Experiential designer

By Lisa Casinger -- Home Accents Today, 3/1/2005 12:00:00 AM

California Dreamer

Richard Frinier

The Back Story

Richard Frinier was born and raised in California and, as a teenager, led the typical California life of surfing and life guarding, anything to be near the water. To this day, the award-winning designer lives with his wife Catherine in Long Beach, thriving on working near the ocean.

After graduating California State University-Long Beach with an MFA, he taught furniture technology at Cerritos College in Los Angeles and started his own design business.

"As a child I always enjoyed working in the garage making things or taking things apart and putting them together in a different way," Frinier said. "I knew this is what I wanted to do. I learned how to make furniture as part of my college education. I learned the skill process of design and it taught me about proportion. I look at furniture as a medium to express my artistic vision."

He spent the first 20 years of his career at casual furniture manufacturer Brown Jordan, where he was chief creative officer and executive vice president.

"Brown Jordan provided me the opportunity to interpret contemporary and classic design for fulltime outdoor enjoyment," Frinier said. "Over the years, working with wonderful materials like teak, cast aluminum and Hularo provided inspiration to explore classic and traditional furniture style from the inventive stage. I worked on everything from marketing collateral to merchandising and display and that allowed me to create the total DNA of the brand."

He left Brown Jordan in 2002 and formed his own international design firm focused on home industries, including furniture, accessory and textile design. He designs for companies like Century, Dedon, Glen Raven and this fall will debut an outdoor lighting collection with Currey & Company.

"I've always had a passion for lighting design and I've known Robert Currey for about 20 years," Frinier said. "The timing and our relationship brought us together. We're going to interpret outdoor portable lighting and accessories to further eliminate the boundaries between indoor and outdoor."

Design Process and Influences

"My ideas come through travel and my experiences," Frinier said. "There isn't a specific person or period that's dominated my work. I'm not interested in reinterpreting what's been done. I'd rather capture a feeling."

Captured feelings, images and experiences are hallmarks in Frinier's designs. Yacht railings are seen throughout Gulf Stream, his newest addition to The Richard Frinier Collection for Century Leisure; Archipelago is based on his travels to Indonesia and Southeast Asia and the tropical feelings they invoked; Andalusia comes from his love of the architecture and ironwork from the southern region of Spain, and the Daydream bed for Dedon luxuriously captures the essence of a flying carpet with its wispy sheer fabric and woven Hularo.

Another of Frinier's design hallmarks is his inventive use of materials like Hularo, teak and stainless steel. He's often credited for creating the direction of the luxury casual design scene and has won numerous awards including IFDA's Pinnacle Award, International Casual Furniture & Accessories Market's Design Excellence Awards and SCFMA awards.

"I'm very visual and because of that, themes in my designs are experiential," Frinier said. "While products must possess a functional and aesthetic appeal, there must be a sense that the product is contributing to the quality of our environments and lives. Good design is experiential for all of us."

Changing Roles and Challenges

Frinier said the role of designers today is in flux. It used to be a designer presented ideas to a manufacturer, who then worked with the supplier to develop a prototype to bring to market. Today, suppliers are manufacturing for more than one company, for retailers and for their own showrooms.

"As a designer today it's imperative to go to the most remote resource to clearly communicate your ideas," he said. "The role of design can come from many sides whether it's from retailers, manufacturers or interior designers. Roles are evolving or revolving around each other."

The biggest challenges for Frinier involve educating and communicating to the craftsmen and material suppliers to explain his vision in developing a collection.

Gulf Stream, from The Richard Frinier Collection for Century Leisure, is just one example of how Richard captures an experience like boating and turns it into designs for the home.