Bill Grant, principal of Grant Design Collaborative, creative force behind Set Wallcovering Systems and current president of AIGA, is a man who has looked at design though a kaleidoscope and seen the multitude of ways designers can implement their thinking in previously unthought-of areas. With his broad vision, Grant has set himself a place at the head of the product development table with his clients - and not just by achieving success with a new line of wallcovering products his firm designed. He has changed the face of an entire product sector while pushing himself and his firm into new and exciting territories.

So how does a design firm shift so successfully and immediately from brochures and showrooms to product design and distribution? Grant’s answer is having years of experience. Grant has worked in commercial furnishings since the beginning of his career. From his early days out of college working at a carpet company to his firm’s more recent work with brands like Herman Miller and Steelcase, Grant and his team have developed a thorough understanding of which products and marketing strategies succeed, how commercial finishing companies traditionally work and how players in this industry like to be communicated with. So when Robert Moore, Jr., the president of Genesys Interiors, a successful commercial wallcovering distributor, approached Grant to rebrand his company, Grant challenged him on the brief. He wasn’t convinced a rebrand was the best way to approach the market at the time.

Commercial wallcovering as a category had been declining for years, losing a large share of the business to paint companies. Additionally, distributors were all carrying one another’s products, and there was a great deal of repetition within those offerings. When Grant asked Moore why he felt his company needed rebranding, Moore responded that he wanted to remain relevant and bring Genesys "into this century."

The Set website is built so designers can virtually install products and see how different offerings work together.

Knowing that rebranding is often viewed as a quick fix for a lack of timeliness, Grant suggested a more thoughtful approach - one requiring a large investment on everyone’s part, including his own. He asked if Moore would be interested in launching an exclusive collection of products, a new national brand they would distribute for themselves and for others... the difference being that this product would be built on innovative design thinking, from product to branding to packaging and distribution. Grant explains, "I noticed that product design and development were always separate from marketing and communications, which was separate from sales, so I said, 'What if you connect the dots in that whole ecosystem?' I was intrigued with the idea of designing a whole path for a product from the very beginning - from the original brand strategy, the product design strategy, how we took it to market, even up to designing a new distribution model for it." To Grant’s delight, Moore agreed.

A Carefully Crafted Foundation
Before diving into the design work Grant Collaborative conducted extensive research. By interviewing, observing and filming designers and architects at work, the team was able to outline the problems - and thus the opportunities - within this saturated product sector. As it turns out, saturation was their key to differentiation.

The typical approach in commercial wallcovering is to produce a pattern in a popular theme, such as paisley, in as many colors as possible. The reality, however, is that most people will choose an earth tone or a neutral, so something like 85 percent of commercial wallcoverings never see the light of day. Because of this scattershot approach, designers must slog through oceans of product in hopes of finding what they’re looking for. Grant chose a different strategy altogether. "The approach we’ve taken is editing that whole scenario down to a very targeted audience; in the case of Set it’s the top 100 architectural and interior designers in the U.S. We used research and design thinking to figure out what they wanted and what they needed so we could connect their wants and needs with products. What we did was create less product but sell more of it to the right people."

Although this philosophy sounds rather simple, it actually required a different approach on almost every level from what was being offered, including how those offerings related to one another and how they were physically presented and sold to interior designers.

With the ability to choose patterns in two scales as well as in a variety of hues from the Grant color system, designers can easily find complementary wallcoverings that, when paired, give a room energy and dramatic dimension.

Tackling Color Frustrations
The first and most basic element to address was color, often the first decision made when designing an interior. Generally a color is chosen and the rest of the furnishing and finishing choices fall in around that. But when interviewed, designers spoke of the distinct lack of saturated colors available in wall coverings, thus reducing their ability to create a dramatic look. Another frustration was that often a product would be in the right color family, but it wasn’t the right value - and the designer had no ability to dial that up or down.

To confront these challenges, the firm developed the Grant Color System, which is made up of the seven most prominent color families in commercial interiors. Each of the seven families begins with a very saturated hue and is followed with four derivatives of the original color, making a total of five in each family. Each color is an equal percentage away from the next, starting with the most saturated and working down to an off-white version of that hue. The result is 35 colors that relate to each other and provide designers with an endless number of combinations.

