Episode 452: Jackie Von Tobel

Million Dollar Decorating

[/spp-transcript]Jackie von Tobel has excelled in many varied avenues of design including her interior design firm Plush Home, three groundbreaking design books, over 25 product licensing partnerships, The Jackie Von Tobel Home Collection, and her educational platform for the design industry, Soft Design Lab. She has created a one of a kind combination of recognized expertise, key industry relationships and established media platforms that position her as a leading designer, product developer, educator, authority, trend setter, and advocate for the interior design industry. Jackie’s unrelenting passion for the creative process has armed her with a set of creative skills that is unparalleled in the industry. These include fine artist, illustrator, interior designer, product designer, master seamstress, faux finisher and decorative painter. Along with these traditional skills Jackie is also adept at Photoshop, working in layers, and providing production ready artwork, product mock ups and design layouts to her manufacturing partners. Jackie is hands on in all of her design endeavors with the perfect mix of artistic ability and production savvy that makes for a stress free creative collaboration for her partners. Books During her many years providing turnkey, high end, interior design services through her firm Plush Home Jackie developed a reputation for her award winning, innovative soft furnishing designs. This led to her writing and illustrating her first book, a 560 page 3000 illustration treatise on window treatment design and construction for Gibbs Smith Publishing, The Design Directory of Window Treatments, in 2007. It quickly became the industries go to reference for designers and workrooms alike, earning it the nickname “the bible” in the soft furnishing industry. In the next three years Jackie followed up her initial offering with The Design Directory of Bedding and the Slipcovers Home Idea Book creating a trifecta of knowledge and inspiration for the design industry. Software Following the success of her books within the design community Jackie entered into a first of its kind licensing agreement with Minutes Matter & Studio to integrate all of her designs from her first two books into their graphic design software program Studio. Designers now had a hard copy reference guide backed up with those same designs readily available in customizable software to produce dynamic presentations for their clients. This combination of JVT designs and applications quickly led to Jackie becoming one of the industries foremost authorities on Soft Treatment design and construction. The Jackie Von Tobel Collection Building on the popularity of her books and software integration Jackie was approached to design a signature collection of digitally printed fabrics for Adaptive Textiles. While developing this collection Jackie perfected her artistic process working with pen and ink, watercolor, and gouache to produce a loose painterly style that has become her signature. The Jackie Von Tobel Collection contains over 100 SKU’s and offers fabric by the yard, pillows and art prints on canvas. Licensing Jackie closed her design firm Plush Home in 2009 to concentrate solely on building her skills and preparing to enter the licensing industry full time. Jackie hit the ground running, exhibiting at SURTEX in 2010, and built a diverse selection of licensors in multiple product categories including fabric, gift, tabletop, housewares, home décor, holiday and garden. Her signature line of innovative drapery hardware for Helser Brothers, Inc. won a trifecta of design awards in 2014 including a Gold ADEX award, IWCE Best New Product of 2013 award and ASID Best New Product 2014. Education Widely regarded as one of the leading experts in the soft furnishings industry Jackie has a passion for sharing her knowledge and expertise. She has built a large following through her CEU seminars, trade show appearances,