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From the Newsdesk

Member Focus – Salon LibertineTM London

Salon LibertineTM London is a luxury interior lifestyle brand, offering textiles, wallpaper and accessories, owned by Victoria Hill Bespoke Soft Furnishings, a successful soft-furnishing and interior decor company.  Read the compelling story of how they have put IP at the heart of their business strategy and how they have made full use of their ACID Membership Benefits to support their business! 

When and why did you first start creating your products/designs?

I am a relative newcomer to the design world. I studied very little art at school and followed a conventional academic study path. I began my career over 20 years ago, in the world of Advertising and ended up holding a senior position in digital marketing at Microsoft, but I was always hugely creatively frustrated.  Fast-forward to 2012, following the birth of my son, I started to learn how to make soft-furnishings and quickly set-up a soft furnishings and interior décor business operating in west-London, Victoria Hill Bespoke. 3 years ago, the urge to develop my own interiors range started.

I knew I wanted to create expressive designs based on traditional motifs, but to treat these in a modern way and always with joyous, uplifting colour.  After seeing an incredible immersive experience of Chagall’s works, in Provence in 2016, everything just seemed to come together. I launched my first collection, ‘Ephémère’, 18 months after this, which offers a range of interior textiles, wallpapers and silk scarves, all inspired by my love of nature, vibrant colour, abstract painting and the decorative arts.

This might seem an unusual departure for an ex-Corporate type, but I grew up sewing, designing and creating. My mother studied fashion and textiles, worked at Dior and the V&A, and then went on to run her own antique ceramics business, so I was always surrounded by this love and knowledge of the Arts. We moved to Paris when I was 6, which had a profoundly positive effect on me, and then went on to spend almost every holiday in Provence, as I still do today. The joyous colours from the South of France have a huge impact on my designs and it is there that most of my ideas originate.

I think I am like a lot of people who reach a point in their late thirties or forties, who really question what they are doing, and in particular, women who want to combine work with a family life after they have children. I now run my soft-furnishings business alongside Salon LibertineTM London.

Did you have any knowledge of intellectual property when you started in the business?

It’s not something I ever thought about, and once I did start looking into it, I was completely overwhelmed by the lack of clear information and international standards. Fortunately a friend and designer, who also uses ACID, recommended that I join.

Which ACID Membership services have you used and how have you benefited from being a Member?

I have uploaded all my designs onto the ACID IP Databank, which is hugely reassuring. I have also used and reused a NDA template from the ACID Shop, which gives me a lot of confidence. It’s great just not to have to worry about this aspect, we have enough to think about, and with ACID I feel like someone ‘has my back’. I use the ACID logo on all of my marketing materials. I like that it shows that I am serious about intellectual property theft and that my work has integrity and that I also respect the intellectual property of others.

Have you brought anything new to the marketplace recently that you would like to share?

Well everything is new for me! The collection Ephémère has 13 designs which are all available as wallpaper and as textiles on 4 different base cloths, with everything printed in the UK. We have just launched our range of luxurious silk scarves which are available to order worldwide on our webshop. All our textiles and wallpapers are available to order online or through our small, but growing, network of stockists

What is the best aspect of ACID membership for your business?

As I’ve said, I like the feeling that someone ‘has my back’ and that if I do need legal advice I can easily get access to it and at a reduced cost. It is also comforting to feel part of something bigger, as you can often feel very alone when you start out on your own.  ACID is a strong community and I feel very much part of a united voice against design theft and one which also communicates very strongly about respect and ethics with regard for IP.

What advice would you offer to a new designer?

Use a NDA! As a new designer trying to promote your work to third parties, it would be easy to be talked into sharing your work with the promise of a potential deal, and to feel a bit shy of getting someone to sign a legal document before you start discussions. Do not be too trusting, recognise the value of your work and realise that there is nothing wrong in asking for someone to sign a NDA, a serious person will not be offended by it or even think twice about signing one.

ACID values the support of its members to enable it to campaign for design law reform.  Do you have any messages for Government/Policy Makers on IP issues?

I really wish there could be a simple Global standard on IP theft. I understand that this would be hugely complicated getting all countries together, but if we could at least get an agreement across the EU and one that will extend after Brexit, that would be a fantastic start! A start would be parity of rights and criminal provisions for unregistered design infringement to bring the UK in line with criminal infringement for intentional registered design infringement.

Find out more about Salon LibertineTM London here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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