From Design Bloggers Conference to Ronald McDonald

Part of the experience at Design Bloggers Conference is networking as well as listening to many of the keynote addresses and feeling energized from these days spent *buzzing* and this year was no different.
I decided to really breakout of my shell and let people know a little more about me - mainly through my few minutes on the podium thanks to the gracious invite from Adam Japko.

I know,.. your thinking.. but wait, she has said this already! Yes, I started but I didn't actually share WHAT I said - and that is important for you to understand why I am sitting with Ronald.. and no, he did not visit us a DBC in LA, although I think he should have!

Enough of that, this is the important part.
As part of my talk I shared that
1. I was born in LA! Yes, LA. But, moved around a lot.. ended up in Portugal.. and then in New York.
2. Talked a little about the kiddos.. (sorry no pics).. a little about scary movies and TV Shows, really design related I know..
3. Talked about my design business in Portugal. The one I left behind, to start a new life in NY once an opportunity presented itself for our family that we could not say no to .. and all of this, in 2008.

So I went from 10+ years of very hard work establishing our own design firm with my husband Bruno Viterbo, an education center, contacts and brand awareness with projects such as these...

only to end up like this several years later.
Not great.

via

and, there was a new baby girl as an added (and oh so lovely) bonus.

So you get it. I was going crazy. Lost my mind and then I found you. Yes, YOU!

This blog brought me to you, and you to me.
So this is what I shared with the audience in LA. How, I was able to connect and start again even in the most difficult times to be in our business let alone start a new one. In a country that was foreign to me and without many connections.

So, I am believer in putting it out there into the abyss. Into the world, and seeing what happens.
So I did. In the end of 2011, I set 3 goals for my year of 2012, and shared them in my post, as well as with the audience in the room.
2 had come true.. yes, I was getting invited to more speaking events, and had made strides in new and exciting projects.

But, and this is where Mr. Ronald comes in to the picture, 1 big dream had yet to be realized - a showhouse.
So, thanks to MANY OF YOU at the conference for sharing your hopes that this would come true for me .. and by the grace of the kind Beth Greene from Kravet (and Adam for making it possible!)

I spent the day today with a group of the most amazing, generous and talented designers as we embark on The Ronald McDonald House of Long Island - Kravet Project Design 2013

Designers participation:  Amanda Nisbet, Anthony Baratta, The Breakfast Room, Bunny Williams, Core Consulting, Danielle Colding Design, Delrose Design, Drake Design Associates, Drew McGukin Interiors, Dwell Studio, Elaine Griffin Interior Design, Eric Colher, Kate Singer, Kim E Courtney Interiors & Designs, Mabley Handler Interior Design, Margreet Cevasco Design, Matthew Patrick Smyth, Meg Braff Designs, Mehditash Design (thats me!) Michael Herold Design, Michael Tavano Design, Mr Call Design, Nick Olsen, Pappas & Mirron Design, Tilton Fenwick Young Huh Interior Design, 

I can't possibly express how excited, and how much this means, especially as it is for the families that live and need this home. I promise to share some truly detailed, image laden, video enhanced, super sad and extremely happy tales on this adventure... but for now, there is just a very big thank you to Beth Greene, to all from Kravet, Adam Japko that put us in the same room, & to all of you that have helped bring this special group together. I am so honored to be among them.

Tomorrow.. part 2 with Barbara Barry continues.. and then much more on this RMH_LI adventure.

Design Bloggers Conference - Interview with Barbara Barry and Kravet - Part 1

Barbara Barry with *me* and Beth Greene of Kravet Inc / Blogfest 

Has someone ever moved you, made you feel true emotions, simply by reading out loud to you?

This was my experience while listening to the soft and eloquent voice of Barbara Barry while speaking last week at the Design Bloggers Conference. As part of the great selection of keynote speakers, brought in part by the collaboration between the team of DBC & Digital Sherpa and that of Kravet Inc. and Blogfest to the lineup of this year's conference.

Barbara during her talk, took us on a journey through her view of the world of interior design, sharing her thoughts, and emotions and stunning visuals that are all part of her new book: Around Beauty.

Barbara Barry

In this two part interview, I hope to share with you some of the moments from this talk, Barbara's collections with Kravet, and the moments that left me feeling inspired and eager to come back to New York and spend my days bettering myself as an interior designer as well.

"..within every small story is where things live..we often overlook things ~ we need to really look" - B. Barry

So after the conference, I reached out to Barbara and asked her to share a little more in detail with me some of the

Photo:  Dining room*, Piedmont, California residence
(photo from Around Beauty – credit David Meredith)

DAP: Could you share with us a few examples of how your daily inspiration and design come together and become a reality. 

