Saana Baker has been a prolific textile designer since graduating from FIT within the mid-’90s. However you won’t know her identify. A self-proclaimed “ghost designer,” Baker has been the artistic thoughts behind collections for the likes of Kravet, Clarence Home, Lee Jofa, and McGuire, to call just a few. Designers and types alike faucet her to carry their material visions to life.
Is being a ghost designer any completely different from being an in-house designer for a producer? No and sure, Baker says. All of it will depend on the corporate and precisely what they’re hoping the design partnership will yield. “Like being an in-house designer, you’re going to be taking up an aesthetic that could be completely different from your personal,” Baker explains. “Generally when individuals rent a designer, they need anyone to return in and inform them, ‘You have to be doing this coloration, and also you shouldn’t be doing that.’ Generally they’re actually on the lookout for a designer to have the experience to get into their heads, perceive them, and see what they’re all about.”
“I believe the power that Saana has is that she understands every particular person designer, their persona, their sensibilities,” says inside and furnishings designer Jiun Ho, who has collaborated with Baker on six textile collections. “She has a manner to attract inspiration from you. She tries to have you ever dig actually deep to search out your personal voice and keep away from cookie-cutter outcomes.”
Baker says typically she’s working with somebody who has a really clear imaginative and prescient and different instances individuals actually have to be guided. “When anyone is aware of the vibe they need, however they don’t know the way to offer you a design transient or the way to let you know in phrases, the perfect factor is to indicate them pictures and have them say what they like, or present them swatches and have them choose,” she explains.
Ho remembers his first session with Baker, when she requested him to select his favourite colours. “I assumed it was only a recreation,” he says. “I didn’t know what these colours would ultimately be reworked into. For the second train, she had me combine all of them up and make some favourite coloration combos. That constructed the inspiration of our textile assortment. When individuals have a look at the materials, they all the time remark, ‘The colours are good,’ or ‘The combos are actually attention-grabbing.’”
An inspiration board created by Baker for Jiun Ho.
Picture: Saana BakerA part of Baker’s duties, in addition to distilling the essence of a consumer’s aesthetic, is usually modifying down the scope and focusing the mission. She should first discern: What number of patterns? Is it a presentation or a set? What’s the value vary? “Then I can wrap my arms across the aesthetic,” she provides. Baker says she’ll work from influences like an architectural rendering or an attention-grabbing product—say an ornamental sconce—however extra usually she should both procure or create art work. “Plenty of the time, we’ll go to an vintage doc vendor and buy patterns which are proper. Then I’ll change them and get better them,” she provides.
