Patricia Urquiola

Designer We Love: Patricia Urquiola

Website: Studio Urquiola

Quotable Quotes:

"I do not have many desires -- this is very masculine. Often desires transform themselves into frustration."

"Be very passionate and curious! Find a few cultural references and people who can give you guidance to develop your personality. Try to defend your ideas and projects; create your own formula."

"I always think that the project I'm working on will be the best."

Background:

Born in 1961 in Oviedo, Spain

Broad background in academia, studying architecture in Spain and Italy and teaching in Milan and Paris

Developed her first furniture designs in 1991 for Milan's De Padova

See designboom for other background details and an excellent video interview with Ms. Urquiola

What We Love:

This designer has a solid architectural background; you see it in her furniture and product designs. Yet architectural slants to furniture often leave us cold. Patricia Urquiola leavens architectural sensibilities with a welcome sense of humor, great style, and a respect for fabrics and construction materials.

Ms. Urquiola either has the best ideas in the world, or she is fortunate enough to collaborate with the brightest, most passionate entrepreneurs in the furniture and design business today. Case in point: Urquiola's Fat Fat line for B&B Italia. Big idea: what if you had an overstuffed furniture line that said "dive in!" and turned furniture into swimming pools? In the Fat Fat bed (see picture 5 in our Sampler, below), she created a deemphasized, disappearing headboard and came up with a relaxed urban mosh pit that you could float in the room.

We love anything she ever designed for Moroso Spa.

Patricia Urquiola Sampler:

Photo credits: Architonic, Design Dictionary, designboom

Jeffrey Bilhuber

Designer We Love: Jeffrey Bilhuber

Website: Bilhuber & Associates

Quotable Quotes: "I’ve been at interior design for 22 years now and through an enormous amount of effort I have become very successful and very proud of my accomplishments and it wasn’t easy. I approach it through the back door. I approach it as a business man."

"It’s a Herculean amount of work to deliver projects on time and on budget."

"Great details whisper, never shout."

Background:

Raised in Huntington, NY

Was able to choose a wall color for his childhood bedroom ("this side of old guacamole") and one wall of wallpaper ("a plain stitch chevron"), with coordinating shag carpeting ("which I frequently raked")

Studied hotel admin at Cornell; wound up working at the Carlyle Hotel in 1981

1983 saw him in the Carlyle's housekeeping department, working with Mark Hampton's in-house room redecorating team -- this planted the seed for Bilhuber to combine business and creativity in his career

Started Bilhuber & Associates in 1984, focusing on residential and hospitality design

Made a 1987 splash with his first Kips Bay Decorator Show House room

Noted for his widely published, high-profile projects in every major shelter magazine, from 70 Park Avenue Hotel and City Club Hotel to work that shouts Star Power for Iman and David Bowie, Mariska Hargitay, and Anna Wintour

Frequent guest and spokesman for American Style on The Charlie Rose Show, Late Night with Conan O'Brien, HGTV, and The View

Rolling out Bilhuber Design Basics lines with Stark Carpets and Homestead

What We Love:

We fondly recall the sensational 10-foot bed Bilhuber did for one of his Kips Bay Show Houses. It was a killer!

Not many design professionals "get it." This designer gets it in spades -- sensational design is all about carefully combining creativity with business acumen. Such a big part of the job is handling the business side well, and the last thing you want your clients to think is that you're a creative flake. Business savvy builds solid client trust.

Bilhuber's design hero is Thomas Jefferson, and we second that nomination. American. Iconic. Inventive. Perfectionist. Craftsman. Scholar. Principled. Artisan.

We love Bilhuber's obsession with fabric-lined walls. They pop up in all his interiors, and they add a beautiful surround of color, pattern, and texture to his decor.

How clever of Bilhuber to focus on solid American classicism, but always with a twist of inventive modernism. This makes his interiors quite stylish and timeless.

This is a truly nice, interesting, personable individual. We can tell -- from a respectful distance -- that Jeffrey Bilhuber's clients enjoy working with him.

Jeffrey Bilhuber Sampler:

Photo Credits: New York Social Diary, Amazon, Yossawat, Bilhuber & Associates, Forbes Traveler