There are two things about walking into a showroom of Global Views product — you immediately KNOW what colors are trending and secondly, you want to have one of everything in it!
See what we mean?! In one of the best examples of furnishing showrooming/merchandising around this is a brand that stays true to their goals or vision and deliveries consistency season after season.
We jumped at the chance to connect with the founders and find out how this came to be. Turns out David Gebhart was no stranger to the furniture world. He’d worked for another furniture importer, Foley’s, the Bombay Co amongst other retailers. He met Frederick Rayner in a Dallas bar way back in 1983. A few dates later it wasn’t meant to be so in separate directions they went … until 1996 when they ran into each other again (in the bar next door). Frederick was celebrating the sale of his Fort Worth catering business and heading to Montreal, Canada to see about a bed and breakfast. Chit chatting about the furniture world and need for a more cohesive accessory and accent furniture line went from idle chatter to fruition not long after. Frederick only made it as far as Montreal Street in Dallas and the rest is history! Flush with cash and an entrepreneur’s appetite, he decided to partner with David. Realizing the gap in their combined strengths, they recruited Lois Del Negro who David had worked with previously to round out the skill set.
David, Lois & Frederick
For those who don’t know Dallas is not just some cowboy and oil town, rather a hot bed of design activity.
All signs pointed to the need for a business that put put products together that told a story so their concept was picking up trends from fashion and incorporating those ideas and colors into home furnishings and sticking to a “story” and to make the cut, well, you need to be in line. For instance, if the color story is grey and blue, a fuchsia piece of ceramic, no matter how beautiful, simply won’t fit.
We couldn’t help but ask how this whittling out process transpires? hats fascinating is the process by which this happens? One design team of four embarks on a crazy journey once a year to design and develop new product with factories around the world.
Uh crazy might be an understatement! 2 things worth noting before we really get into it
1. While they originally started with accessories, the company has since branched out for a more full home look – selling everything from lighting to wall décor and case goods.
2. Sister line Studio A Home crossed their path during the recession in 2005. With an eclectic mix of accent furniture that was hand-crafted by artisans all over the world, it seemed like a natural fit!
Back to that story about a crazy trip, that on the 2015 leg included the following:
Drawing inspiration from all over – antiques, nature, tv shows, magazines, travel, museums, etc – they tour factories that offer different materials – glass, ceramic, precious stone, wood, soft textiles, metals, etc and then they put it together into two fantastic lines. Guess how many they went to on this leg?!
We can’t even imagine but are exhilarated and obsessed. Erin Davis (1 of the 4 man team) did a great recap of each visit — click here for a fascinating tour of her days spent in Jodhpur, India.
Once home, they design and draw the product mockups in Dallas then send the sketches overseas to factories to make samples found in those factories. The samples are then shipped back to Dallas for Some samples are immediately pulled because they don’t fit the storyline; others because they don’t play nicely; and of course sadly there will be some whose quality just ins’t up to snuff. Each and every product needs to pass the design test and items that are functional as well as beautiful are especially prized and quickly rise to the top of the list. Once a decision is made on what’s made the cut, off the designs go to production.
2500+ items in 2 lines with a design team of any size is quite the feat; rather than go it alone, they rely on key designer partnerships with the likes of Barbara Barry, Rogers Thomas, Dwell Studio, MCFChan and Williamsburg and more recently Julia Buckingham (click the links to see their products).
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