As a partner in the design firm Avi Adler, David Stark created boundary-pushing events for clients like Target and the Robin Hood Foundation. Since the partners split earlier this year, Stark is working under his own name, using an art school approach to every detail from invitations to napkin folds.
What made you decide to go out on your own?
I think it's just the love of the business and the projects that I work on. Avi and I made a decision that it was best for us both to explore our own directions. And there was absolutely no question in my mind about "Would I go work for somebody else, or would I just continue doing what I already had been doing?" And so it wasn't so much a decision; it was just a natural continuation.
What do you think that you'll do differently now?
We're going to be involved in many more projects where we're looped in more from the beginning. For our corporate clients that means that when they're trying to invent marketing ideas—original, innovative ideas that are both press-worthy and drive traffic to their business—we're getting more invitations to be part of the initial stages and help them define what their goals are, help them to invent ideas.
How does that different process affect what you ultimately create for them?
It's a much more complete experience. A lot of party planning is merely reactive. Somebody comes to you and says, "We're planning a party at XYZ location on September 12. We'd like you to plan and design that." When we're involved in the beginning stages, we're actually involved in inventing whether there actually should be an event. And is that event for the public? Is that event for an influencer market? Is this for editors? Is it a stunt and not a party at all? Is it a guerrilla marketing campaign? I think that being involved in the initial stages of that is just much more of a full experience for the client, and they see us not so much as a vendor but they see us as a partner in what they ultimately are looking to do.
That has to influence what you design, when you really understand what the goals are.
Absolutely. I always think about starting out as a painter. If I think back to when I was working in my studio, you don't go to the studio in the morning and say, "Today, I'm going to paint a masterpiece." You think about things how you think about things. And you push yourself in the way that you push yourself. And to me the important thing about what my company does is to come up with ideas and to push the boundaries of what people have seen before. That's something that in my former incarnation we were known for and were very good at from the decor standpoint, but I recognize more that you can apply the same kind of innovative thinking that we always give to the decor to the whole experience.
How do you continue to push boundaries?
I run the company almost like it's art school. It's like I'm giving an assignment to the group, an art project; and then everybody goes, thinks about it, brainstorms, comes back to the table. And I do the same thing. I function as one of the members of the team, where we put our ideas up on the wall, we have a critique. We ask ourselves, how can we push this even further? How do we make it different? And a lot of it also is "What have we done before?" As an artist, I don't want to make the same painting again and again and again. That would be super boring. So if we've already made an installation of 10,000 tin cans with holes drilled into them like we did for the Walker Arts Center, I don't want to do that again. And it's primarily because as art-making goes I already feel like I've lived through that idea and understand what I could get out of it, but also for our clients we're creating signature things for them that have to be specific to them. And once it's been done, it's not like I can take that idea and give it to MoMA. I want MoMA to have something that's specific to them too.
And one of the reasons why our clients are coming to us more for the idea process at the beginning of their programs is that the way we think about all this stuff is so conceptual that it's really about figuring out who is the client, what are their core values, and what are their goals in their programming? And then how do we create things around them?
How do you get as much as you can from your team?
One of the things that keeps the whole formula fresh is the constant change of projects. Also that's the role that I play as the art director of it all. I am the pusher. I want people to expand their boundaries. I want it to be a fulfilling experience as a team of artists and designers. It's a lot of discipline and it takes a lot of rigor to say to yourself, "You know, that's nice, but we've done that before."
Sometimes clients will say to us, "We want you to make this thing that we saw." And we have to say to them, "You know what? We made that for this company. You're going to have many of the same guests. It's already lived its life." The thing that's oftentimes hard with clients is that sometimes you deal with people that are not visual in any way. And so they want it to be a J. Crew catalog from which to choose from. They look at a portfolio and they think, "I can pick Centerpiece Style A and match that with Stage Decor D and I will know exactly what I'm getting. And I can feel comfortable with that." And they can sell that up to other people that they need to report to. That is definitely something that exists out there, but we're not the best company for that.
So how do you sell them on a new idea?
A lot of it is trust. I'll be very straightforward. I'll tell them from the onset, "Look, we're gonna come up with wacky ideas, and you may not understand what they are. And we can make drawings and we can show you swatches of things. And it's still gonna be a wacky idea. And it may be difficult for you to sell it. But I'll show you all of these pictures from other events, and these all came from the same seed. And they didn't understand it either, but they trusted that it was going to be great in the end." People hire us because they want an experience that's different from the cookie cutter experience.
Your new book focuses on napkin folding. Where did you get that idea?
For clients and for the general public the whole idea of planning a party and an event can be an overwhelming process. They don't know where to start. So what I like is giving them a little anchor, a starting point from which they can make other decisions. The book is a little bit of a window into the whole world of tabletop design and other kinds of party planning ideas. There are lots of different folds that are modernized versions of classics that we've tweaked.
I like the idea of having a narrow confine of the project you're working on. For this project, the goal was very small. How do you come up with interesting things to do with a 20-inch square piece of cloth?
It's a good thing to remember for somebody who can't afford to spend thousands and thousands of dollars on decor.
That's what's great about the napkin. Everybody has one. What you do with them is all about invention.
—Chad Kaydo
Posted 03.01.06
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Top 10 Designers: Avi Adler and David Stark
What made you decide to go out on your own?
