INTERVIEWS
Garry Cohn
Garry Cohn has more than 20 years experience in hotel, retail, commercial and residential design . He once led his own design company in New York City and was a design professor at the Fashion Institute of Technology. Until recently, he worked as Creative Director for Douglas Wallace in Dublin. His design work at the Cliff House Hotel in Ardmore, Co. Waterford was highly commended in the 2008 IDI design awards. He has recently been nominated, along with his design team, for the 2009 Andrew Martin Interior Designer of the Year Award, for the Style Club Salon on South William Street in Dublin.
Where did you graduate from? And when?
I graduated from the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City with a Bachelor's Degree in Interior Design in 1986.
You've worked all over the world and have many years experience as a designer. Where would be your ideal city to live in and design in?
Well, I have not tried all the cities as yet to see which one is the most ideal to live in, but I would say that there are a couple of cities that I have lived in or visited that just evoke creativity. The formula I found for a living creative city for me needs to have the following:
- Primarily a pedestrian city where people really walk, ride bikes, roller skate and/or use public transportation. Cars do exist within the makeup of the city, but they are not the main focus or the heart of the city. The people and the interaction of the people are what make the personality of the city.
- A bold culture that is very proud of who they are and where they have come from, yet at the same time they are open-minded to new ideas for changes in its development. They also have a way of bringing the past, present and future together in order to create a unique style.
- Art in all forms is appreciated as an important part of the city fabric, with the same standing as any other profession in the city.
- The city needs to be a bit gritty and not too perfect. It has its problems and there are conflicting options on issues, but they are resolvable. The people are able to live together, but they don't have to agree with each other. This shows that they don't have to like everything that is given to them and that they are able to have their own opinions.
- The city needs to be a living city that people live , work and play in. It's not just a place for commerce and becomes a ghost town after 5 o'clock or after the shops close. The city is constantly living and breathing its culture.
- Some of the cities that I have been impressed with for creativity have been London, Dublin, New York, Paris and Milan. I am sure there are a lot more, but I have not visited as them yet!
Can you tell us about your current projects?
I cannot say much about it at the moment, but what I can say is that I am working on another hotel and this time it's in England.
What was your first big break?
My first big break was when I just started my first company in New York City and I landed a job to design the Escada Laurel showroom. It was a dream project for a new company because it was the floor of a mid 1950s high rise building right in mid-town Manhattan. The concept was very young, yet sophisticated and I decided to give the feel of entering a fashion photographer's studio and have the backdrop be the cityscape. This was perfect because it was a bit raw, yet stylish and the clothes became the accents and the colour in the space.
What has been your biggest design mistake to date?
Oh I wish I could tell you a funny story, but I don't have any real disaster stories to tell you. Keep in mind that there are mistakes made on every project and I have made my fair share of them and if any designer denies this, they are a liar. But it's these small or large mistakes that help to train you to be more innovative in your design and to let your project evolve as it goes along.
What has been your greatest design achievement to date?
I am so proud that I was nominated along with the design team for the 2009 Andrew Martin Interior Designer of the Year award for the Style Club. At this time they have not released the winner of the competition, but my work will be publised in the "Andrew Martin Interior Design Review", 2009, volume 13. This is such a big deal for me because of all the long hours and dedication that I contributed on this project and not to mention that it was a f***ing fun project to work on. I broke all the rules and created new ones while designing this project.
What has been your biggest business mistake to date?
Biggest mistake I made was doing work and not paying myself. You sometimes think that when there is a client that you have been trying to do work for and if you charge them a low price, they would be happy with you and give you more work. This is not true at all. I did a job for "Company X" and I worked out that if I just charged them for the materials and not labour, I would possibly get more work. What I unconsciously did was send a message to the client that I was not worth my own time and as a result they did not respect my time either. The amount of changes and hours added up and so did my temper (behind closed doors). It was a good lesson, respect yourself the way you want others to respect you.
What has been your greatest business achievement to date?
Believe it or not it is starting over again. Long story short, I went through a business partner breakup with my first company and it was not easy letting go of something you worked that hard to create. It can leave some deep emotional scars with you, but you soon get over feeling sorry for yourself. What is a bigger achievement is, when the time is right for you to pick up the pieces, get back on your feet and start again. It's much easier to complain and compare war stories with your friends than it is to take control over your life and start anew.
What has been your greatest business challenge to date?
Well, after the closing of Douglas Wallace, that's the company that I was working for here in Ireland, it seemed that I came to a crossroads in my life. What next? I got a lot of support from friends and family to start my own company for the second time. The decision became so easy that I just started thinking about myself as a business and the projects just started to flow. This was a big deal because it gave me the opportunity to reinvent myself in any way that I want.
To what factors do you attribute your success?
I have to say that I do have a gift in design and I don't know where it comes from. I just know how to put the pieces together and I am very thankful that I have this gift. What I do know is when you share your talents with others you can keep evolving. New ideas arise and old ideas can become reinvented. I am never to big or too good to work with someone to create a design. You share your talents with others and it will come back to you twofold.
What do you think about the current state of interior architecture / interior design in Ireland?
I think that we are on the verge of a new design forefront. The recession will give a break in the design world and let it reinvent itself. We have this great opportunity to do whatever we want and create a new design style. Think about when the new entrepreneurs in the years ahead of us start asking for new designs, they are going to want to make their own mark in the world that is a departure from the turn of the 21st century. Yes, it's not easy at the current time when you just want to put food on the table or work in the field that you spent so many years studying and working hard to get your degree in. If we can look beyond this slump, the industry will pick up and you will have great opportunities in our hands, but we need to start now, when the industry is being reinvented.
