Industry Related: Mentoring the Next Generation
Alpha Kilo
A multi-national, award-winning PR & events agency operating at the intersection of art, design, luxury, & culture
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Amy reporting here today from a sunny and warm New York (73F/23C!), where we’re preparing ourselves for a week of scheduling chaos commencing Sunday, as the UK enters Daylight Savings Time, but the US - always that annoying, younger, have-to-do-it-slightly-differently-to-demonstrate-independence sibling - waits a week. For some reason, this causes our collective brains to meltdown. 🫠
PRELUDE
Last year in our London HQ, which we lovingly refer to as Number 11, we launched our Savile Row Salon Series - intimate gatherings that were inspired by the pictures above, which I stare at on the regular during my visits to the Triennale Milano (a brilliant client of ours). What I love about the images is the intimacy they evoke. At times, I imagine they’re engaged in a frolicking round of Twister. There are some heavy hitters in the pictures - Norman Mailer, I believe is one - and yet you can feel the comfortable discourse and passionate dialogue emanating from the images. There is no apparent hierarchy, just a sense of closeness and comfort, of camaraderie. This is something to aspire to in all our gatherings; much better than loads of people attracted by a free drink (see our LDF Review) is a small group of passionate, interested and interesting humans, engaged in dialogue that inspires, provokes, and, ultimately, creates connection.
LETS GET INTO MENTORSHIP, SHALL WE?
A few weeks ago, in one of these gatherings, we invited the Godfather of American Design, Jerry Helling of Bernhardt Design, to join us for to talk about Mentoring the Next Generation of Designers. In recent years, with remote work becoming more prevalent, I really feel like there is a gap in mentoring. Perhaps it’s down to the pandemic and its effect on personal interactions combined with the absence of an office to identify kindred souls and badass players from which to learn the game IRL. Other than an acquaintance who claims to have started a clandestine affair over Zoom, I remain dubious at the ability to truly connect through solely digital spaces. And when it comes to identifying a humble backdoor baller that would make your perfect mentor, good luck. A 20+ person zoom call is something more akin to Dante’s Eighth Circle of Hell than a productive mode of connection and discourse. But we’ll save that topic for another day.
Back to Jerry. If you don’t know Jerry, first of all, I’m sorry. He’s a Grade A human, and those of us lucky enough to be in his orbit are simply better for it. Officially speaking, Jerry is the President and Creative Director of Bernhardt Design. He repositioned Bernhardt from a domestic American manufacturer of traditional wood furniture into an international phenomenon with global distribution, working with some of today's leading designers. Over the last decades, he has been one of the most pervasive supporters design and design education in the industry, creating numerous programmes and mentoring designers from around the globe. He established a design studio at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. He started the ICFF Studio to help launch careers. He’s was also the first president of Be Original, an industry initiative to preserve the authenticity of design.
INTERVIEW HIGHLIGHTS ON MENTORING DESIGNERS
To let you in on his brilliance, we’ve taken some insights from our salon discourse and broken them down for you.
Starting with our interview highlights:
AK: Was the Art Center the first program you set up on mentorship and what drove you to start that program?
JH: The reason I started it was because in talking to young designers, they just seemed lost. They didn't know how to engage and have a conversation about their work. So I wanted to do a program that was real -life, real -time, that they would go through the ideation processes and prototyping processes for manufacturing. We would take them to trade shows or exhibitions to learn how to sell their work and interact with buyers. We would teach them how to write their own press releases. It’s the Full Monty on trying to give them the sort of education they would need once they graduated. Because so much of (education) is theory, and that's fantastic. You need theory. You need to think outside of the box and explore, but you also need to understand business and how things are made.
AK: I’ve always felt we as an industry were a bit too focused on the NEW and YOUNG when really there should be more resources for mature designers like those who have tried their hand for a few years but then need to make a decision about earning a living or staying true to their craft. Do you agree?
JH: I’ve always thought there were three levels that need support and we’ve done programs in three levels:
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Julie Taraska (salon attendee, design journalist, and lovely human): Unlike many other furniture brands, you have not always gone for the (safe) marquee designer. How have you made that business case?
JH: Being a family company, we don't have to listen to quarterly results, so we can take more risks. Maybe something doesn’t work out, who cares? As long as I know that on the flip side, I do make some decisions that I know are going to pay for the things that touch my heart, the things I really want to do.
AK: I think the companies playing it safe are going to really regret that in 10/20/50 years time when the archive has been recycled to its fullest extent, they have nothing left to like relaunch and are left with the most boring back catalogue of all time. Look at someone like Mendini, right? Back in the day, when he was just coming to the fore, someone took a risk and gave him an opportunity - Alessi was one of those companies - and they allowed him to be absolutely provocative at that time, to like design what was he was dreaming of in his completely off -the -wall style. And boy did that pan out! Of course that's going to ebb and flow, but that company is going to see the flow of it when it comes back around and I think it's about having that more long -term vision.
THE TEA ON LOCKING DOWN A MENTOR 🫖
WE’VE GOT AN IDEA! 💡
A few years back we presented this to a design school in a pitch, but sadly it never took off. So here we’re putting it into the universe for someone to run with it.
Art & Design Schools should create a programme that would pair their media and journalism students with those in the design courses, and, as a part of their coursework, they work to promote the design products of fellow students. This mutually beneficial arrangement would help both sides equally - designers will learn the basics of narrative building, getting your story out there, and the importance of reaching and inspiring people for ultimate success. For comms kids, they get an actual product to bring to market, and a little more skin in the game.
It also makes the professor's job so much easier because they don't have to make up a faux campaign. It’s like here's an actual designer - get the story out there!
WE’RE BRINGING BACK OUR MUSES! Starting with Jerry of course:
Thanks so much for reading and feel free to comment, protest, and share your stories, opinions, and insights as well!
With Love from Alpha Kilo