What makes a hospitality or residential renovation or redesign even easier? It helps when you have a full collection of coordinated home furnishings designed to put the room(s) together in a curated fashion. Add the story behind the designers and their inspiration for each piece, plus the expertise and attention to detail of Global Views, and that next design project gets even more streamlined.
That’s the thought process behind the new FORM Design Studio collection for Global Views, the brainchild of interior designers and FORM Design Studio partners Joshua Rose and Rafael Kalichstein. This new collection launched with Global Views at High Point Market last month. “We really wanted to design a collection that was intended to go together with the same curatorial component,” says Rose, noting that the collection was designed so you could buy the whole room, but it wouldn’t look like it was just pulled from a company showroom. “You can make any number of rooms from just this collection,” he adds.
The duo’s unique backgrounds — Rose is an Emmy Award-winning set designer and Kalichstein is a Chinese medical practitioner, who brings his expertise in Black Hat Feng Shui into his design work — were integral to this new aesthetic. The two believe that “spaces speak” and for a design to succeed, the designers need to listen.
At September’s What’s New, What’s Next conference at the New York Design Center, Rose and Kalichstein entertained a a crowd of designers in the Global Views showroom for the unveiling of their collaboration with the company, a comprehensive collection that encompasses everything from large dining tables and chandeliers to fringed poufs, sculpted tables and letter openers. “We imagined it to be for every sector of the home,” Kalichstein notes, so that’s how Global Views introduced it.
Rose and Kalichstein are not strangers to product design and licensing — with six other licenses under their belts, including rugs and stationery — but the Global Views undertaking is the largest, they said. “The artisan sourcing for the collection is outstanding,” says Kalichstein, noting that Global Views’ knack for finding small-batch makers sets the company apart. “They uncover small producers and bring those things at an accessible price point. We wouldn’t have the reaction we’ve had to the collection without these manufacturers. David [Gebhardt, CEO of Global Views] has gone all over the world to bring in products he’s proud of.”
Sharing the Story
When Rose and Kalichstein headed out on a sourcing trip to Belgium, they weren’t looking to create an expansive home furnishings collection. But the partners were so inspired by some of the craftsmen they met and the simplicity of design and materials on the trip, it sparked a creative vision, they say. “We didn’t come home with the designs in our mind. We came home transformed,” Kalichstein says, referring to the design aesthetic they were exposed to in Belgium. “These people were doing things simply and organically, rooted in antique materials or creating new products that honored tradition. Mood, texture and lighting were critical. The aesthetic felt timeless and contemporary, yet not overwrought,” Rose adds.
Rose and Kalichstein pay homage to this experience through the FORM Design Studio collection, even naming some of the pieces after artisans they connected with on that trip — the Karl table, for example.
Inspired, Rose and Kalichstein began working on an extensive set of designs based on their experience. The next step was finding a partner that could bring the vision to life. “Could we find a partner that could help us create these ideas at a more accessible price point? That naturally led us to Global Views,” says Rose, adding that it’s the company’s ability to marry design with workrooms all over the world that makes this collaboration work. To explain the context of the pieces and how they would live together when pitching the collection, the duo put together renderings of the pieces in spaces, refining the designs as they went.
From prototype to High Point showroom, the program has taken two years, with stock expected by the end of this year. The fast turnaround has been extraordinary, according to Rose and Kalichstein, especially considering new techniques and finishes that Global Views was asking of its factories. “We wanted to introduce pieces that weren’t the same, and broadens the aesthetic,” says Kalichstein. “It’s a perfect complement to what Global Views does.”
Designed to Perform
Not only is the FORM Design Studio collection unique in its curated approach with 84 SKUs designed to work together, the attention to durability makes this new collection ideal for heavily trafficked hospitality spaces.
“Almost every piece is ideal for hospitality,” says Rose. “Most can be cleaned, some even with a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser.” A gesso-look console, for example, is constructed of a durable resin. Other materials in the collection include metal, stone and ceramic. Even the cotton velvet used on the sofa and love seat is a “workhorse” performance fabric.
In addition, the products are designed to get better with age, says Rose. The nature and simplicity of the design lends itself to patina. “A chip or mark becomes the character. We try to encourage our clients that patina is actually beauty. When you stay in European cities, the furnishings are layered, and you’re enchanted by the history. Like that, these pieces have a story to tell.”
