Founded in 2008 by PR specialist Kimberly Oliver and journalist Julie Taraska, Product Placement is an ongoing series of live events that focuses on how and why the process of design happens today, getting practitioners and fans alike to delve into and discuss the often obscure process. The back-stories of designed objects—their inspiration, intent, material choices, alterations, and lessons learned—remain known only to a select few. Product Placement aims to change that.
Normally each Product Placement installment is oriented around a theme featuring multiple designers from a range of fields. Tonight's event is dedicated to trends, observations, and musings on 2011 International Furniture Fair from four presenters with very different roles in and perspectives on the industry. The featured speakers are:
• Barry Richards, Principal and Studio Leader, Rockwell Group
• Kari Woldum, Vice President, Merchandising at Design Within Reach
• Kimberly Oliver, Associate Director, Camron PR
• Julie Taraska, Senior Editor, Gilt Home and Contributor to Fast Company, Details, Wallpaper*, and Metropolis
The event takes place Wednesday, April 27, 6.30–8.30 (presentations begin promptly at 7)
Rockwell Group
5 Union Square West
New York
The event is free, but seating is limited and RSVP is mandatory. Please send an email with your name and the number in your party to thisisproductplacement@gmail.com.
"Product Placement enables designers and the audience to engage directly and immediately, without the filter of the carefully chosen written word. It's an inherently intimate look at design inspirations—Julie and I as curators discourage the presenters from relying upon 'marketing speak' and push them to get to what it is that drives their work."
"The live format, and the way we run it, speaks to the times. We're not looking to control everything and present it in a rigid format or from a particular viewpoint, as museums traditionally do. Instead, our curation ends once we've chosen the speakers and discussed with them which piece they'd like to present.
So you could say we take more of a social-media/interactive approach, where we just facilitate...it's all about breaking down the barrier between talent and audience. In my wildest hope it's punk rock for the design set."
It's all about breaking down the barrier between talent and audience. In my wildest hope it's punk rock for the design set.
A journalist that specializes in editorial strategy and multimedia content development, Julie Taraska can thank the Sex Pistols for her career. It was after winning a fellowship to study British punk that she moved to London and began writing professionally. Products, emerging talents, interiors, and food get her jazzed, topics she covers for T: The New York Times Style Magazine, Wallpaper*, Fast Company, and Details, among others. The founding editor—and current senior editor—of Gilt Home, the furnishings and lifestyle arm of e-retailer Gilt Groupe, Julie also has served in senior positions at Metropolis, where she developed the company's Web site into a standalone publication, and Home, where she made green design palatable to a mass audience.