On a recent visit to North Carolina, I visited the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh to see their exhibit Alphonse Mucha: Art Nouveau Visionary. This exhibit is on display through January 23, 2022. When I lived in North Carolina in the 1990s, this museum was one of my favorite spots to visit for inspiration. In fact, during that time there was an exhibit of Mucha’s work. I loved the show so much, I bought a small poster...
You're invited to join Design Pool at Chocolate Church Arts Center in Bath, Maine for Eight, an art exhibit featuring eight fiber artists from across the country. In this exhibition, each artist has created eight pieces of art, each measuring 8x8. Design Pool's Kristen Dettoni and Kristin Crane are both participating. Kristen Dettoni is showing eight of her needlepunch color studies. Many of the colors she uses in her work contain yarn she naturally dyed. Kristen Dettoni, Color Study...
Don't miss your chance to see (or buy) pieces of art created by Design Pool team members at the Sprinkler Factory. "In Tandem: An exhibition of Counterparts" is currently on display at the Sprinkler Factory in Worcester, Massachusetts, until July 10. The exhibition features the work of 110 regional artists. According to the curators, each artist exhibits "two works of art that are bonded together by material, theme or technique." Our founder, Kristen Dettoni's two pieces are each based...
Artists and designers from across disciplines often have something in common, a daily creative practice. It makes sense. Art takes work, practice, and most of all, time. Whether you make art for your job, your hobby, or your side hustle, the need to create is competing for your time with everything else in your life. Yet, it can be hard to make the time for it. In our fast paced life, it can feel indulgent to spend time not...
If you're not careful, work-from-home life can easily turn into work-all-the-time life. Spending more time at home, have you found yourself working more? At Design Pool, we're definitely guilty of it. That's why we've been so inspired lately by friends giving themselves the time for creativity. We're particularly loving those with a daily creative practice. For many artists, that practice informs their work and brings balance to their lives. It's easy to feel like creative time is indulgent or...
At Design Pool, we like to say that our creative process is client-driven. We do this work because we love to see our designs find their way into a client's product and out into the marketplace. Founder Kristen Dettoni does the majority of the design work for Design Pool and is passionate about creating a beautiful and useful design library. For Kristen, her design process usually starts with a robust market and trend research. She knows that the more information...
2019 has been an exciting year for anyone who appreciates the women of the Bauhaus. Around the world, museums have been installing exhibits that celebrate the 100th anniversary of the opening of the Bauhaus in Weimar, Germany in 1919. From a vast retrospective of Anni Albers at the Tate Modern in London to The Bauhaus and Harvard, a small exhibit at the Harvard Art Museum featuring work from their extensive Bauhaus collection, enthusiasts are once again shining a light...
Georgia O’Keeffe first visited New Mexico in 1917 and said later, “From then on, I was always trying to get back there.” New Mexico can have that effect on people. The big sky, the clear air, the piñon trees dotting the landscape, it’s no wonder so many artists flock to New Mexico. And then keep returning. When Design Pool founder Kristen Dettoni needed a creative escape to unplug and be inspired, she came across an Ace Camps trip to study Navajo tapestry...
Design Pool is excited to let you know about a volunteer project we are working on to create textile reproductions for Museum L-A in Lewiston, Maine. Museum L-A was founded to tell the story of the textile mill workers who had once worked in the Bates Mill in Lewiston, which ceased production in 2001. Their mission reads that it “connects generations and cultures, fosters a spirit of discovery and human ingenuity, and helps people experience the rich history and...