Exclusive and Gorgeous – the HYDE Collection!

I am always on the lookout for great designs and when they are paired with great marketing, forget it! I melt. That is precisely what happened with Mansour Modern’s push for their exclusive HYDE collection. I saw it and couldn’t resist!

The incredible creations of Mansour Modern are a delight to the senses. This high-end rug manufacturer offers not just quality, but trendsetting rugs that are textural and visceral, sophisticated and chic.

Taking their most popular designs Mansour translates them onto natural cow hide, hence the HYDE collection. 

The rugs are custom sized and created by sewing individual hide-squares to develop the beautiful designs.  One of my favorites is the gorgeous Greek Key rug. 

It could be the reminiscences of my youthful escapades in sunny Greece, but more likely I am transfixed by the easy flow of this interpretive design.  The cow hide texture is supple and natural with full-on brilliant Aegean blue sparkling throughout this beautiful pattern.

I loved the design so much I called the creative mind behind it all, Ben Soleimani. 

If you have read this blog before, you know I can’t get enough of talking with imaginative people and Ben is definitely one of them!  Gracious and soft spoken, he is also passionate and driven, which makes him such a force in competitive world of rugs and carpeting.

“I like to be a trendsetter but it takes hard work”, laughs 38- year-old Soleimani.

In fact, he says he finds Color and Design relatively easy.  It is creating new textures and finding new materials that pose the most challenges. And I suppose, requires the most creativity, an area inwhich he obviously excels.

Says Soleimani “I can see 400 years of techniques, colors and materials in the rugs I look at today. There is lots of history.”

And he should know.  Ben Soleimani has been in the rug business is entire life – he is part of the family that owns the generations old Mansour Rugs.

In his Hyde collection, Soleimani sees the future.  The materials are full of life and movement. 

The  dyes, which come from all over the world, are rich and varied, and the skillful application of all them to his artful designs make this collection a success.

He believes simply that, “Good things… you have to work for them.  When you do, you make a difference.”

With Mansour Modern, he certainly has!

 

Interior Designers Yell - LOOK AT ME!!!

Based on a huge survey of Interior Designers and Design Firms by Interior Design Magazine, a respected design trade magazine, a lot of designers should be shouting:

LOOK AT ME!

Interior Designers spec 83% of materials specifications for jobs vs 16% by architectural firms.

$2.05 million is the average dollar value of products an interior design firm specifies a year.  These products include building products, paint, ceilings, doors, windows, appliances, cabinetry, flooring, lighting, textiles, surfacing, furniture, kitchen bath products, etc

How Do You Want to Pay for That?

66%  of firms charge hourly rates
43%  of firms charge using mixed fees, meaning an hourly rate and mark-up combination

What are an Interior Designer’s Top 3 Favorite things to do?
34% Meet with Clients!
19% Drawing and/or Designing
15% Specing product

Can You Multi Task?

86 is the average number of projects that an Interior Design firm works on in a year
23 is the average number of projects that Residential-only firms works on in a year

Largest Category of work for Interior Design Firms:

#1 Office
#2 Residential
#3 Hospitals

The Top 3 Business Issues Faced by Interior Design firms are:

#1 Economic downturn
#2  Fee appropriateness
#3  Increased client demands

“We are a service business, and like anyone else, reducing fees or selling product at cost would put us out of business. We won’t be there for our clients in the future.” Troy Beasley, Design Principal, Beasley & Henley Interior Design

The Top 4 Client Issues Faced by Interior Design Firms are: 

 #1 Acquiring Clients
#2 Getting clients to understand the value of design
#3  Getting clients to pay for what the work is worth
#4  Getting clients to take design risks

We’re on a Mission!

80% of designers feel that they have a mission to further design “We always strive to redesign, reinvent and rethink what we do”

“Our job is to create something that our clients couldn’t have imagined themselves.  Our mission is to elevate their knowledge and expectations of what good design is all about.” Troy Beasley, Design Principal, Beasley & Henley Interior Design

 Link to the full survey:   http://www.interiordesign.net/article/CA6724247.html