COMPANY PROFILE:ACCENTDECOR

摘要

GLOBETROTTING FOR TRENDS Each year, Frank Hofland and daughter Sarah Bagle spend several weeks on the road, attending international markets in Europe and Asia. They also visit factories—less glamorous than viewing finished products at a fair, but important to understanding the process and discovering whafs truly possible and truly original."We'll go to the back rooms where someone's trying to develop a new type of glaze," says Sarah. "My dad's notorious for escaping the guided tour. While I distract them with small talk, he takes off. Vishing the factory is the one of the best ways to gauge quality and see the latest techniques. Ifs also how you can make sure everything's legitimate and that you agree with the way they're running things, how they treat their people."While the creative team at Accent Decor does scan trends and come up with new ideas that they might ask a factory to reproduce, that approach can be frustratingly inefficient, Sarah explains. The reality is that when you start from scratch and try to getfactories to produce exactly what you have in mind—even when you send them detailed specifications and artwork—the results are usually disappointing, because the manufacturers still can't visualize what you are asking for, or maybe can't re-tool thatcompletely.