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Tobi Fairley to Host Design Bloggers Hall of Fame Awards

December 14, 2012 By 1 Comment

We are excited to announce that Tobi Fairley will be hosting this year’s Design Bloggers Hall of Fame Awards. Tobi is already a Hall of Fame member, having won the award last year for Best Overall Design Blog.

Tobi Fairley creates interiors that are bright, bold and tailored. She works on the forefront of the New Traditional movement in residential design, and her vision for a given space is always grounded in an ethic of problem solving, the results of which are always beautiful as well as functional. This signature aesthetic earned her recognition as one of Traditional Home’s Top 20 Young Designers of 2009.

Tobi founded her design firm more than a decade ago, and her exquisite interiors span the US, from New York City and the Hamptons to Charleston and Los Angeles. Her award-winning designs for high-profile and celebrity clients have been featured on HGTV, and her work has been published on the cover of House Beautiful and showcased in the pages of Traditional Home, Better Homes and Gardens and Southern Living.

Tobi’s educational background combines foundational degrees in Interior Design and Accounting with an MBA from the prestigious Sam M. Walton College of Business, where she was recognized as Entrepreneur of the Year for 2009. This blend of expertise uniquely qualifies her as an industry leader in the business of Interior Design. Tobi shares the benefits of her knowledge and experience with other design professionals through an array of consulting services, information products, and on-site courses through Tobi Fairley Academy.

Always ready to embrace the latest in social media and internet technologies, Tobi emerged as a national presence by fully utilizing the capabilities of social media. Tobi’s Blog commands a sizeable online audience; currently read in more than 124 countries worldwide, it has been recognized by HGTV and by the Design Bloggers Conference as a key source for daily design inspiration. Tobi also writes a monthly design column, “Tobi’s Tips,” for AY magazine, a blog column for At Home in Arkansas magazine called “Color Confidential,” and she is a regular contributor to Williams Sonoma’s “Designer Marketplace.” Also spurred by her innovative spirit, Tobi’s e-design service—InBox Interiors—allows D.I.Y. clients to achieve the “Tobi look” for a fraction of the cost of her full-service designs.

Tobi Fairley Home, a collection of fabrics, pillows and lighting designed by Tobi, debuted as part of Hickory Chair’s Centennial Furniture Collection in the Fall of 2011. Her furnishings and fabric designs are every bit as bold and fresh as the spaces for which she has been acclaimed. As with all of her ventures, she infuses the merchandising market with a new and vibrant energy; and, as always, Tobi is driven to find the needs of her customers and provide them with optimum design solutions.

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The Irreverent Jason Oliver Nixon on the Design Bloggers Hall of Fame Awards

December 19, 2011 By 4 Comments

I love a good awards ceremony. Ever since I won the Pinewood Derby as a Cub Scout at about the age of seven, I have been obsessed with trophies and those satin blue ribbons with lots of ruffles and lettering in big, bold gold type that my friends who jumped horses had all over their walls.

Frankly, there’s nothing better than a gilt statuette perched atop a plastic base. In time, the gold will start to peel and the nut and screw holding the plastic base to the urn or statuette will loosen, but so what? By the time your statuette is un-screwed, you probably won’t remember what the award really stood for anyhow.

The best awards are the ones that can be put to a good use and not clutter up the bookshelf: I won an award for something a few years back, and that chunky glass pyramid now works perfectly for smashing ice before cocktail parties. My chipped-ice martinis are famous, so thank you to the Folio Magazine Awards.

Just remember: Today’s peacock, tomorrow’s feather duster. That’s what my mom always told me, and they are good words to live by. Your blog might kick some major metrics ass right now, but don’t rest on your laurels. Speaking of which, we are design bloggers so who wants to rest on an uncomfortable laurel anyhow. If I plan to rest upon anything it will be a Trina Turk-covered daybed in the courtyard of a hotel in Palm Springs, n’est-ce pas, and not some tree branch.

Frankly, if I were in charge of this awards ceremonies, I would be giving everyone a Jereboam of vodka: What could be better than a double magnum of liquor to keep you in a celebratory mood. And I would probably throw in a few mixers, too, for winners like this was some VIP lounge with table service.

“Here’s your Stoli, and we’re throwing in some Mr. & Mrs. T Bloody Mary Mix, cranberry juice, some celery, a few limes, salt, and peanuts. Thank you so much for your dedication. Now go Tweet, sweetie, and drink up, buttercup. #killerpartyinroom405 later”

So, welcome to the Design Bloggers Hall of Fame. It’s sort of like the Best-Dressed Hall of Fame, only we aren’t critiquing your engaging fashion ensembles but rather your gimlet-eyed glance upon the worlds of style and design. Your blog rocks. Seriously. And we love you, dearly. Just don’t blather on too much when you get up here to accept your award, and don’t close your eyes when the requisite photo is snapped.

