THOUGHTS ON MY RECENT TRIP TO EUROPE
As most of you know, I spent the better part of May in Europe. SEE PHOTO I don't go often, since other people do the buying, but I do it to recharge my batteries. I thought you might want to know why.
Europe and America are not in competition in my book. They just have separate strengths. And when I'm too long in one, I long for the other.
For me, Europe represents a grace and quality of life that we lost here long ago. Close knit family communities seem stronger there, where no-one transfers to another state for a job. They just wouldn't think of it. Three generations not only live less than a mile from one another, they often work and dine together. On Friday nights, baby sitters aren't hired to give the parents a little freedom . . . everyone goes out together. Long tables of laughing, talking extended families sharing life, at a pace that takes some slowing down to get used to. Whole towns stroll before dinner and everyone knows everyone. My Northern European ancestors lived behind hedge rows and stone walls, and some how our fenced in back yards adopted the wrong European model. Mediterranean Europe lives out front, where they can talk and share the joys of life.
I didn't see one shopping mall or mega retailer the whole time. In Europe, cities still work, small shops abound, staffed by the people who own it. Local ownership and a personal knowledge of all your customer/neighbors seems to add a pride to appearance of even the most minor details.
This gracious focus on the quality of life seem to manifest itself foremost in food and architecture.
Dining is more than minimal sustenance. While fast food does exist in Europe, drive thru's are rare. Young people still sit in street side cafe's lingering, even if it's over a big mac, talking with all their friends who frequent the same place. No swallowing something in one gulp just to keep your stomach quiet. During one early morning drive, I stopped at a highway rest stop for coffee, and found contractors, clearly regulars, taking their time over china cups and saucers, having a more serene morning than I ever do.
Architecture has been said to be a confidence in future generations. If you need to cross a river once, you swim or take a boat. You only build a bridge if you think you need to cross it regularly. You build a stone and steel wonder like the Brooklyn Bridge if you are reasonable sure people will be crossing that river for the next century. In Europe, where history runs long, and the link between generations can be seen around each dining table, the worth of building for your successors is obvious. Your time horizon is expanded until building for the next millennium seems logical. This, in part, explains the great use of tile and stone, which out live the original builder, as opposed to our public buildings done on budget for quick profit.
It also helps explain its appeal to us. Tomorrow, when I hastily check out of my hotel, and rush off to my first sales call with a Styrofoam cup balanced on my knee, and a doughnut between my teeth, forgive me if, for a moment, I dream of Italy . . .
I recently went on a residential job complaint call that was very
instructive, and I thought I would share what happened. 
Everyone had done their homework right, and the client had a beautiful 700 sf of limestone in their home. The problem was rooted in the expectations of the home owner, not the reality of the product. I came away thinking this guy was not a natural stone person. What he is, is a surgeon, used to control environments, like his operating room. Everything about his life is spotless, uniform, and just as he commands it. This is not the kind of guy to own a dog. Nothing was laying out on a counter. No clothes lay across the back of a chair. No papers, books or magazines. You could do a triple bypass there.
In my job, I have been to a few such complaints in the past 10 years, and most of them involved the same personality type. Of course we have had real product problems. But more often, we have suffered an incompatibility between what natural stone can offer, and what a client expects.
How can one determine who is a natural stone customer?
Certainly there were other notable color stories at ITSE '96 in Miami Beach this year, but yellow made a bold statement. Whether it was present in the vast offering of stone in a rich, warm, honey gold, such as the Cotswold Stone, or in the mediterranean influence decorative tiles in its bright sunny form, yellow claimed its place in solids and accents.
Yellow is the warmest and happiest of colors. It is such a popular color that it shows up second only to white in today's kitchens. It adds excitement to new color combinations such as a hot new European color combination of yellow, green and violet. Classic Blue and yellow combine in ancient Moorish patterns as seen in tiles from Spain and Portugal, as well as country fresh motifs with decoratives of daisies, roosters and sunflowers.
Stone mosaics were abundant in repeating patterns and murals. Creamy yellow limestones and travertines offer a warm neutral background to the richly colored mosaics, including the new river stones, giving even more texture to the overall appearance.
The popularity of yellow seen in tile and stone will offer a compliment to today's brightly colored fabrics and wallpapers, rattan furniture and sisal rugs. Let yellow shine bright to create a warm inviting environment.
COLOR & DESIGN TRENDS is written by Diane Spera, an independent consultant and color design specialist, a past colleague with LATCO, and a friend. This column is a regular feature in THE CHRIS JOHNSON NEWSLETTER, and you are invited to contact Diane directly for color & design services at; IMAGINE COLOR & DESIGN Phone;206-391-8860 Fax;206-392-7645
It doesn't just seem that the restoration of the Parthenon in
Athens will last forever. At present rates, it very nearly will.
Though it has survived earthquakes, fires and bombs since it was
built around 440 B.C., the temple has seen its condition worsen
sharply just in the past year, according to The Observer of London.
Damage to the white Pentelic marble, caused by pollution and acid
rain, is so severe it could outpace restoration work, says Caralambous
Bouras, head of a preservation committee. "At this pace,"
he says, "the restoration will not be finished until the
year 3000." When the project began in 1983 hopes were it
would take 12 years. Experts blame the slippage on mismanagement
and a rapid decline in the number of skilled marble carvers being
employed.
_________________
excerped from The Herald Tribune, which I was reading over lunch during the Carrara Fair.
Like any client,
a big specifier such as United Artists, has trouble imagining
what a design looks like. With LATCO Design Ware, not only can
you lay out a NUANCE design, such as the one shown to the left,
but you can present it to the client in a clear way they can immediately
understand. Some of the larger specifiers then use it to insert
into their own documents, as control over contractor design specifications.
The pattern, shown on the left, was made with 2x2s, 2" triangles (argyles)
and fiddlesticks.For more information; E-mail me!
