ISFD Broadcasts New Government Director as Longtime Chief, John Conrad, Retires

Furnishings World Information Desk on

11/15/2022

David Blair (left) and John Conrad (proper).

Having served the International Society of Furniture Designers (ISFD) for greater than 13 years, first as a board member, vp, president and at last as its government director, John Conrad is retiring from the non-profit on the finish of 2022.  The ISFD board of administrators unanimously selected David Blair to function the brand new government director.

“It has been an unforgettable honor and privilege to have been a member of and served ISFD as their Government Director these previous years,” said Conrad. “I’ve actually loved working with so many fantastic individuals whereas watching ISFD develop and turn out to be extra distinguished within the residence furnishings business.” Throughout his tenure main the group, Conrad initiated new packages for ISFD together with the INNOVATION+ DESIGN juried competitors and exhibition together with the Folks’s Selection Images Competitors in 2020.

In 2018 Conrad was instrumental in re-branding the American Society of Furnishings Designers to the present Worldwide Society of Furnishings Designers answering the rising want for a world group dedicated to advancing, enhancing, and supporting the observe of furnishings design within the worldwide market. He then established the Worldwide Society of Furnishings Designers Basis establishing ISFD’s function in constructing design schooling outreach. Conrad additionally digitized and donated the irreplaceable bodily ISFD archives to the Bienenstock Furnishings Library.

On the current Pinnacle Awards, the ISFD board of administrators introduced they renamed the Pupil Pinnacle Award, which Conrad launched in 2014, to the John Conrad Pupil Pinnacle Award as an acknowledgment for the groundwork Conrad laid serving to design college students and product design professionals within the furnishings discipline. Conrad additionally added the Inexperienced Leaf Award (2016), Maker/Designer Award (2018), and the Dwelling Textiles Print and Woven Awards (2021/2022) classes to encourage extra involvement and recognition within the prestigious Pinnacle Awards.

To additional promote and acknowledge the work {of professional} product designers, Conrad launched the award-winning Design Between the Lines podcast (2016) speaking with actual game-changers, business innovators, and the lifetime legends of the house furnishings Business. It’s right here that the individuals who crafted the furnishings business share their views and perception in regards to the business previous and future.

ISFD Subsequent Management Part

Blair, with greater than 30 years of promoting and promoting expertise working with furnishings firms, furnishings business associations, and designers, will take the helm as government director of ISFD reporting to the board of administrators and managing all features and actions of the group. His first order of enterprise will likely be to supervise the subsequent INNOVATION + DESIGN occasion that’s shifting to spring 2023.

“I’m excited to proceed constructing on the robust basis that John has put in place over the previous decade,” Blair said. “By way of my work, notably with the Excessive Level Market Authority, I gained a deeper appreciation and respect for this business and its optimistic affect on individuals’s lives. I particularly get pleasure from working with individuals who have devoted their skilled lives to creating our properties extra lovely and higher suited to the way in which we stay.”

To that Conrad added, “David’s expertise within the advertising and marketing and promoting fields alongside along with his in-depth information of the furnishings business suits with the board’s targets to carry higher consciousness to ISFD each in and outdoors of our business.” Blair mentioned that he’s wanting ahead to persevering with to develop the participation in the important thing ISFD occasions and plans to extend the ISFD membership by making extra individuals conscious of the group and its beneficial advantages.

 “Over the previous 48 years this business and the individuals in it have supplied me with many unforgettable alternatives and I’ve been blessed to have been in a position to assist others with alternatives to construct their careers alongside the way in which,” Conrad concluded.  “In my retirement life I look ahead to touring, spending extra time with my household and persevering with to spend time consulting, podcasting, and doing the voice over and video manufacturing work that I so get pleasure from.” 

About ISFD

 The Worldwide Society of Furnishings Designers (ISFD) is an affiliation advocating for excellent design and the furnishings designers whose creativity drives the business’s engine. They search to raise the function of design and designer via the group’s podcast Design Between the Strains, networking, mentorship, {and professional} improvement alternatives, and constantly promote, advance, and help the career of furnishings design and its optimistic affect.

With skilled and scholar members around the globe and throughout the  nation,  their  various skilled membership makes a speciality of residential and contract furnishings and equipment. Extra details about ISFD and their awards packages, please go to their web site, ISFD.org.