BB: "Inspiration (from Around Beauty): Sometimes the colors of a room are predetermined. My job is to show up, look outside, and observe a decision that has already been made, usually by nature. The colors of this room come from the view right outside the tall French doors that open wide onto a great stone terrace. And walking out, the first thing I saw were the colors of a towering redwood grove. Decision made. The rich brown veneer of the dining table and drinks tray recall the trunks of the trees, dark in shade, softer in the brighter light. Dining chairs and doors draped in mellow mustard wool are evocative of the faded seeds and pods scattered on the terrace. Dappled around the room, in pillow and porcelains, is the deep blue-green of redwood fronds."

Photos:   Mexican Fig Tree/Living Room*, Pacific Palisades residence
(photo from Around Beauty – credit David Meredith)

BB: Inspiration (from Around Beauty): …as soon as I entered [the home’s] light-filled courtyard, I was spellbound. Standing in the middle, in its own dappled light, was a huge Mexican fig tree, its lively green leaves twirling like castanets. Upon moving closer to its thick and sensuous trunk, luscious layers of shadowy, nuanced color became visible. In that instant, I gained my inspiration for the project. All the colors I needed for both inside and out were right there on that tree trunk in soft tones of sage, butter, cinnamon, and celery….

Photo:  Agave / Dinner Plates* (photo from Around Beauty – credit David Meredith)

BB: Inspiration (from Around Beauty): Connections inspire designs; they also point to what’s there already. Colors and shapes seduce me daily…anywhere, anytime, all the time.

"...design is not static .. it's an experience, as you travel from one room to the next ~ feeling the mood.. "

Around Beauty - Rizzoli

" .. when i got around to writing a book, I wanted to write about what was underneath design   wrote my book about BEAUTY ~ "Around Beauty" as I have been circling around it my whole life" - B. Barry  

"like in nature - cool is balanced by a little warmth"

"... allowing our eyes to rest, to give it some beauty and calm to rest upon .."

 "..our emotions don't need an education, we know how we feel .. "

"...it is almost like painting by numbers.. cracking open some California pistachios and voila ~ Color!"  

"... it's so wonderful to be a designer and realize a vision! .. an honor" 

So I hope you enjoyed some of these snippets from Barbara's talk, beautiful images of her book, and feel inspired yourself from these words and images.


On tomorrow's post I will delve a little deeper into how Barbara takes cue from her finds, and daily  inspiration while creating collaborating on the product collections, such as the one for Kravet, among others.
You won't want to miss that, especially as we have a few special sneak peaks!

In the meantime ~ want to know more about Barbara Barry, her design team, what the office looks like and a lot more about her inspiration? Sure you do!
This great interview by Traditional Home's Jenny Bradley (who also happened to be one of the speakers at DBC) shares some great insight!








Image Credits: Thank you Barbara Barry for sharing these images with me from your book and your online portfolio of images here.

Please note that all photography from Barbara’s book is credited to:  Photo by David Meredith, from Around Beauty (Rizzoli NY) by Barbara Barry

Greetings from LA + the Design Bloggers Conference

As you know from my last post, I was one of the speakers and attendees at the Design Bloggers Conference in Los Angeles.

It was an incredible, and perhaps slightly overwhelming couple of days, that really made me remember why I love our profession of design and blogging as much as I do!

Not only did the conference this year bring us an incredible amount of inspiration, information and education about where blogging is going and how we should differentiate ourselves by simply allowing ourselves stay true to our own individual and very unique voice.

So, in the midst of the events, I felt so inspired that I decided to completely change my presentation and share more about who I was and what makes me, well.. me. Hopefully, for those of you that had to listen to my story, you enjoyed getting to know me a little better and understand why I have grown to truly love my blog and all that it has done for me.

The speakers which you can see from my last post here all had one gigantic takeaway in common ~

Share more of your personal story...

Share more of who you are and how your experiences make you feel..

which will help solidify the relationships and bonds between you and your readers.

As many of you know, having worked so long in Europe I became accustomed to the formality that is required within our professional day to day, and so it has been a struggle to make this too personal, to allow myself to share my own work or my own experience on this platform as I do on my website of design work ~ www.mehditashdesign.com ~ 
For those of you that know me personally, you know I am all about sharing *TMI* ..

So, as promised in my talk, I will make a concerted effort to continue to share more of my own personal story as well as the adventures of design and inspiration that I am so privileged to take part in having the opportunity to live in New York.

and for those of you that were not able to join me in LA, here is the post from which some of the slide came from:

here

Plenty of posts with recaps and highlights of my time in LA coming up, so come back soon.

A huge thank you to all the sponsors of the Design Bloggers Conference for making it possible, as well as to the team of Digital Sherpa, Adam Japko, Bob Hudgson and Luba Hrynyk for allowing me to share my story.. and hear so many others.