Business of Color brings fashion models and Ford designers together for lunch
By IBI Magazine/Michael Verdon
Slinky fashion models and elegant Ralph Lauren home fashions mixed with the khaki-clad crowd of the boating industry as The Business of Color Conference held its annual IBEX lunch. While a half-dozen models displayed the latest colorful fashions of Roxi Suger on a home-built runway, and Roxi recited florid descriptions of water and land that would've been more appropriate at a poetry reading than a boatbuilder's expo, organisers of the event said there was an intangible benefit to the boating industry. "The marine industry has tended to internalize a lot of its design," said Peter Granata, president of MDRA and his own firm, Granata Design. "But design, from our customers' points of view, doesn't comes from other places they interact in their daily lives. This exposes the industry to design fronts being achieved in other areas." While the Roxi Collection didn't seem particularly appropriate to the group of boat designers, many of the Ralph Lauren designs would probably work well on luxury yachts. "Many of our nautical designs are inspired by sails or ropes," said Marianne Resman, vice president and creative director of Ralph Lauren Home Fabrics. Jack Telnack, former head of corporate design for Ford Motor Company, said that the popularity of retro designs and colors like those employed by Chris-Craft, Hinckley, and others follow certain models in the automotive industry like the PT Cruiser. "Hearts are captivated by leading-edge designs," Telnack said. "We had a saying at Ford that engineers create product, but designers made us money." Telnack also said he has seen a mingling of design influences, including the Italian Ferretti Group designing an Northeast lobster boat, and a classic American brand, Bertram, embracing Italian design influences. "There isn't anything sacred anymore," said Telnack. "As a result, the future of marine design looks very promising." Granata says that the use of color in boat design has come a long way in the last 20 years, and that colors have gone beyond interior use. "The market has dictated that in order to differentiate yourself that you have to find different things to do with the product," he said. "Now, color reaches out to other parts of the boat. You see metallic images on parts outside the engine room. It's now a two-dimensional graphic on a three-dimensional product." Granata would like to see the industry eventually hiring designers from outside the marine industry to bring design influences from other areas. "We want to raise the consciousness of the industry and want them to treat design as something that can work in a capitalistic society," said Granata. "If we can get this ball rolling, the whole industry may win from that with better designed products."
(20 October 2005)
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