I think it's just the love of the business and the projects that I work on. Avi and I made a decision that it was best for us both to explore our own directions. And there was absolutely no question in my mind about "Would I go work for somebody else, or would I just continue doing what I already had been doing?" And so it wasn't so much a decision; it was just a natural continuation.
What do you think that you'll do differently now?
We're going to be involved in many more projects where we're looped in more from the beginning. For our corporate clients that means that when they're trying to invent marketing ideas—original, innovative ideas that are both press-worthy and drive traffic to their business—we're getting more invitations to be part of the initial stages and help them define what their goals are, help them to invent ideas.
How does that different process affect what you ultimately create for them?
It's a much more complete experience. A lot of party planning is merely reactive. Somebody comes to you and says, "We're planning a party at XYZ location on September 12. We'd like you to plan and design that." When we're involved in the beginning stages, we're actually involved in inventing whether there actually should be an event. And is that event for the public? Is that event for an influencer market? Is this for editors? Is it a stunt and not a party at all? Is it a guerrilla marketing campaign? I think that being involved in the initial stages of that is just much more of a full experience for the client, and they see us not so much as a vendor but they see us as a partner in what they ultimately are looking to do.
That has to influence what you design, when you really understand what the goals are.
Absolutely. I always think about starting out as a painter. If I think back to when I was working in my studio, you don't go to the studio in the morning and say, "Today, I'm going to paint a masterpiece." You think about things how you think about things. And you push yourself in the way that you push yourself. And to me the important thing about what my company does is to come up with ideas and to push the boundaries of what people have seen before. That's something that in my former incarnation we were known for and were very good at from the decor standpoint, but I recognize more that you can apply the same kind of innovative thinking that we always give to the decor to the whole experience.
How do you continue to push boundaries?
I run the company almost like it's art school. It's like I'm giving an assignment to the group, an art project; and then everybody goes, thinks about it, brainstorms, comes back to the table. And I do the same thing. I function as one of the members of the team, where we put our ideas up on the wall, we have a critique. We ask ourselves, how can we push this even further? How do we make it different? And a lot of it also is "What have we done before?" As an artist, I don't want to make the same painting again and again and again. That would be super boring. So if we've already made an installation of 10,000 tin cans with holes drilled into them like we did for the Walker Arts Center, I don't want to do that again. And it's primarily because as art-making goes I already feel like I've lived through that idea and understand what I could get out of it, but also for our clients we're creating signature things for them that have to be specific to them. And once it's been done, it's not like I can take that idea and give it to MoMA. I want MoMA to have something that's specific to them too.
And one of the reasons why our clients are coming to us more for the idea process at the beginning of their programs is that the way we think about all this stuff is so conceptual that it's really about figuring out who is the client, what are their core values, and what are their goals in their programming? And then how do we create things around them?
How do you get as much as you can from your team?
One of the things that keeps the whole formula fresh is the constant change of projects. Also that's the role that I play as the art director of it all. I am the pusher. I want people to expand their boundaries. I want it to be a fulfilling experience as a team of artists and designers. It's a lot of discipline and it takes a lot of rigor to say to yourself, "You know, that's nice, but we've done that before."
Sometimes clients will say to us, "We want you to make this thing that we saw." And we have to say to them, "You know what? We made that for this company. You're going to have many of the same guests. It's already lived its life." The thing that's oftentimes hard with clients is that sometimes you deal with people that are not visual in any way. And so they want it to be a J. Crew catalog from which to choose from. They look at a portfolio and they think, "I can pick Centerpiece Style A and match that with Stage Decor D and I will know exactly what I'm getting. And I can feel comfortable with that." And they can sell that up to other people that they need to report to. That is definitely something that exists out there, but we're not the best company for that.
So how do you sell them on a new idea?
A lot of it is trust. I'll be very straightforward. I'll tell them from the onset, "Look, we're gonna come up with wacky ideas, and you may not understand what they are. And we can make drawings and we can show you swatches of things. And it's still gonna be a wacky idea. And it may be difficult for you to sell it. But I'll show you all of these pictures from other events, and these all came from the same seed. And they didn't understand it either, but they trusted that it was going to be great in the end." People hire us because they want an experience that's different from the cookie cutter experience.
Your new book focuses on napkin folding. Where did you get that idea?
For clients and for the general public the whole idea of planning a party and an event can be an overwhelming process. They don't know where to start. So what I like is giving them a little anchor, a starting point from which they can make other decisions. The book is a little bit of a window into the whole world of tabletop design and other kinds of party planning ideas. There are lots of different folds that are modernized versions of classics that we've tweaked.
I like the idea of having a narrow confine of the project you're working on. For this project, the goal was very small. How do you come up with interesting things to do with a 20-inch square piece of cloth?
It's a good thing to remember for somebody who can't afford to spend thousands and thousands of dollars on decor.
That's what's great about the napkin. Everybody has one. What you do with them is all about invention.
—Chad Kaydo
Posted 03.01.06
Related Stories
Love Letters Give Opera Opening Romantic Look
Festival Party Decor: As Seen on TV
Target Embraces Old South for Collection Launch
Robin Hood Looks Like Alphabet Soup, Vegas-Style
EW Party Offers Sweet Sponsorship Deals
Turner Upfront Has Eagles, Natural Touches
Top 10 Designers: Avi Adler and David Stark
