Cobi Ladner visits SoFA

I recently attended a presentation at SoFA, and sponsored by Canadel by Cobi Ladner on the importance of "Branding".

I think most people have heard of Cobi Ladner, formerly of Canadian House & Home Magazine.
Cobi gave a wonderful seminar on how she created her own personal brand.  She spoke about how people today want a "look" and I have definitely been hearing that around the home decor community.  Actually recently someone said it to me about a location in which to live.  They didn't like the feeling or look of the area, even though it was perfectly acceptable.  We are striving to have our own look and a feeling when our homes.



Cobi left the magazine to pursue her passion of 'fun, colourful and affordable' home furnishings which include everything from furniture, fabric, drapery, lighting, pillows, accessories, throws, teapots and soon to come bedding.

Cobi's name also stands for " 'creation of beautiful ideas'  which she completely believes in, has embraced colour and her presentation dealt with creating your own brand as she has.  One must build their brand.  How people decorate their individual homes is what your home says about you.

Cobi talked about other famous brands and how they identify a distinct product or person.  As decorators and designers we need to be building our brands.  It should reflect your own personality and a feeling we create.   We need to be individual and promote our personal style.

Below are a few photos of Cobi's style

Another photo op for me but for some reason I look sad?  I wasn't though ,

maybe just looking a little off??

 

Whittington's Speaker Series

Last week many in the design world attended a lecture on The Psychology of Furniture for Designers hosted at Whittington & Co.with Gordon Peteran a professor at Ontario College of Art and Design and an award winning artist and scholar. Aside from the presentation we enjoyed a light lunch and had the opportunity to browse the showroom.  Tony Belbeck & Dan William, furniture designers at Whittington also joined in the conversation about designing and making exceptional furniture.

Below are some photos of their latest pieces .....

...

The View Window Fashions at SOFA

Yesterday was quite the day and being Valentines Day I had a great day.  Starting of the day was a presentation by The View Window Fashions who have 3 locations, one in Vaughan, one in Toronto and just opened another location, this time in the Marketplace at SOFA.  The view consists of three people who have been in this business for many years and they know window coverings.  They will carry Hunter Douglas www.centurianwindowfashions;  MaxxMar  www.maxxmar.com,;  Levelor www.levolor.ca and Graber graberblinds.com.
The presentation commenced with three "Men in Black"  entering and then 'one man in black' strutted his stuff.  The view provided chocolate roses and eye candy for valentines day.... and later refreshments in their kiosk.  Danny Tulino, speaker for the group presented some of the newest offerings and there are many great ways to 'Dress' your windows.  All in all a great presentation and more great knowledge.

Gotta love SOFA, www.visitsofa.com for arranging all these educational and fun events for us decorators and designers and thanks to The View for the great refreshments and to the wonderful showrooms for the way they welcome us and also the great prizes.

Thanks to Linda and Lailyn!

Top Trends from Highpoint Market.......

High Point Market is the largest home furnishings industry trade show in the world, bringing more than 85,000 people to High Point every six months. Serious retail home furnishings buyers can be found in High Point twice a year because if you can't find it in High Point, it probably doesn't exist.  I wasn't able to attend the recent show, however was lucky enough to attend a local seminar at SOFA, www.visitsofa.com presented by well known Interior Designer, Furniture Designer & Retailer, Educator and Presenter, Jamie Alexander, www.jamiealexander.com

Jamie's topic was quite multi faceted touching on how we, as decorators and designers can improve our connections with U.S. furniture makers and getting the products to Canada with some great tips on working with the sales reps; ways to save on shipping; how many custom items are now being stocked and available immediately with shorter lead times and so much more great information.  He also shared that many manufacturers are now listening to what Designers & Decorators ask for and we have become a driving force, inspiring furniture makers.

Jamie spoke about the connection between fashion and furniture and which came first.  It's still up for debate but what isn't is the great information he shared with us on the latest trends coming out of the Highpoint Market, www.highpointmarket.org .  To enhance his talk were the great photos and his wonderful sense of humour.   He is a really fun guy!!

I will share some of the 'trends' -

• Mixing finishes - metals the golds and silvers. 
• Duller finishes - brushed
• Crinkled finishes
• Rounder lines
• Layering
• Accessorizing Walls with items other than Art
• Clocks - big both on walls and tabletop.  A wall of many clocks is a current trend
• Vintage - reclaimed but not necessarily greyed - they are doing a reclaimed look
• Retro, metal
• 'Fashionista' style with curved legs, seats and 'details'
• Lots of patterns and colour
• Wings on upholstered Headboards
• Lots of tufting on upholstered pieces and in places like the sides of the arms, not just the backs
• Rolled arms are much smaller
• Mixing different styled dining chairs but keeping the same finish and fabric for interest
• COLOUR  - very big   Blue, Orange, Purple, Neutral and so on.......

