Our Bullog
Our Bullog.
Our Bullog is a blog / vlog that documents snippets of French Bull’s story, a bit of my story, and thoughts about being a designer in business. Since all parts are connected, the timeline may jump around. Happy reading.
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PART 3 in-between and the beautification of everydayness
This is Part 3 of 3. All things In-Between is our everyday with family, pets, kids, and friends. This is the love of my family's life - His name is Dash. Dash is a foodie and a bull dog. ( not a french bull ) making French Bull pet bowls was natural. I love camouflage in general, but wanted a French Bull camo with a spin. We named it Glamo. My favorite part is the silicone rimmed base because Dash is a monster and the slipping and sliding that was going on with his other bowls was a disaster. I've got big kid's now so I never lived it first hand, but I've been told little kids covet their French Bull dishes because they make French Bull characters their own. Their imaginations fill out the story. This makes me ecstatic because that's exactly what kid's should be thinking about. Our disposable plates put the Happy in Happy birthday (corny ). Seriously though parties are about celebration and up-ness and that's what I want our plates to make you feel. I usually have a bunch of friends over to kick off the summer with a BBQ. When grilling and dining al fresco it makes for a French Bull extravaganza. It's all easy peasy light and fun. Our round platters are mega, and really great for burgers buns corn - all that fun stuff. I use everything French Bull for appetizers too.
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PART 2 What can I give you Outside - Tap into your inner Bon Vivant
This is Part 2 of 3 - The 'outside' part of Inside outside and in-between. If French Bull can add a pep to your step and give you the freedom to tap into your inner Bon Vivant I am thrilled. This is a photo with my family on vacation. Besides having magnificent memories of sites, feasts, and together time .... having our vivid French Bull luggage was an added bonus. From instant luggage recognition at baggage claim to getting smiles and compliments from fellow travelers. I designed this collection exclusively for Target and took a set out for a real life spin. Our lunch bags are a top top fave among take to school and take to work lunchers. Years ago we jumped into what's known in the biz as the 'space' or 'category'. I like to think French Bull adds a major energy boost during mid-day breaks around the world because of our look. Our lunch bags are sometimes used as mini purses. Two pretty authentic NYC snaps I took of girls I see on the streets almost every day with our lunch bags. The pattern application & production technique of our lunch containers is years in the making. Getting our color pow right, our lids snug & leakproof and our sizing slim and neat was a labor of love well worth it knowing that when you pack them inside your lunch bag and take them out you'll have 2 feel-good moments that other containers, baggies, and tin foil just can't give. I designed this Yoga bag exclusively for Target in a pattern called Sus - short for Susani. Yoga and non yoga girls are using it as their all purpose tote. It holds all essentials and of course your mat, and has a way of smiling back at others you pass on the street. Your phone should make it loud and clear you're a woman that's into fashion function and fun. An instant fix for little ones to forget they're mushed in the middle seat. Our FitBit bands are a happy reminder you look gorgeous and fashionable even working out.
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PART 1 Inside, outside, and in between- On a mission to lift off
This is Part 1 of 3. It's the Inside part of Inside outside and in-between. Inside to me means at home. I live out of NYC now and get up super early to be in my office by 9AM. No joke - my morning coffee in a dazzling porcelain mug & sized to perfection seriously gets me out of bed. Giving you a lift with the things that surround your everyday is what motivates me and drives French Bull to make it all feel good for you. Diane our funny and picky graphic designer uses our dessert spoons for her yogurt breaks. I love seeing it in action because the pattern on the spoon complimenting the color of the bowl is a gorgeous visual. She says it's the perfect bite size and gets into corners no other spoon can. The functionality is cool, but what I love most is that only French Bull will take the plunge & produce something so teeny beautiful and nicely priced for a moment in your everyday to be pleasurable. This picture is in my kitchen and a testament of how cutting your grapefruit can be an uplifting experience with our cutting boards. I want your pot to be stunning on your stove top, oven and table. It will cook, serve, store and clean easily. I am proud French Bull dares to make a clay pot with a pattern, and meticulously refine the technique so it's gorgeous functional and price accessible. My brother-in-law has told me that our plates make the food taste better. I love how fun they make the interior of my dishwasher look. I want the bowls you use for morning cereal to jump start your day . I want our PJs to make you feel cute. and I want your bed time story to give you sweet dreams. Let's just say, the first & last thing you see in your day be should be positive. Goodnight.
