On Tuesday night this week, New York-based digital media editors and designers gathered at downtown Manhattan's Freeman's Restaurant to annouce the "Young Traditionals"—the theme of the first-ever trad home digital magazine co-created by the editors of Lonny and Traditional Home.
Traditional Home Publisher Beth Brenner kicked-off the evening with a lively speech, giving background on the origins of the collaboration.
In short, Brenner and Lonny Editor in Chief Michelle Adams had both worked at Domino as Publisher and Editorial Assistant, respectively. During Brenner's brief period of unemployment after Domino folded, she unofficially advised Adams and her co-founder Patrick Cline on the development of Lonny. After their first issue, Lonny had attracted a substantial following of young, design-passionate readers—many of whom Domino cultivated during its four years in print. When Brenner landed at Traditional Home a few months later, she pitched the idea of collaboration. The concept was well received and the project was officially announced last fall.
Now being dubbed as the "love child" between the two magazines, trad home is designed to be a platform that will complement the established Traditional Home brand and reach out to Lonny's younger generation of design lovers.
In keeping with the online nature of the project, the dinner was attended by a mix of digital shelter media editors including Michael Bruno of 1stdibs, Amy Wicks of WWD, Sara Firschtein of Curbed National, Francesca Connoly of Remodelista, Amy Preiser of ShelterPop, Marisa Marcantonio of StyleBeat, Brad Ford of Design Therapy, Nicole Gibbons of So Haute, among others.
Following the toast, individual introductions of the 20 designers—many of whom were present at the dinner—were given by Brenner and Adams. The list included: Amanda Maison and Joelen Ballard of Domicile Interior Design; Sasha Adler and Lauren Gold of Nate Berkus Associates; Sara Gilbane; Heidi Bonesteel, Michele Trout and Jill Hall of Bonesteel Trout Hall; Jeff Andrews of Jeff Andrews Design; Patrik Lönn of Patrick Lönn Design; Erika Powell of Urban Grace Interiors; Jayne and Joan Michaels of 2Michaels; Amy D. Morris of Amy D. Morris Interiors; Lisa Sternfeld of Studio LSID; Kim Winkler of Westbrook Interiors; Nina Freudenberger of Haus Interior; Suysel dePedro Cunningham and Anne Maxwell Foster of Tilton Fenwick; Tom Delavan of Tom Delavan Interior Design; Jamie Herzlinger of Jamie Herzlinger Interiors; Ron Marvin of Ron Marvin Design; Ryan Korban of Ryan Korban Interior Design; Megan Rice Yager of Megan Yager Design; Robert Passal of Robert Passal Interior and Architectural Design; Nicki Clendening and Callie Jenschke of Scout Designs.
Stay tuned for the May issue, which will launch on lonnymag.com on April 12 to meet the "hot list" of new traditional designers to watch–the class of 2011.
