Kristine Kennedy: Excellence in Interior Design Content

Kristine Kennedy is the Editorial Director of wayfair.com, the largest online-only retailer of home furnishings, selling 4.5 million items from 5,000 vendors. An experienced creative leader, Kennedy is known and regarded for her excellence in cultivating home furnishings and interior design content.

Prior to joining Wayfair in 2011, Kennedy spent 17 years with the Better Homes and Gardens brand, her last 8 years as East Coast Editor. Her career there entailed assessing, visiting, styling and writing about homes from coast-to-coast. She has directed countless photo shoots, directed digital edition videography and has worked with some of the best creative talents in the industry. Kennedy knows how America lives. She is committed to offering inspiration, ideas, advice and conversation to everyday people. She believes in helping others achieve more beauty and function in their lives regardless of style preference or budget.

At Wayfair, Kennedy is implementing a rich visual and editorial content strategy aimed at enhancing the customer experience everywhere the customer interacts with the Wayfair brand. Social media is a fundamental pillar of that plan, which includes a dynamic new blog called My Way Home, scheduled to launch in early 2012.

A graduate of the University of Southern California, Kennedy began her career as a hard news newspaper reporter, covering events such as the LA riots and California’s wildfires. After a few years she discovered she could combine her hidden interior design talents with journalism. In addition to her work for Better Homes and Gardens, Kennedy co-wrote New York Times bestseller “Trading Spaces: Behind the Scenes” and has written for publications such as Traditional Home, Decorating, Quick & Easy Decorating, Window & Wall Ideas, Bedroom & Bath Ideas and Do It Yourself. A native of Portland, Oregon, Kennedy recently moved from New York’s Hudson Valley to suburban Boston with her husband, two children, Great Dane, two cats, sewing machine, pile of paint decks and about 340 linear feet of books.

Jason Oliver Nixon to Host Design Bloggers Hall of Fame Awards

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.

Tobi Fairley to Speak at Design Bloggers Conference

Traditional Home Magazine predicts “Tobi will be like Cher. Or Oprah. One of those women for whom one name says it all”. Selected as one of Traditional Home’s Top 20 Young Designers in America, Tobi Fairley has a signature look that is fresh and simple combining colorful, large-scale prints with classic furniture styles for a beautiful and functional result.

Since establishing her design firm more than a decade ago, Tobi’s projects have spanned the Southern region and the nation from Charleston to Los Angeles. Her award winning designs for high-profile and celebrity clients have been featured on HGTV, have been published on the cover of House Beautiful and in Traditional Home, Better Homes and Gardens special publications, Southern Living, and have graced the cover of At Home in Arkansas Magazine 9 times.

Tobi’s design blog created in September 2008 is currently read in more than 124 countries worldwide. It has been featured on several of the world’s most popular design blogs including All the Best, Coco and Kelley, and was named as a favorite blog on HGTV.com. Tobi also writes a monthly design column, Tobi’s Tips, for AY magazine, a regular blog column for At Home in Arkansas Magazine called Color Confidential, and is a regular contributor to William Sonoma’s Designer Marketplace.

Tobi’s unique combination of degrees in interior design, accounting and an MBA from the prestigious Sam M. Walton College of Business, gives her a competitive advantage in the design industry.

In 2010 Tobi introduced her DIY design service, InBox Interiors, and launched her popular design camps. Designers and Design Enthusiasts alike have attended camps from across the United States and Canada with rave reviews.

Tobi’s new home furnishings line, Tobi Fairley Home, a collection of fabrics, pillows and lighting, debuted as part of Hickory Chair’s Centennial Furniture Collection in the Fall of 2011. Tobi is currently working on product designs for several companies and she is frequently tapped as a speaker for talks on the business of design and the power of social media. Tobi’s newest business venture, Tobi Fairley and Associates, is a consulting group dedicated to helping firms with the business of design.