And, good lord, I am hosting.

Just stay awake. I have no intention of going down in the annals as the James Franco and Anne Hathaway combo-from-hell or a nose-picking Chevy Chase of the Design Bloggers Conference. If the motor idles, I am ordering in pizza and Chardonnay, and we can play “Chug Boat” and Tobi Fairley can be Florence Henderson and Ronda Carman, Charro.

Or maybe I’ll loll about in the audience and ask provocative personal questions (“So, what do you REALLY think of Kelly Wearstler, and did you see her Playboy spread years back?” Or “Do you think anyone is going to hook up at this conference? Name the names.”).

Or I’ll get Bethanne Matari from Currey & Co. up here to tell off-color jokes.

“OK, so this one time at band camp…”

Fasten your seatbelts, it’s going to be a bumpy lunch.

Oh. And next year we want to hear just where you stuck your award.

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Jason Oliver Nixon to Host Design Bloggers Hall of Fame Awards

December 12, 2011 By 1 Comment

Have you made your nominations for the Design Bloggers Hall of Fame yet? Nominations will close on December 21 - make sure your favorite blogs are recognized!

The awards will be presented at lunch during the first day of the Design Bloggers Conference on February 27 at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel. We’re thrilled to announce that the host for the awards ceremony will be design/lifestyle writer Jason Oliver Nixon.

Jason Oliver Nixon doesn’t just understand the fabulous life; he knows how to unearth it. Far beyond his ability to quote Dorothy Parker, Dorothy Draper, and Noel Coward, it is Nixon’s laser-sharp ability to discover what is truly cutting edge and unique that has led to his current role as a lifestyle guru and authority on taste.

The Global Lifestyle Editor at Delta Sky magazine, the in-flight publication of the world’s largest airline, Nixon has the task of trend-spotting and cultivating and searching out global content and talent to ensure that the publication maintains an inspired, innovative vision. He lives out of an acid-orange Globe-Trotter suitcase, constantly on the prowl for the latest and greatest finds.

Nixon began his publishing career at Condé Nast Traveler, where he served as an Associate Editor and new products editor for three years, covering the travel-product beat and writing features and front-of-book stories. He held a senior editorial role at Fodor’s Travel Guides’ book division and was the Editor of New Media on the fodors.com website before turning to television. He was the launch Field Producer for E! Entertainment’s “True Hollywood Stories” series and the Executive Producer of Robin Leach’s Gourmet Getaways at the Food Network and simultaneously wrote regular restaurant reviews for Paper magazine and a column for the James Beard Foundation’s monthly newsletter. Nixon was awarded with a James Beard Scholarship to attend the esteemed French Culinary Institute, and as a result, was inspired to write the book New York’s 50 Best Places to Eat Brunch.

Nixon eventually left the Food Network to return to the publishing world in affluent Palm Beach, Florida where he launched the Ocean Drive magazine spin-off Ocean Drive’s Palm Beach, a luxury-targeted, general-interest publication. Later, he became the Editor in Chief and Editorial Director of Niche Media LLC, successfully re-launching Hamptons magazine as a controlled-circulation, general-interest summer weekly to target high-end consumers. The magazine’s overwhelming success led Nixon to subsequently launch several highly targeted regional magazines for the group, including Gotham, Los Angeles Confidential, Aspen Peak, Boston Common, and Capitol File as well as Niche’s custom-publishing division, where he developed branded publications for companies such as Tourneau. Nixon has served as the Chief Luxury Officer for the Four Seasons Hotels magazine where he oversaw all design, style, fashion, and accessories coverage for the publication and served as a roving brand ambassador.

Nixon contributes regularly as a writer, producer, stylist, fashion consultant, wrangler, and lifestyle guru to such publications as Virtuoso Life, Town & Country, and Entrée, the Neiman Marcus magazine. He makes frequent appearances on E! and MTV as a style correspondent. Nixon is also one half of the Brooklyn-based interior design firm Madcap Cottage (f/k/a John Loecke Inc.), whose colorful projects have been published in magazines and newspapers such as Domino, House Beautiful, Country Living, Better Homes and Gardens, the New York Times, British House & Garden, and the New York Post. Nixon curates a global style and design blog entitled Demystifying Design that captures his and John Loecke’s far-flung adventures and fabulous finds as they scour the world for Madcap Cottage.

A native of Tampa, Florida, Nixon is a graduate of Maine’s Colby College. Nixon splits his time between a row house in Brooklyn and a renovated schoolhouse in New York’s Catskill Mountains, where he can be found puttering in his garden and Tweeting about his plants.

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