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Savannah College of Art & Design Teams With Mayer Fabrics

Mayer Fabrics director of product development Lucia Kennerly provided professional feedback to students developing their own fabric products.

Nicholas Tamarin -- Interior Design, 9/15/2009 12:00:00 AM

In a match made in muslin heaven, textile manufacturer Mayer Fabrics and Georgia's Savannah College of Art & Design are nearing completion on their collaborative class in the school's Department of Fibers.

Entitled "Concept to Consumer: Textiles for Interiors," the spring semester class was designed to teach students how products are researched and developed for the fabric market. Under the instruction of professor Jeremy Noonan, the students, Allison Adderton, Lizzy Aubin-Barrett, Allyson Burke, Katherine Dagen, Adelyn Janulis, Nicole Schlesinger, and Melanie Wilcox, were tasked with creating compatible textiles for commercial interiors.

The class drew upon the expertise of Mayer Fabrics director of product development, Lucia Kennerly, who provided professional feedback throughout the process and in the final stage of the partnership is now evaluating the students' designs and colors for possible development in 2010.

In order to create their designs, the students studied commercial applications, interior trends, and textile constructions in addition to participating in real life experiences with Kennerly like staying at the Proximity Hotel in Greensboro, North Carolina, the first hotel in the nation to achieve LEED Platinum. The group also took a tour of Mayer Fabric's design studio, textile designer Wesley Mancini's design studio in Charlotte, a textile mill, an architectural and design firm, and a furniture manufacturer.

The students then put together a final presentation of three collections each, focused on corporate, healthcare, and hospitality color work and design that were given to Kennerly at the end of the semester.