I first heard Todd Bracher's name when he won the title of 'Best New Designer' at ICFF this year. The title is a bit misleading, however, as he has quite a lot of success and experience under his belt already. His clients include Fritz Hansen, Zanotta, Georg Jensen, and Tom Dixon. Read on to find out how this native New Yorker took his design career to Europe and back.
www.toddbracher.net



So how did your design career begin?

I went to Pratt for industrial design, and graduated in '96 with a bachelor's. After that I was doing barbecue tools and remote-control caddies and spice racks. Middle America stuff. It didn't suit me; it just wasn't at all what I wanted out of design. I was working for this company, scratching my head, and questioning what I was doing there.

Before this product design company, I worked for Mark Goetz, who is now a good friend of mine. I learned about furniture design in his studio. I learned that there's a poetry to it. There's a kind of spirit and a soul which the work I was doing for this product company didn't have. I wanted to get in on that. And it was happening abroad. The Milan furniture fair is where it's at. For furniture, but also for other types of design. It's kind of the world series for design. I went to Milan to check it out.

If you're a designer, that's where you have to be. Even if you're making lampshades or chopsticks. You need to go to this show. It's mainly furniture and lighting, but also a lot of objects. I saw the show, fell in love with it, and realized this is what I wanted. It was like... I keep using this baseball reference. If you want to play baseball, you can't really live in the Czech Republic. You have to be in the States or in Cuba or in Japan. You can't be in the middle of nowhere. And New York felt to me like the middle of nowhere, so I left to where the action was. Which to me is Denmark and Italy and France. Within a couple of years, I got a Fulbright grant to go study for my masters in Copenhagen.

What then?

I knew that I wanted to work for Zanotta. They are the legends of Italian design and that's what I wanted to be part of. So I focused on them. I called them when I was in Copenhagen and said, "I want to make designs for you." And they said, "That's fine, but so do 300 other people every week. But send us some ideas." So I put together a presentation, sent it to them, and they really liked it. I thought, "That was easy!"

They made a prototype, but then they decided there was no way they could sell it, so that was the last I heard from them.



What was the piece?

It's this table, just a frame with a surface. It's a very conceptual cafe dining table. It's like a room within a room. It was a new idea, and that's what they liked. It was what they called a "new typology." And that is the secret of getting in. If you're just making a new shape, then they don't care. They have a million people who can do that. But if you're offering them something new, that they can make money with, that's when you're in. I realized they were responding to this table because it was a novel idea. It wasn't just more of what they already do.

What happened after grad school?

I moved to Milan in January of 2001, to accelerate getting into the industry. It's where the factories, the materials, and the people are. I called Zanotta all the time, asking "Can I come in for a meeting? I have all these ideas to show you." And they, of course, didn't remember me and would always say no. I kept calling and calling. Finally, in the first week of September, I got through. They told me to come in the next week and show them my stuff. It was great. But I had nothing prepared, at all. So I then had a week to design everything. I worked my ass off.

September 11th happened on that Tuesday. After that, who cares about design? The next day was my meeting. I remember, going into the meeting, that everyone was a little depressed and a little bored with design. It was very awkward.

I showed them my 10 designs. They literally loved them all. Then at the end of the meeting, they said, "We really like it, but we're not so sure... We get a lot of proposals... You're kind of young, you're American... But we'll call you if we're interested." And I thought, well that's okay. I left the office and I walked across the street and I was waiting for the bus, when they phoned. They were laughing, and they said, "Send us the drawings tomorrow." They were really having a laugh with me. It was pretty cool.



That was the Freud sofa. It's asymmetrical and thin, which was brand new at the time. That's why it happened. Once again, creating a new typology is the secret. That's one thing that nobody tells you.

Mark Goetz has a brilliant analogy. Say you look in the shop windows, like Capellini or Vitra, and go home and design something in the same spirit and the same language. Mark says that's like looking up at the stars in the sky. The actual light you're seeing left the stars a long, long time ago and isn't there anymore; the stars have moved and changed and maybe burnt out. So if you're designing based upon what you're seeing now, you've already missed the boat. You need to be ahead of that curve.

What do you consider your biggest success so far?

The Fritz Hansen conference table. It's turned out to be their most successful piece in 50 years. It was a scary process, because you invest a lot of money, and four years of work, and if it fails, you go out of business. It was a gamble, but it was definitely worth it. I'm really proud of it.



Have you found that designing such a successful piece has opened up a lot of doors to you?

You know, I'm really quick to say not at all. But I think the truth is, it must. It's just not that visible.

The main benefit is that people gain a little more faith in you. They see that another company invested in you. Fritz Hansen spent millions of dollars on developing and promoting the table. Other companies will see that success and will not be so afraid to invest as well. It helps. For sure. But have I ever just gotten phone calls from somebody offering me a great job? No. You have to fight for everything.

How do you seek out new clients?

I'll cold call and I'll pitch work. If I really want to design pots and pans, I'll design pots and pans for a week. I'll put it all together and show it with my portfolio. Usually, 9 times out of 10, they say, "We absolutely love them, though there's no way we'll make them. But here's a design brief." And then you do that job, and you're in.

Or, if you really love a company, you can study them and see what they need. Then you can make an approach and submit a proposal.

