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Kristen Detton standing outside holding a length of printed fabric as it blows in the breeze.

Int’l Women’s Day Spotlight: Kristen Dettoni

This International Women’s Day, we thought we’d turn the spotlight on our founder, Kristen Dettoni, to help you get to know her a little better. What motivated her to launch Design Pool? What’s it like running a start-up?

When Kristen was in the first grade, she played Susan B. Anthony in a school play and decided she wanted to be the first woman president. However, as she got older, her interests leaned more toward the arts than public policy. After college and graduate school, she began her career as a designer in the textile industry. Instead of the Oval Office, she set her sights on the corner office.

As Kristen progressed through her career, she realized her dream wasn’t to be the president of someone else’s company. She wanted to start her own. Fast forward to 2019, and Kristen launched Design Pool. Her corner office is now a warm and light-filled studio in southern New Hampshire.

Kristen Dettoni sitting on step outside fibers building at Snow Farm Craft.
Photo credit: Erin Long Photography

Design Pool is the perfect marriage of Kristen’s love for the artistry of fiber art and the industry of textile design. Its mission is to make on-demand production easy and accessible for commercial interior designers, similar to how Spoonflower made it accessible for crafters and home sewers. She envisions this technology opening up new opportunities for creativity and changing how interior designers source materials in the future.

Yet, on-demand manufacturing is about more than just getting what you want when you want it.

Kristen sees on-demand manufacturing as the future of material sourcing. As consumers have become more aware of what it takes to get a product made and to their door, they’re demanding more sustainable ways of doing it. Instead of manufacturing items to put into inventory and hoping they sell, manufacturing products on-demand cuts down on waste and sends less to the landfill. It also gives infinitely more options and opportunities to customize projects. Unlimited options can be overwhelming, though. That’s where Design Pool steps in. We help connect interior designers to both beautiful designs and reliable printers.

Getting a start-up off the ground is an all-consuming job.

Kristen Dettoni admits she’s thinking about her business 24/7. It can be exhausting but also exhilarating. “I only have to please myself, so I finally get to push the limits of designs.” She looks back at some of her recent collections, such as The Cryptology Collection, and knows that idea probably wouldn’t have come to fruition in a traditional design studio. With Design Pool, she finally gets to build the kind of design studio and company she has always wanted to work in.

It can be challenging, but it can be helpful to look toward trailblazing women for inspiration. “Forget conventionalisms,” Susan B. Anthony once said, “forget what the world thinks of you stepping out of your place; think your best thoughts, speak your best words, work your best works, looking to your own conscience for approval.”

Photo credit header image: Brittanny Taylor

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Author

Kristin Crane

Kristin Crane has designed jacquard designs for the home furnishing and residential jobber market for many years, with mills in the US and in China. Today, she writes about pattern and design trends for Design Pool from her home in Providence, Rhode Island. When not writing about fabric, she can be found weaving in her home studio or hiking along the Rhode Island coast.

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