Art Trends here.

LEFTBANK ART 

Always a showstopper, I’d previously appreciated Leftbank Art’s High Point market collaboration with Galerie Magazine, whose mantra is Live Artfully. Our ART IN DESIGN market tour continued to highlight the design services available to retailers with a showroom stop at Leftbank Art. An ARTS Awards Winner, Leftbank Art is known for their modern art collective and trend forward art publishing as well as trade services working with Designers, Hospitality and business-to-business. We toured their extensive showrooms to preview FORM Design Studio’s definitive art collection which continues the textural modern theme. As artists by nature, FORM Design Studio's principals, Rafael Kalichstein and Joshua Rose relish their time spent in the inter-disciplinary process of creating their high-end reproduction art line for industry leader Leftbank Art.  The ever-expanding art collection boasts well over one hundred works, incorporating media from Chinese ink to wire sculpture.

We also previewed the latest presentation styles, emerging artists and leading trends in art as well as learned more about the printing services to expand designer art with original paintings, giclee’s, hand embellished canvas prints, and acrylic treatments. Of note, we highlighted the emerging growth trends for printing on linen and mural wallscapes. Many Art Galleries look to Leftbank to diversify their collections by category, highlight artists, extend product selection and design services or partner on art projects.

PHILLIPS COLLECTION

It was important to note other on trend, non-traditional art forms especially sculptural wall decor. 2020 Winner of the prestigious 31st Annual ARTS Awards for Top Wall Décor manufacturer in the industry for a reason, the Phillips Collection is a family business specializing in unique, inventive and dimensional designs that are really off the wall! Our tour group was able to glide through their amazing showroom and focus in on dimensional artworks, wall tiles, sculptures and more to round out resources and trends for artful living. It is quite compelling to design gallery walls for small to larger scale installations with multiple object forms to create a statement wall, whether in metal, ceramics or wood for distinctive styling. As consumers appetite grows for unique ways to decorate their interiors and both hospitality and commercial industries look to diversify their art collections, it’s important to become familiar with suppliers to help art and framing retailers expand product lines and design services to capture broader revenue opportunities per project.

WENDOVER ART GROUP

Our ART IN DESIGN market tour wrapped in high style as we were warmly welcomed by Wendover Art Group, a leading source for art. Wendover Art Group is a vertically integrated, domestic supplier of artwork, wall decor and mirrors within the hospitality, healthcare and commercial interior design industries. Leslie Langford, Head of Marketing, shared insights covering the breadth and uniqueness of their art offering as well as Wendover’s specialty in producing licensed collections with top designers Thom Filicia, Lillian August, Christopher Kennedy, Jo Sampson and Meg Braff. We were excited to personally meet the designers behind the notable brand Consort, a high-end interior design studio & shop founded by Mat Sanders and Brandon Quattrone with projects in Los Angeles, New York, and Telluride.

The Designers spent time with our group talking about the design inspirations for curating and designing their new art collection with Wendover, based around mixed media and playfulness. The artful trends focus on coastal modern Photography, Abstract, Typography, Nature, Figurative, Landscape, Animal and Vintage themed product categories. Again, interesting to note the prominence of photography, especially coastal modern themes as Coastal design styles are becoming more lifestyle driven not just by seasonal, niche or specific geographic elements.

What a thrilling designer experience for all! My sincere gratitude to each brand partner and tour guest for your trust and inspirational collaboration. It was a joy to host art professionals touring through the Las Vegas Market, the Southwest’s premier home furnishings and design resource, on behalf of WCAF! For more Art In Design highlights, visit Instagram @eurdesign_studio Art Tour highlights Instagram EurDesign Studio Art Tour Stories (*this article featured in PFM Magazine for art & design industry)