Multicolors Drive Multiproducts
With the palette firmly established, the design team shifted its focus to the next task: using the Grant Color System to build a collection of unique and sophisticated offerings that again give designers a greater variety of options. Within the commercial interior sector there are wild fluctuations in types of spaces, both in terms of dimension as well as function. Clearly, one product was not going to provide designers with the creative freedom they so craved. To counter this, Grant and his team developed several products including traditional patterned wallcoverings, murals, custom non-repeating illustrations designed for corridors of any length and WriteWalls, a dry-erase material perfectly suited for brainstorming spaces. They then created a kit of parts by offering each of the products in the 35 colors from the Grant Color System as well as providing customers with the ability to produce each product in custom colors. Four of the five wallcovering patterns are also available in two different scales. With each of these incremental offerings, designers can tweak the look they are seeking in a way they have never been able to do in the past; such color and scale options had never been available, and there had never been a system of easily locating elements that work together. The system allows designers to find one element, then locate companion pieces that are also the right hue or value.

Perhaps the biggest challenge designers face when choosing commercial wallcoverings is a distinct lack of dynamic and sophisticated designs. One designer referred to the selection as “an over- abundance of blah” and reasoned that paint was often the better alternative. This gave Grant’s innovative design team an opportunity, and they addressed it by defining that the Set collection’s most essential differentiating factors needed to be its unique perspective and high design aesthetic.

During the research stage the design team learned that there was a real lack of saturated hues available in commercial wallcoverings.

Quality Ingredients
To ensure this vision was executed in all areas of the line, Grant reached out to Geof Kern, a well-respected fashion photographer with work in the permanent collection of the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris. Kern and Grant had worked together for many years, but with a resumé that includes shoots for Harpers Bazaar and Matsuda, Kern was understandably hesitant when Grant approached him about providing imagery for murals that would ultimately reside in corporate environments. Grant assured him that with Grant Collaborative as the client, Kern could rest easy knowing the end result would be something he could feel good about. Additionally, it would not require Kern to create any new work; Grant suggested he go through his entire archive - 10,000 images he has created over the years - and select 12 images that held together as a group and made a statement. Although the overall line has seen strong success, the murals have been exceptionally popular. Grant muses, "I always tell designers it’s the only place in the world where you can get original Geof Kern photography for the walls."

Unyielding Dedication
The surprising part of this story is that the firm’s involvement did not end when the products came out in production. Grant Collaborative continues to be deeply involved in making sure Set doesn’t get off track between production and when the product lands in the hands of a customer. Grant explains, "The real return on investment with Set is that we’re being compensated for the branding of the typical stuff, but what will become a new revenue stream for us long term will be royalties and licensing our name and our concept. Because of this it’s important to make sure that the product is presented correctly and intelligently... so we are training the sales reps and making sure they can do that."

This kind of soup-to-nuts involvement may be a savvy approach, yet it’s not for the faint of heart. Grant has taken on a collection of unlikely roles such as training the existing sales force; interviewing new sales people, agents and distributors; planning distribution models specifically tailored for each city; and actually joining the sales team on the road presenting the system. Venturing into so many new areas of the business is a daunting prospect but an exhilarating one, and his bird’s-eye perspective has given Grant invaluable insights. To be so intimately involved from ideation through final sale means there is no gap in his understanding of the product... and it shows.

In 2005 Set Wallcovering Systems debuted at NeoCon; this year it received the gold award for Wall Treatments and was chosen out of thousands as one of the five best products of the show. It may be surprising in this digital age that printed wallcoverings could create such a buzz, but like most things that receive ready acceptance, it is the extensive research and resulting innovation that puts Set far apart from the competition.

Juggling Responsibilities
When asked if he has any free time, Grant laughs and replies, "Not a lot." He is now in his second year as president of AIGA, which means traveling all over the country to speak at and attend conferences and events, but he uses these opportunities to their fullest. When in a new city he will meet with the Set reps and go on sales calls. He also uses Set in his lectures to demonstrate the crossovers between design and business, a topic that has always been of great personal interest.

But AIGA is much more than just a professional affiliation for Grant. It provides him with an ongoing dialogue and education, as it does for all its members. But most importantly it is a family and a very important support network. “I have always found that whatever I give to AIGA or whatever I give to helping advance the profession comes back to me tenfold in some way or in some form.” Perhaps the greatest gift Grant has given the profession and all those involved in Set is a license to blur the lines between business and design. He and his team have proven that designers are vital business partners whose contributions and insights can lead to innovations.

About the author
Kristin Ellison is the editorial director of www.wowio.com, a free online bookstore.

This article was originally published in the January/February 2007 issue of Step inside design magazine.

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