The event is called Sibling Revelry, but when Theo Richardson and his sister Sarah Richardson, Toronto-based designer and star of the Sarah’s House TV series, team up this weekend to design a space for the Interior Design Show, will there be any sibling rivalry?
“Um … no. A lot of people keep asking me that. Perhaps that’s short- sightedness,” says Theo, 27, with a laugh. “I work with partners and my sister works with partners … so we are accustomed to collaboration.”
Theo is co-founder and partner of the New York City product design studio Rich Brilliant Willing, a name inspired by the last names of the three partners, Theo Richardson, Charles Brill and Alexander Williams. This will be Theo’s first time working professionally with his sister.
As anyone who has seen Sarah’s House can attest, the elder Richardson’s preference is for warm colours, soft fabrics and a cozy, luxurious interior. Theo’s studio, meanwhile, is known for stripped- down, industrial-style products.The Excel floor lamp, a popular piece that put them on the design map in NYC, resembles a game of pick-up sticks attached to a light. So how will they bridge the design gap?
“Our concept for working together is reverse engineering,” explains Theo. “Sarah’s going to take our products first and build the rooms around those. Which is basically the complete opposite of the way you would normally do something.”
For the challenge, each sibling pairing has been tasked with designing 600 square feet of space. Other siblings in the competition include David and Glenn Dixon, Thien and My Ta Trung of Periphere and Jason and Lars Dressler of Brothers Dressler. The Interior Design Show kicks off with an opening night party tonight at the Metro Convention Centre. Tickets are $55 in advance, $60 at the door. The Sibling Revelry exhibit runs Saturday to Sunday. Tickets are $22.
Theo’s first brush with design came while he was a student at Upper Canada College where he studied painting and graphic design. “I remember being in high school and being really inspired by things I was seeing in magazines. I remember the car [leading industrial designer] Marc Newson did for Ford. Just the fantasy of new forms and future technologies. I guess that was when I started clicking on to [the possibility] that this could be done as a profession.”
At the prestigious Rhode Island School of Design, he met classmates and future business partners Brill and Williams. Since its founding in 2007, their company has been reviewed by the New York Times Style Magazine and named among the top 40 designers by I.D. magazine in January 2009 — signs that they’ve become an established player in the New York design world. But working in harmony with an elder sibling? Now that’s a real sign of maturity.
The Interior Design Show, Jan. 27-30