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Why and how I started French Bull
In the 3rd quarter of 2001 things were shifting. I had committed to moving out of NYC - ( my husband Ronnie's idea ) His " let's try a change" spin turned my die-hard NYC girl attitude into mush and I was game. The economy was in trouble - & then ..... 9/11. The house we were moving into had a bunch of formica surfaces throughout that needed updating. Roger Whitehouse of Roger Whitehouse Design turned me on to Wilson Art to make custom formica sheets in any pattern I designed. I made a few occasional tables and a bathroom counter. Here's a picture of my formica powder room counter. My patterns were selling nicely & popping up on lots of products. I was getting antsy to give things a go on my own. The tables inspired me. I learned that the pattern application for the tables was similar to a process applied to tableware. I discovered Melamine plates and found a factory to make some samples for me. Here's a photo of me with the owner of the factory Harriet Lee. She and I still work together. At the time, melamine was a sleepy material that hadn't been relevant since it's hey day in the 1950's /60's. I was psyched to introduce it to a new generation with a cheery face, and called the company French Bull. My friend Marilyn Rodan came up with the name. My first customer was Kevin Bryan of Dot zero, & then of Myxplyzyk fame - It was a beautiful store in the West Village NYC. Kevin introduced me to Jesse James of Keena the New York branch of a west coast rep group to sell the collection to retailers. In January of 2002 French Bull became a brand introduced by Keena at the NY Gift Show. Here's a photo of the French Bull collection in Keena's showroom. Upbeat energy is all I care about - I love entertaining - not dishes. Melamine was a low cost entry point for me which is why I started with the material - but I want to make everything.
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Did I tell you I designed the fashion direction for Mattel’s Barbie brand style guides for years?
As President of 'Girls' at the time, Adrienne Fontanella was the visionary behind Mattel's Barbie brand. She awarded famous Pushpin Studios the fabulous job to design Mattel's Barbie Style Guides in the late 90's through the mid-80's. The Barbie brand had over 500 licensees worldwide ranging in categories that spanned health and beauty, food, and apparel to name only a few. Graphic designer DK Holland writer and educator then at Pushpin, brought me on board to develop the trends for every fashion theme for each delivery. The guides consisted of five fashion themes that covered a 6 month delivery period. The guides were produced twice a year for both the Mass and Specialty channels. Fall / Winter and Spring / summer. In other words there needed to be 20 fashion collections per year that could be applied to everything from spaghettios, bandaids, electronics, stationery, PJs, hair accessories, outerwear, hosiery, to apparel per year. The themes were to be translated by all licensees. I conceptualized each theme visually and described the story in words. The content we would deliver for each delivery included the color palette, patterns, icons, graphics, fashion silhouettes, fabrics, materials, details, and words. This was all meant to inspire licensees and assure a unified brand presence. I did this for 8 years while also designing my pattern collection represented by Splash print studios. We made a poster for every guide so you could see all themes for the season at a glance. The Barbie team at Pushpin studio. Sketch mood board Barbie's 40'th birthday bash at the Waldorf Astoria. Seymour Chwast on the left, me in the middle with Cynthia Rapp on the right. Photo at Mattel's very own ATM
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Fashion designer to surface designer
