Maxwell Gillingham-Ryan discusses Apartment Therapy's growing community
Home Accents Today Staff -- Home Accents Today, 10/25/2011 10:26:01 AM
Maxwell Gillingham-Ryan, founder and CEO of ApartmentTherapy.com, was the featured speaker at WithIt's educational breakfast Sunday morning. Ryan presented a colorful 10-point "roadmap" for understanding design, the role it plays in our lives, and Apartment Therapy's role in facilitating the use of design in the lives of its readers.
Ryan opened and closed with quotes from Terence Conran (ca. 1974) with whom he shares the view that one's home should be a fluid, ever-changing expression of oneself, and that design is as much about feelings as it is about looks. "It's about creating the space that comes out of you, not about the space," Ryan said.
Apartment Therapy's mission, he said, is to be of service to the "broad middle of people" who desire and can benefit from affordable accessibility to good design. "Design is the new food. We've become a gourmet culture -- we're very wise about food, nutrition, organics, etc. The same thing has happened to design. ... And (the proliferation) of designers as public personalities are people's way of entering in."
Apartment Therapy, which Ryan started in 2001 as a review of stores, now has more than 7 million monthly readers. Half of the content, he said, is reader-generated. "A successful blog is not about generating content, it's about hosting a party."
The Apartment Therapy "community," Ryan said, is made up of three types of readers: Those who come to find inspiration, those who are in the midst of a project and need help, and those who've done the first two things and are ready to share their experience with others.
"We're not publishing stories about millionaires' homes. We're publishing your neighbors."
Great article, got some news into this.
torrance blinds - 2011-11-23 11:40:29 ESTMaxwell Gillingham-Ryan's lecture at the WithIt breakfast during Fall Market was insightful and inspirational. I continue to be impressed with his well grounded outlook on Interior Design and his focus on shaping environments not only to reflect personality, but to function efficiently for his clients. I highly recommend to anyone interested in design that you familiarize yourself with this influential designer.
Barbara Muse Heard - 2011-10-28 15:51:44 EDTNo related articles for this topic.
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