Try Not to Cry Hearing These Designers Talk About How Their Dads Inspired Them
Happy Father's Day! As the annual celebration of dads draws near, there's no better time to reflect on the lessons learned from and memories shared with our fathers. For designers Sheila Bridges and Marissa Brown, these were some of the biggest influences on their successful careers in design and architecture. In honor of the holiday, House Beautiful asked them to share how their fathers inspired them.
Sheila Bridges, Sheila Bridges Design
"When I was growing up, I used to spend a lot of time with my father in his dark room-particularly on Friday and Saturday nights during those awkward junior high school years," recalls the Harlem-based designer of her photographer father.
"I was always fascinated by working in the dark with all of the chemical baths, thermometers, beakers and timers. Sometimes my dad would actually grow a flower in our garden and then eventually photograph it (or sometimes he would take a picture of me with a flower he grew in the garden), develop the film, and print the image-and also make a frame for it."
While Sheila herself chose a different creative medium to pursue, her father's process left a lasting impression: "I have such appreciation for the love and patience he had to render that artistic medium himself, including the creation and cultivation of the actual subject," she muses. "Watching and helping him in his dark room is where I truly learned about the creative process: respecting it, enjoying it and not rushing it. I think about that important lesson frequently, particularly in this fast paced world we now live and work in."
Marissa Brown, Stickley
"My dad was a big influence in my life, especially in regards to design," says the director of design for iconic furniture maker Stickley. What stuck with her the most? His insatiable curiosity. "He was a career writer for Time Life Books and a journalist," Marissa says. "He wrote cookbooks and travel books so he was always curious and interested in people’s stories."
His job also afforded him the opportunity to travel-a benefit he shared with his children. "One of the most impactful trips was when he was writing an article on Danish design and he took us to Denmark, where I actually met Hans Wegner," Marissa recalls. I was in my early 20s, just out of college at RISD, and I got to see all the scaled models he made. So I was exposed to all these wonderful things. My dad loved design and was always curious about what I was doing and the ideas I was developing. He was so passionate about so many things."
But perhaps most importantly, the designer says, "He taught me to see. He always pointed out that a lot of people don’t really look at things and observe things. I learned from him to appreciate design because he pointed things out to me. We’d be walking and he’s point to a piece of furniture or pottery. I became much more aware of beauty because of him."
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