Book Description

"Great design doesn't exist in a vacuum, and" Designers on Designers "proves that behind every bright idea is a startling inspiration. Susan Gray lets the world's top designers tell their own stories about who and what influenced their work. The result is funny and poignant, wry and informed. And truly inspired." -- Mitchell Owens, ELLE Decor "The personal inspiration we gain from others in our field makes for fascinating and thought-provoking reading. I love seeing what my colleagues have learned from others; my own experience has been expanded by their insights."-- Michael Graves, Architect and Product Designer In these pages, you will discover how Orlando Diaz-Azcuy's admiration for the work of John Dickinson led to his firm's perennial quest for design perfection. Married designers Ashley and Allegra Hicks disclose an intimate view of Ashley's father, David Hicks, Britain's most celebrated interior designer -- who was so obsessed with design that he checked himself out of the hospital while dying because of the overabundance of plastic and the nurses' unappealing apparal. For contrast, Cuban-born, multi-talented Manhattan designer Vincente Wolf offers a different and distinctive view of David Hicks's great appeal. You will share Bunny Williams's appreciation of Sister Parish and that designer's comfortable, timeless, and witty sense of style. New York society decorator Thomas Jayne gives you new insight into the Edith Wharton and Ogden Codman classic "The Decoration of Houses," still used as a textbook a century after its original publication. Open this book and meet masters of design -- Billy Baldwin, Donald Deskey, Dorothy Draper, Elsie de Wolfe, Philippe Starck, Michael Taylor, Rose Cumming -- and their admirers Thomas Britt, William Sofield, Carleton Varney, Suzanne Rheinstein, John Stefanidis, and more than a dozen other great names of interior design. With color, wit, and passion, "Designers on Designers" sensuously captures the essence, soul, and inspiration of the mastery of interior design. On designers and by designers, it is a sumptuous work that architects, amateur decorators, and designers themselves will be powerless to resist. THE GREAT on THE GREAT: Pamela Banker on Sir John Soane Mattia Bonetti on Jean Royere Thomas Britt on Billy Baldwin Robert Couturier on Germain Boffrand, Eileen Gray, and Emilio Terry Elissa Cullman on Henry Francis du Pont Orlando Diaz-Azcuy on John Dickinson Jamie Drake on Stephane Boudin Arthur Dunnam on Jed Johnson Ronald A. Grimaldi on Rose Cumming Ashley and Allegra Hicks on David Hicks Thomas Jayne on Edith Wharton and Ogden Codman's "The Decoration of Houses" Pauline Metcalf on Frances Elkins Juan Pablo Molyneux on Jacques-Ange Gabriel Juan Montoya on Jean-Michel Frank Roberto Peregalli on Renzo Mongiardino Suzanne Rheinstein on Elsie de Wolfe Betty Sherrill on Eleanor Brown Marjorie Shushan on Kalef Alaton William Sofield on Donald Deskey John Stefanidis on Philippe Starck Carleton Varney on Dorothy Draper Bunny Williams on Sister Parish Ron Wilson on Michael Taylor Vincente Wolf on David Hicks