So I am sure most of you have already heard about Bravo's new show Top Design that (I just found out) will start airing January @ 10/9c every Wednesday.
Click on the link above to see interviews of the judges. Todd Oldham will host along with an all star cast of judges - Jonathan Adler, Kelly Wearstler, and Margaret Russell, editor and chief of Elle Decor Mag.
It will have the same premise of Top Chef and Project Runway.
So AT readers tell us, who are you more excited to see on the show?
interested to see how Kelly plays out on TV really --for various catty-bitchy-girl reasons, as well as if her style will dominate all.
Kelly Wearstler and Magaret Russell!
Could this show have chosen better judges!? Answer: NO!
I am so excited.
i'm really excited to see todd oldham back on tv! i remember taping his segments on house of style with my trusty vcr when i was a mere wisp of a girl...
Adler is my pick! Can't wait to check out this show.
There's already a show from the Home & Garden network (or something like that) with the interior design theme...Design Star? right?
Why not do a show on which the contest compete by actually designing the PRODUCTS...furniture, lighting, home accessories, etc.? Like week 1 - design a lounge chair, week 2 - coffee table, week 3 - dining set, week 4 - floor lamp, week 5 - clock...well you get the point. This would be more interesting also because product/furniture designers are bigger celebs (Phillippe Starck, Karim Rashid) than interior designers and it allows people to learn how products are made.
Lucy - I think the idea you have is great but I'm thinking that it would not be easy to do given the huge amount of time (research, materials sourcing, etc.) that it takes to design one product. Plus, not every designer can design products from all the various areas you've mentioned, as many are specialized and tend to like it that way - they can focus in and do their best work.
I think it would be fun to take your great idea a step further and have a show based around product design starting from scratch and each week, take the viewer through the needed steps of the design process, with the last week being the time each designer reveals their product. The winner would receive the funds and backup (a PR firm to represent them, a lawyer to work with them on copyright issues and business related laws, a small storefront in NYC or Brooklyn, MONEY, etc.).
I think a show like this would interest a lot of us because so many wonder WHAT goes into product design, as you said. Taking viewers through all the steps would be awesome because it would reveal the good, bad, and ugly. Covering all the bases would be a lot of fun to watch. They could have a stationery designer who is developing letterpress cards, a furniture designer who wants to launch a new line of benches and tables, a textile designer who is dying to produce their own designs, etc.
I know there's a lot to producing a show like this, but so much less fluff than the average design show, it would actually TEACH me something.
Holly
Yep Holly, I agree with you that it might take too long but I'm sure there's a way to simplify and streamline the process considering all the money and resources they have since this is for a major TV network. Also, they always do these things months before they actually air the show. I was thinking that the winner would win a contract to design a line of products for Target, Herman Miller, Blu Dot or Design Within Reach and get a spread in Dwell, Wallpaper or Surface magazine. Something like that.
Lucy and Holly, I was recently thinking about the same thing myself - that I would totally love to watch a show in this Project Runway/Top Chef format that was about product design. My guess is there are quite a few AT readers, design addicts/aficionados, aspiring entrepreneurs etc. who would be interested in this sort of thing.
(Wink wink, nudge nudge, Bravo network!)
P.S. While on the subject of Project Runway, congratulations to Laura Bennett and new baby boy Finn :)
http://www.usanetwork.com/series/madeintheusa/theshow/overview/index.html
Just to let you know...
Adler is so lame - Im are so over him.
Kelly is a real B*&%# so that should be fun.
Todd - well the words 'has been' come to mind.
kelly is foxy - yeah baby - yeah !!!
Hi vallidsoner,
Thanks for the link:
http://www.usanetwork.com/series/madeintheusa/theshow/overview/index.html
Yeah this is sort of we're all kind of thinking about but not quite, this show seems more about 'inventions" and "gadgets" or those "million dollar-ideas". What Holly, Erin and I are talking about is pure DESIGN, a show to find the next Phillippe Starck or Marc Newsome and Bravo is very design-oriented and would be perfect for that premise, USA network is a more mainstream and rednecky...hope that doesn't offend anyone.
When I first heard about this show I was very excited. Now it is even more exciting to think it is just a month away.
My question or say my hope is that Bravo has chosen a range of some really great deserving designers that will give the show a real design focus vs a focus on an array of type casted crazy personalities. Like other Bravo series it will probably be a mix of both.
And as for the judges do you all think they will have their defined personalities role? Okay so we suspect J Adler to be witty and fun right? Todd Oldman and Margaret Russel I have no guess on. And why do many feel Kelly Wearstler is destined to be the snobby critical judge?