Musings with Laura Guido-Clark

December 2005

Why do you always have to be reminding people to use color in their homes?
A lot of people are afraid of color. I think it’s because they haven’t identified their personality. Your home speaks about who you are. So to choose the right colors for yourself, you really have to understand how you want to feel when you're there. That’s very important. You really need to sit with yourself.

Do you find a growing willingness to use vibrant colors?
I do find that people are embracing color more. We’re riding a wave of people wanting to feel optimistic. That’s made people use brighter, more vibrant, cheerful colors in their homes.

You spend much of your time forecasting trends, what’s on the horizon?
I see a renewed interest in natural and beautiful materials, things that resonate on a soulful level. Also, the play of materials is becoming more important. We’re starting to see more mixing of disparate materials like matte and gloss, or plastic and wood in a single object. It intrigues people and gives a piece more surface interest. We’re also seeing a real demand for honesty in materials. Consumers want manufacturers and designers to be honest about materials used and to celebrate the material. They don’t want to see plastic pretending to be something else. Let plastic be plastic. If you want something to look like wood, use wood.

Any trends in colors?
I see gray and yellow coming in. Yellow because of its luminosity. It gives an energetic boost and will replace orange, which was a hot color but is getting played out a little bit. Aside from black and white, the next color a baby sees is yellow, and I think that’s because we’re responding to the positive energy and vibrancy of the color.

As for gray, things have gotten so black and white, gray’s emerging as the happy medium.

Tell me about the Design Within Reach bedding line.
We’ve just completed the new Spring line, which will be at DWR very soon. We’ve kept the designs and given them fun, fresh, invigorating spring-like colors.

Working on this project has been such a blast because we were given the opportunity to really rethink how we use and how we see beds in our everyday lives. It brought out some innovative products that just make perfect sense.

How is Flor different form other modular floor coverings companies?
Flor has taken modular flooring into the home with items people can feel comfortable with, while most other similar companies have kept to the contract market. For Flor, residential options are colored and styled with so many textures, prints and design ideas that they really fit and are just so respectful of a person’s needs in their home. People with pets or children love that they can just pick up a section of the rug, wash it in the sink and replace it. If a tile gets really trashed, they can just replace the single section, rather than having to replace a whole rug.

What industries have you not worked for yet but would like to?
There are so many products that would be amazingly interesting to work on. I’m interested in the whole world of surfaces and materials. It’s pausing and deciding where I want to put my energy, and making conscious decisions of what I want to do and say and spend my time on that’s so hard. But I do think the car industry needs some help. Even though they’re always redesigning cars and looking at the shapes and aerodynamics, I would like to rethink the automobile from the interior point of view. And I would make a lot of changes.

Is there anything else you’re working on now?
I’m doing some new materials and finishes for Steelcase that I’m very, very excited about. So keep an eye out for those.