I am so excited to start off my Holiday Designer Book Series Give-away with one of my favorite new books, Cathy Whitlock’s Re-de-sign. Coming from a formal design education myself, I am thrilled to see that someone as experienced in real-world projects and as forward-thinking as Cathy, has written a modern-day design text book that is as easy to sit and read cover to cover as volume of Twilight.

Re-de-sign, whose subtitle is “New directions for your interior design career”, does an amazing job of profiling all of the career opportunities in our quickly growing and ever-changing industry. Cathy is very thorough in her introduction to the profession and its history, giving a well-rounded look at where design has been and where it is going. And the bonus to re-de-sign is that Cathy has included gorgeous photography from some of the world’s most talented designers to supplement her amazing text, so looking at this book is as inspiring as reading it.

A graduate of Parson’s School of Design and a member of ASID, Cathy is truly an expert in the field of Interiors. Her bio reads like the chapters of her book, adding author, magazine writer, design marketer and lecturer to her list of experiences spanning the last 22 years. In addition to re-de-sign, Cathy is also the author of an upcoming book Cinema Style: a Century of Hollywood Art Direction (more on this later in the week), she is a contributing editor of Traditional Home Magazine, and her work also appears in Veranda, Architectural Digest and many more prestigious magazines nationally and internationally. Cathy has practiced interior design in New York, Chicago and Nashville and has made frequent appearances on HGTV’s Decorating with Style and has been featured in the Wall Street Journal and on the Fine Living Channel.

I first heard of Cathy and her book this summer from Candace Manroe at Traditional Home when Candace was inviting me to be a panelist at the Pacific Design Center Event in September. Cathy was also scheduled to be part of the PDC lineup during Design Week. Approximately three days later, I heard Cathy’s name again from Laura Holland and Jay Reardon at Hickory Chair Furniture Company. I thought, “Who is this Cathy Whitlock and why don’t I know her?”

So I immediately jumped on my I-phone for Amazon and within a day or two, re-de-sign was sitting on my desk.  Well that was one of the great decisions in my Amazon purchases to date, because from the minute I picked up Cathy’s book, I was hooked.  I literally read the whole thing in one sitting. Now I’ll admit I am a bit of a design geek and a life-long student, but really…how often does a person sit down and read a “textbook” cover-to-cover? I would say never.

Now don’t get the wrong idea when I say textbook. Re-de-sign is much more than a text book and immensely more beautiful and entertaining than a stodgy old design school book. But from the amount of great design knowledge, I say re-de-sign should be in every design school in America as a required text. In my opinion, re-de-sign gives a much more realistic picture of the opportunities for exciting and rewarding careers in this profession than anything I was ever told while getting my design degree.

I think Cathy’s picture of the design industry is one that inspires young design enthusiasts to make the leap into this amazing, creative field. And her introduction to the glamourous areas of publishing, product design, set design and TV hosting is the stuff that can inspire those of us who have already been in design for years, to rethink what our goals are, and set our sights on a whole new area of the profession that truly energizes us and reminds us of why we got into this creative career to begin with.

I just re-read Cathy’s book today, cover-to-cover again, in preparation for this feature and I am further inspired about my future in design. Just coming off of a weekend at the national NCIDQ conference as the Arkansas delegate, a residential designer can sometimes feel like a second-class citizen in a sea of commercial designers, architects and engineers as far as the profession goes. But Cathy’s book reminded me that residential designers are often those in our field who can make the most money, have the most high-profile projects, get the best budgets, get our work published more easily and are many times the superstars as far as the public is concerned. 

I spent a good deal of time at the NCIDQ conference talking to Michael Alin, the executive director of ASID for the past eleven years, and he also thinks that residential designers are not respected as much they should be within the profession.  He has long been a fan of residential interior designers and the tremendous value that we bring to the built environment.  Cathy’s chapter on residential design showcases many of the stars in residential design today and in year’s past including Kelly Werstler, Jonathan Adler, Alexa Hampton and her dad Mark. These are designers that have been instrumental in advancing the residential area of the design profession.

 

But the great thing about re-de-sign is that Cathy was equally thorough in profiling all the areas of interior design including commercial and hospitality design and the wonderful opportunities that await those who love working in those areas. Whatever area of the business you work or are interested in, you can find a vast amount of information in this book presented in a way that is very easy to comprehend.

Cathy has organized her topics well and used everyday terms and language as opposed to industry specific lingo that is not easily understood.  She has used a number of successful designers, consultants and industry partners as case studies to show real-life success stories who offer advice to the budding designer or seasoned professional across the various disciplines that make up the design industry.

So as you can tell, I am a huge fan of Cathy Whitlock’s re-de-sign. And thanks to Candace Manroe and facebook, I now call Cathy my friend. I appreciate Cathy for graciously donating an autographed copy to lead off my designer book series give-away. And I cannot wait to give one of my lucky readers the chance to read what I already have (twice) and be inspired by Cathy’s real-world look at interior design as a legitimate and lucrative career.

To enter to win the autographed copy of re-de-sign, send an email to Tobifairley@gmail.com with “Cathy Whitlock Book Give-away” as the subject line. Only one entry per person please. The drawing will be at noon on Friday November 20th.

Good luck! And stay tuned for more posts on Cathy, re-de-sign and other exciting related topics this week.

(images above from re-de-sign include KWID, Alexa Hampton, Hickory Chair, Jonathan Adler, and Vincente Wolfe)