Blogfest, the final chapter

Today was the third and final day of Blogfest 2012, and to me, it was the most informative.  We started the morning off with a casual breakfast at the Kravet Studios located in the Flatiron district of the City.  After a quick cup of coffee, we broke into small groups and were given tours of their working space.  I was lucky enough to be put in a group with Cary Kravet who took his time to introduce us to every employee on staff!

We started out speaking with the creative team behind Brunschwig & Fils.  They walked us through the process of how they have been pulling prints and patterns from the archives and then tweaking them to work with updated color palettes.  Last year proved to be a huge success as they settled in under the Kravet umbrella, and we look forward to their new collections to be released within the next 18 months. 

From Brunschwig, we learned about working with licensed lines such as Kelly Wearstler for Lee Jofa and Jonathan Adler (coming soon to Kravet).

We spoke about showroom styling and how much thought goes into the way the fabrics are shown as a story, in the wings, and on display as vignettes.

We talked about carpet, their custom color program, and many new upcoming lines about to launch.

And finally, we talked about the ways that the products are actually made, from hand blocking, to hand painting, to painting using CAD, to digital screen printing.

This hands-on experience was hands down the best aspect of Blogfest.  Thanks to our wonderful hosts, the entire team of Kravet employees, and an incredible line up of sponsors, my three day (and three hour tour) was something that I am eager to blog and brag about.  

To find out more about this great event and what other bloggers are blogging about, please check out http://www.blogfest2012.com/attendees.htm or #blogfest2012 on Twitter.