I studied fashion design, and was a practicing designer. I traveled throughout Europe and Asia for years going to factories, fabric shows, trend shopping and so on. I began using a Macintosh computer for design work the day it went on sale, met my future husband at the first ever MacWorld Expo in Boston, MA, got married, and had 2 kids back to back. This is Ronnie Meckler my husband. Ronnie and my kid’s on an NYC stroll. Family life beckoned, and went from "on the road fashion designer" to "stay in town print designer". With a commitment to the Mac in it's early stages as my tool of choice, I experimented with ways I could use the computer in fashion. A true lover of graphics and pattern I channeled my attention there when I made the changeover and moved into Ronnie’s design studio. I come by my love of pattern honestly with a mom famous for her printed Italian wrap dresses in the seventies - pattern was everywhere in my world. Here's a photo of a paisley patterned wrap dress by mother Eva whose company was called Eva for Robert Janan I designed five groups with 10 patterns within each group and created a Jackie Shapiro pattern collection, I called on Jill Weinberg of Splash Studios to represent me, and made the full career shift. Here's a snapshot of a typical pattern group I might design within a theme for my Jackie Shapiro line with Splash Studios. Jill's studio broke ground early on. She was a fellow fashion person promoting the use of computers in the biz, and had always cultivated, and supported artists who’s work was inspired, and on trend. I was in great company and very free. The patterns cover themes and styles I dabbled in. Splash was a lab for me where I could design a "group" in any theme or style and put it out there. I developed a bunch signature looks with themes like room-scapes, game boards, maps. I did ballet class themed prints for little girls, manipulated photo florals for tweens, golf themed prints for guys, sophisticated abstracts for women. Eventually I gained a nice following with some high profile loyalists and saw my work pop up on PJs, handbags, bathing suits, gift-wrap, towels, and bedding. I've designed a lot of map patterns, below is a classic NYC one I designed for Sportsac which I love.
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Always been into Pattern
My love of pattern, and fashion was an innate default.My Hungarian Grandparents built one of Bucharest’s most stylish stores on the elegant Calea Victoriei in the 1930s and 40s. They fled to Santiago Chile after the communist takeover of Rumania to start anew with their daughters Eva and Gabriella. Here's a picture of my Grandparents stepping out My mother Eva came to NYC in the late 1950s by way of Santiago, Chile. Married my father Oscar Shapiro, went from fashion model and then to fashion designer and entrepreneur. Eva was a founding partner of Eva for Robert Janan; a company that throughout the 1970s and early 80s, made fashion headlines with what was to become their ubiquitous wrap dress and easy two-piece dressing philosophy. The dresses were in beautiful patterns printed in Como, Italy, at a factory Diane Furstenberg would also come to share. In my teens she'd take me on work trips where I got to see first hand how technicians meticulously monitored the silk screens insuring the pattern and color was being produced to perfection. Here's a picture of Eva that she used for her hang tag A typical Eva sketch Robert Janan Label. I definitely have the pattern love bug. For a few years before I got married I had toddler line called IZZY. It was sold at Bendels, Saks and Fred Segal in LA. Here's picture of some little girl tops I found packed away. Bold color, flowers, dots, stripes were and still my thing. Here's a picture of me and business partner at the time West Murray in our IZZY office. I LOVE PATTERN!
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A quickie about me
My fashion designer mom Eva and I moved to scary 1970’s Manhattan from Riverdale in the Bronx. My Dad moved across the street from legendary Disco, Studio 54. New York City was wild creative and broke. This is a picture at my subway stop. I studied fashion at Parsons School of Design. Rock and Roll was my muse. The Mudd club my wreck room. After graduating Parsons I moved to Milan to design for the fantastic fabulous ground breaking happening Fiorucci. Here's a picture at a store event. While in Italy I was reading a lot about, and getting excited about tech. My mind exploded with visions of the possibilities. Determined to use computers for fashion design I came back to the USA to pursue. In 1984 I bought a Mac and trudged my way through 128K of RAM to do so. Here's a still of me on Family Computing a cable show of the time. To see the whole ordeal of using a computer to design clothes in 1984 click on the video play button. It's about 14 minutes so feel free to slide on through.
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