Here is a photo of one of the winners of the showroom design competition - Berhnhardt

More of what was shown at Highpoint



 

Did I Mention Colour.....

 

Yours truly and Jamie posing in the Van Gough Showroom, www.vangoughdesigns.com  who were the sponsors of this event along with offering us a lovely lunch.

 

Many thanks to Linda, Klara, Bernadette, Jamie and everyone else for this great event.

SOFA... Seminar by David Behr

Many people in the Design business spent the morning up at SOFA www.visitsofa.com, attending a seminar by David Behr on the "Characteristics of Top Producers in Any Market - "The YES Attitude".  I was inspired.  What an interesting speaker and a lot of great ideas and many different ways of doing business.  He offered many ways to say what we normally say, but with a different slant, much more positive.  It really was a worthwhile event.  We all want to improve our business and be more motivated.  What David did was give us some tools on how to make some changes that would be pertinent to our individual selves and businesses.  I came away thinking I would really start to put into practice what he spoke of.  Once again, many thanks to the staff at SOFA for another great seminar.

FALL TRADE SHOWS & HOME SHOWS FOR DESIGN & DECOR INFO.....

This post is a little late due to the fact that I caught it!! Yup got the bug going around and have been in bed since the weekend.  Going a bit stir crazy so decided to write something about the recent shows I attended.

Last week was a busy one with both The Decorating Centre Annual Trade Show,  www.thedecoratingcentre.ca and then IIDEX. I am loaded down with great information, and tons of reading material which I have been going through during my stay in bed.  Unfortunately I deleted all my photos this morning in error.  Guess I am not quite myself yet.  Better stay away from heavy equipment!! and the camera and possibly my computer.  Nah.... got to write.

AS in the past, the Decorating Centre put on a great day for us.  We were able to browse the suppliers new products and they are really great.  We heard some interesting speakers from Norwalk Furniture, www.norwalkfurniture.com giving us the Color Trends for fall, winter, spring and summer as well as Interior Designer, Kimberley Seldon www.kimberleyseldon.com and  Marysia Czarski of Velocity Partnership, www.velocity-partnership.com.  In addition to all of that we had a lovely lunch compliments of the Decorating Centre and many prizes were won.  Yeah!!  Sorry no photos this time.
IIDEX 2012 was this past week and there were many great new products to view.  I am hoping to borrow some photos from a colleague so I can show you some of these wonderful offerings.
Coming up will be the International Home Show and Interior Decorating Show, www.interiordecoratingshow.com, both at the International Centre on November 1 - 4, so mark your calendars.  With the line up of celebrity speakers it promises to be a great day.

Happenings at SOFA

June 28th brought many decorators and designers to SOFA, www.visitsofa.com once again for a great seminar from Karl Lohnes.  Everybody seems to really enjoy Karl's great spirit and he has such a way of speaking and presenting facts he keeps you entertained.  You want to know him better.  He has presented to CDECA members in the past, most recently at our annual AGM and we all come away in a 'happy place' thanks to him.

'Another Packed House' to hear Karl Lohnes speak

This event was sponsored by Magnussen Home, www.magnussen.com who are located in the SOFA showroom area of the International Centre.   Thanks to Linda Kafka and Azma Ousmand for all the work they do to offer us such wonderful seminars with great speakers.


The topic was: 'Keeping the design ball rolling" during the slowest times of the year!  Great presentation.  Karl gave us much to ponder and act upon as well as sharing his recent "status" as an Artist.  Yup, Karl has signed to have his very own piece of art available through CB2, www.cb2.com (new store by Crate & Store).  Wow, that is really something and as Karl told us, he just felt like being creative and fun one weekend and someone showed somone,  and someone else and on and on;  just from a little networking and people sharing,  he got the attention of top people at C&B and they loved what he created and voila you can now purchase his artpiece.  Karl shared some other interesting options ahead for him, so keep following. 

A bit of England to celebrate the Queen's Jubliee

I came away with a lot of tips and was glad to have confirmation that some of what he shared, and I have already started, is a good thing.  I believe the reason Karl is so sought after as a speaker and why he captures his audience,  is that he talks to them as if we are all friends just sitting around having a little talk.  He shares situations he has been in and how they generated business and does it such a way that is so down to earth, one feels, Yes, I could try that.

The seminar offered many great ideas and also stressed Social Media, Networking,  the importance of good and honest Communication with potential and current Clients & Suppliers as well as other ventures you can stream into that could be related to your current career as a Decorator or Designer. 

A new focus can also be an enhancement to your current business as well as generate additional income, especially during the slowest times of the year.  For instance a lot of us write for magazines, newspapers, why not a book??  Perhaps you can do DIY projects, sew, paint or any other creative work. 

I am a little late in writing this blog, but now that the hot days of July are upon us I am working on some of Karl's great tips!!  Gonna go and tweet Karl now.......