Vicki Matranga, Design Programs Coordinator
Retailers and media looking for trend-setting, high-design products at the 2014 International Home + Housewares Show head for Discover Design in South Building. The inspiring Discover Design Gallery, accessible to buyers and media, features products submitted for the Global Innovation Award (gia) for Design.
Specialty retailers, editors at influential websites and print publications, trendspotters and independent designers serve as Discover Design judges. They review exhibitors’ entries to choose six products as finalists, three of which will be honored as Global Honorees. They also select three companies as gia finalists for best product collection; one will be named the Global Honoree.
Let’s get acquainted with some of the industry experts who will determine the winners of the Show’s gia product awards. Today we are speaking with Lu Wendel Lyndon who, along with her husband Maynard, has been in the vanguard of design retail and product design for decades.
Lu earned her (Marimekko) stripes at Design Research (D/R), the store that pioneered the concept of design-focused retail. Lu started with D/R in San Francisco in 1965, then managed the Beverly Hills store, followed by a corporate buying position in Boston. There she met Maynard in 1971. In 1978 they established Placewares® in Concord, Mass., a store that focused on home organization products, and in 1983 they opened their product design firm, LyndonDesign. They ran Placewares successfully for nearly 30 years in seven locations. The Lyndons closed their New England operations in 2004 to focus on their design studio. They exchanged the Atlantic for the Pacific coast when they returned to their roots and moved to Northern California. But with retail in their blood, they soon opened Placewares®+LyndonDesign, a shop and gallery in Gualala, Calif., to offer Design and Art for the home.
Lu, what is the most rewarding part of your job?
The most rewarding part of our work is finding and presenting useful and well-designed, enduring products to our customers that fulfill their needs and delight them.
What inspires your passion in your work?
Our customers’ enthusiastic responses to our store and the products we have selected to sell inspire us on a daily basis. And the search for innovative products is a never-ending treasure hunt. We are always inspired by the hard work and dedication of the designers and manufacturers with whom we have worked.
In the past few years, what has changed most in your business?
We began Placewares in Boston in 1978 where we sold products to help our customers get organized. After 26 years of business there, we closed our stores and ‘retired’ to the West Coast which was where we were from. Retirement absolutely did not suit us, so eight years ago we opened a new store and small art gallery in a small coastal community near where we live. Our customers are both local and international, and they find us by accident and by word of mouth. The process of sourcing products has changed dramatically with the advent of the internet, and how customers find their way to our doorstep has definitely been helped by even the modest way we network with our existing customers.
How many years have you been coming to the International Home + Housewares Show?
We have been coming to the Housewares Show since the late 1960s ….things have changed quite a bit over the years!
What are you looking forward to seeing at the Show?
We are most looking forward to meeting new vendors and reconnecting with the people with whom we already do business, to learn what they have been working on and hearing the ‘back stories’ on their new products so we can communicate that information to our customers when we are home.
What do you find exciting and inspirational at our Show?
To be able to see so many products and vendors all in one place and to participate in the creative energy that surrounds this event and this industry.
How does Discover Design enhance the Show experience for buyers?
With a Show the size of this one, it is often easy to get overloaded with all the images and experiences. In former times there was much less effort to put products into categories, so it was a real challenge while walking the Show to be able to compare similar products. Discover Design focuses on those vendors who have chosen design as one of their criteria for product development.
What do you see as consumers’ biggest concerns regarding housewares products?
Price, durability, environmental-friendliness.
What are some of today’s challenges that retailers face in the housewares market?
The biggest challenge as always is to create and maintain a clear point of view in product selection and presentation. Customers want to know what the store they are shopping in stands for, and they want to believe that their purchases will have value for their own needs.
Thank you, Lu, for sharing your point of view on your role as a retailer who curates an environment and a product assortment for your discriminating clientele. It’s always a pleasure to chat with you and to see your continual delight in new and beautiful products. We hope you will be inspired by your time at our Show in a few weeks!
For more information about Placewares or to shop online, please visit the home page.
Visit Discover Design and See the Products Chosen by the Judges
In these final weeks before the Show, our blog introduces Discover Design and Design Debut exhibitors to give you a glimpse of the inspirations, influences and ideas that go into creating the exciting products that you’ll see in March at McCormick Place.
Discover Design is the premier design destination at the International Home + Housewares Show. Located in the South Building, the invitation-only category features more than 100 exhibitors from around the world. Companies driven by innovation and design present distinctive products and collections in Tabletop, Gift, Textiles and Home Décor categories. Learn more about Discover Design exhibitors and their products by visiting here.