The secret to this whole business is, if they can make money with your design, they'll do it. It's not going to be because they like you. It's because they'll make money. If you have a smart approach for them, they'll listen to it.



How does the business end work with your manufacturers? Are they all royalty agreements?

It depends. Some pay small fees up front. If I were to generalize, everything is on a royalty basis, and then the percentage varies from company to company. Certain smaller companies can't afford to pay as much, so maybe I'll take a smaller royalty percentage but I'll ask for a percentage of their company. The percentage might be very small, it might be 1 or 2 percent.

That's really interesting. I'd never even thought of a designer getting equity in a company.

It's a good way to do it because it's an investment on both sides. I'm saying, "Listen, keep the money in your pocket. I have faith in your company and I want to grow with you. Let's make it successful." It ensures both that you have an interest in the company, and they have an interest in you. It creates a long relationship.

A problem I have with this business is that you're usually hired as a guest. You design for a manufacturer for a year, and then they say goodbye and bring in somebody else. I don't understand that. When you finish a project, you know the company pretty well. You know everyone there and you understand how they work. And they know the same about you. That's the point where we could really take this company somewhere. When you have a little bit of equity, then they're willing to spend more time with you.

Where do you see your studio heading?

In my mind, we'd be doing three to five really good projects a year. And maybe two experimental ones, which we're not really sure where they're going to go. That's what I want out of it. I think that small architecture is going to take hold and become a permanent arm of the company, which I like.




How did you get into small architecture?

When I was living in Milan, I shared an office with an architect. We ended up doing a lot of projects together. That gave me a lot of confidence and an understanding that it's actually just design, in a different way. Not even in a different way, in a lot of cases. I was making furniture. For me, furniture is an extension of architecture. You start realizing that there's another layer of design you're not exploring. That's why I'm doing these projects. I did a building in Tokyo for Tom Dixon, and that was fun. It explores a lot of the same ideas I have in design.

That's definitely inspiring, as we want to get into larger work in our studio. We've been close to designing an interior and it seems to have completely fallen on its face, which is disappointing.

Oh, they're always going to fall on their face. Maybe 75% of projects go out the window. Which is fine, as long as you're getting paid well for the other 25%. For some reason, clients, lousy ones, don't understand that you need to get paid for what you do. There's a value to what you do, and there's a massive expense that goes into what you do. A lot of the lousy ones think you just make sketches and that's it. I think the hardest part is to prove your value. You have to stand up for yourself. It's really hard to work when you're not being paid for your time.

How do you convince clients to pay you up-front?

If a job is paying you, then you have the resources to do it well. If you're not being paid for it, then you kind of skim through it and the job's maybe not as good as it should have been. That's the reason why clients should invest in your time. Maybe $2,000 is all you need up-front to get the job done well. You should ask for that. If you can get them to pay a fee, fine. But I think getting an advance on royalties is most fair. I often hear, "Well, we don't pay our other designers." And I say, "Then work with them." They'll grudgingly give me the two grand. And then I have the money to do a proper job. Clients usually don't get that this is what determines you doing a decent job. Who has a bunch of free time laying around to just come up with furniture?

And of course, once they invest in you, you have to do a really good job. Designers who think it's easy and take a nonchalant approach and don't show the same respect to companies, are the ones who give designers a bad name.

I feel like that's the designer stereotype.

It's a partnership between you and the manufacturer. You're making something for them. That's the way I see it. Of course, many people don't.

You've moved from furniture to bigger scale works. Do you also do smaller pieces? What's your spectrum?

Yes. Absolutely anything. I've done some jewelry and I do a lot of tabletop stuff. I've designed a scent, which is in the works. I like doing stuff which is not conventional. How many tables are you going to do? I'd rather mix it up and design a boat and design a birthday cake and design whatever I can.



Do you have any advice for young designers starting out?

- If you're going to work with a new company, go to their factory as soon as you can. Most people don't think to do that. They just start sketching. Go to the factory, learn what's going on, talk to the guys in the factory, and see what's up. Right away, you'll learn something about what's possible. You're working for the machines. And get to know the people there, because those are the people who are going to be making your stuff. You need to have a relationship with them.

- Get out there and get to know as many people as you can. Sooner or later, these people will work their way up in business. It's really important to meet a lot of people. I think a lot of young designers don't that. They tend to stick to themselves.

- Stick to what you're good at. Don't expect to be a brilliant business person overnight. And the lawyer, and the accountant, and accounts payable and accounts receiving... It's too much to take on as an individual. Take small steps, in the direction you want. It's your company. Things can quickly start to go in a direction that you didn't want them to go in. Contracts, and terms, and taxes, all that stuff is part of your business and you're going to have to deal with it, but I wouldn't make it a bigger deal than it is. Bring in people who are specialists and who are good at it. The longer you're in it, the easier it gets, because you know more and more people.

We've found that the deeper you get into the business end of things, the harder it is to put everything aside and get back to the creative place where great design happens.

Honestly, I think that's an exceptional challenge that creative businesses have. I spend maybe 80% of my days doing reports, papers, emails, nonsense. Maybe as my business grows I can afford to hand more of that off to other people. Then again, the best business people that I've ever met are really creative. They have a beautiful way to look at business. You can do that too. You shouldn't run a design studio like you were running a supermarket. I don't think I run my business conventionally, but it's working.