Welcome to the December edition of Behind the Brand, where KBB seeks to illuminate – somewhat! – the creative process from the perspective of top product designers in the kitchen and bath fields. Being able to look at everyday objects in a radically different way is the [un]common denominator of these talented individuals.
This month, we hear from:
Esther Patterson, designer & founder, Curiousa
Paul Grothouse, founder & owner, Grothouse
Hilary Gibbs & Georgie Smith, co-founders, Livden
As a product designer, my greatest responsibility is…
Patterson: To be in touch with our customers and understand what they want for their homes, or more importantly inspiring them to feel excited about lighting in their home. When I’m designing I try not to be too prescriptive but allow my intuitive side to have some freedom. I often find that if I over-think a design it can be less fluid and can look awkward or uncomfortable. Each design needs to mature from a fantasy in my head to a final material light piece that’s not just beautiful but functional, too.
Grothouse: Finding solutions that others haven’t either envisioned or been willing to put in the time to overcome. For me, true innovation comes when overcoming a problem not previously solved. For example, in developing our Resinata products, we were told by the resin manufacturers that it was impossible to pour the deep pours we needed to create the product. We designed a manufacturing process to specifically overcome the physical limitations of the epoxy products and it removed those design limitations. If you saw the Fire and Ice table we built for Monogram at KBIS 2024, you saw this in physical form. We often resort to technologies outside the woodworking industries to drive our products to the next technical level.
Gibbs & Smith: To create designs that are unique and innovative and true to our creativity. We want our tile designs to look unlike any other tile out there.
Curiousa. Photo credit: Chris Webb
One of my creative touchstones is…
Patterson: Color has always been so central to my thinking and so entwined with my own personal creativity. It’s a basic instinct to feel connections with nature, and nature is the first place I look for inspiration. Also, surrounding myself with nature allows me to decompress from our frenetic lives, so I’m not only absorbing its design inspiration but allowing my subconscious to soak in its serenity and calming influence. This then gives me the grounding and foundation to create new ideas and designs.
Grothouse: Honoring the natural organic beauty that wood brings to a design. Wood is such an amazing and beautiful material. I fell in love the first time I sawed my first board out of a log with a sawmill. The uniqueness is amazing species to species, log to log, board to board.
Gibbs & Smith: Time. We will go back and edit a design multiple times before making a final decision if we want to include it or not. We are very thoughtful when adding to our line and our creative process takes about three to six months to launch new styles. Time will truly tell if we love a pattern or not because we will still be in love with it after a couple of weeks!
An industry trend that I’m watching is…
Patterson: I love it that brave color seems to be very much part of a trend, but I tend to press on with color whatever the trend around me. If cream and gray were in, I’d still be looking at how a certain hue of purple works so well with yellow…. I prefer to be out of the loop but will embrace deeper trends that I love such as PINK. Pink has been on trend for the last few years and has a lot more mileage yet. I love the whole library of pinks, as they can be fresh and vibrant or dusky, warm and cozy – so much to choose from.
Grothouse: The integration of creative art, in the forms of engravings, shapes and patterns. While hand-formed carvings have lost favor with many consumers, I am seeing a tremendous increase in patterns being included in either subtle or obvious ways in many designs. For example, reeding is becoming very popular for many details, for us in edge treatments or in tops, but then filled with epoxy to form a flat surface. We are also exploring the integration of patterns being subtlety engraved in surfaces that leave no physical touch difference, but a visual detail to the surface.
Gibbs & Smith: Rooms with a lot of contrasting colors and patterns and textures. Minimalism and neutrals are quickly becoming less popular and rooms with a lot of personal touches and colors are rising in popularity. Homeowners don’t want the same cookie-cutter look now, they want their personality to shine in their space. It has been really fun to see how designers pair our sustainable tiles with other bold and colorful design materials.
Grothouse. Design by J. THOM Residential Design & Cabinetry. Photo credit: Daniel Isayeff
The best part of my job is…
Patterson: Creating a new design and seeing the journey from sketch book to final realization is very rewarding. The whole process can be very involved and take months if not years for the more complex lights. I can get very attached to certain pieces and we almost nurture them at each stage: from design to the careful grinding, polishing and constructing to the precise packing and sending them off into the world like little children. There’s a great deal of satisfaction in a job well done.
Grothouse: My team and their exceptional efforts. They make me look good every day! The ability to mentor and grow my teammates is my true reward. One reason I left the corporate world to found Grothouse was the feeling that employees are pawns within a game played with finance and profit calculations often dictating peoples’ futures and opportunities. I wanted something different than that. I continue every day to give my teammates mentorship and growth opportunities focused more on them and their personal actualization with our commitment that they are not just a number to me or the company. I also strive to mentor people outside of my company, particularly young people interested in the trades and entrepreneurs.
Gibbs & Smith: Seeing the tiles installed! Whenever we create designs, we are always asking each other “Where would you envision this?” After we launched and started seeing our tile used in different spaces is when we really felt gratified and excited. We know that there are hundreds of tile brands people can use in their projects, so when our tiles are chosen and we see them in a space, it is the best feeling! The excitement of stumbling upon Livden tile in a commercial or residential project is still present today after almost five years!
Photo credit: Livden
If I had a week off from the studio, I would…
Patterson: Last year I had an opportunity to attend in a residential workshop in a local wood with other fellow artists and makers. It’s an immersive experience where you stay in a hostel which is located in a wood with workshop space and campfire. Its’a a way of taking yourself out of normal life and rebounding off other creatives. There’s no pressure to produce anything specific – it’s just a space to feel free and get your creative juices to reset themselves and maybe think from a different perspective. I’ve already booked for next year and can’t wait.
Grothouse: Garden or snowboard. I love gardening because I love food, particularly fresh food. The renewal of the ecosystem with each season is amazing and extremely fulfilling for me. I strive to grow as much of my own food as possible. It’s amazing to grow your own tomatoes and throw them on the wood-fired pizza that day, yum! It is my personal goal to grow fresh vegetables year-round in the Pennsylvania climate. Snowboarding for me is a reconnection with nature and my most basic physical desires. The silence of the snow, the peace of the environment, the majesty of the mountain, the physical challenge, the rush of the speed. For me, it is a form of meditation.
Gibbs & Smith: Travel to Berlin to try and get into Berghain!
