This is iDesignLab, a podcast where creativity and curiosity meet style and design. Curator of interiors, furnishings and lifestyles. Hosted by Tiffany Woolley, an interior designer and a style enthusiast, along with her serial entrepreneur husband Scott. iDesignLab is your ultimate design podcast where we explore the rich and vibrant world of design and its constant evolution in style and trends. Welcome back to the iDesignLab podcast. Today is a tidbit day, but a little bit longer form. Tidbit day with Scott and I here in the studio to discuss a topic that we are kind of honing in on to in 2026. As a huge component to business, I believe today, you do not need to necessarily pick a lane and stay in your lane. Collaboration, meaning our lane is design and construction and now podcasting. And the beauty of opening yourself up to new lanes means you can collaborate with other brands and that essentially builds your brand. So as we often like to discuss that, you know, we are our own brand and social media is a huge component to that. As we're exploring new ways to evolve that for our own businesses in-house, we just thought it would be an interesting conversation to broaden everybody's horizons on not necessarily needing to stay in a lane. A trend that's happening with collaborations between multiple different types of brands. Correct. Coming together to build a stronger marketplace for. A stronger marketplace? I think it sets trends. I think it sets color palettes. I think it is a huge insight into where business flows. So let's give a couple of examples of what we mean by collaborations that we're seeing like at market and in multiple and almost every industry. So in the interior design industry, visual comforts. That's a big one. The big lighting company has done collaborations with a lot of people and one in particular, Kelly Wurzler. Right. And we got to see firsthand that, you know, a Kelly Wurzler visit to the visual comfort showroom was. Created a huge. Line of people. Big, very exciting. Hundreds lining up to meet her and see her and see her collaborations and her designs that she's partnered with visual comforts, which creates a lot of new business for visual comfort. Just like forehands with an interior decorator, Ann Beluis. Right. And then you have. Which that was their first collab. So forehands wasn't necessarily a company that, you know, used collaboration. So when you see a big company like that diving into this opportunity, you kind of know that there's continuing trends. It's not just the pottery barns of the world. No, but you're even seeing with plumbing companies like. Plumbing with all of the above. Literally, I mean, from wallpaper companies to the rug companies and it, and it, it's not going to stop. So brands are sitting on their own with their own designs just kind of coming out saying, well, this is a forehands couch and this is forehands chairs or this is visual comforts, lighting for it, lighting, you know, fixtures. Now they're kind of touting it with a personality or another brand, which is what it's creating great. It's creating more trust to its barring trust for each other. I do think it's borrowing trust. I was actually going to just say that I think that, you know, you trust a brand for their quality for their, you know, customer service. And then you also seek a designer or a brand maker or a strategic partner. And you seek those people out so that you kind of get to offer their expertise and their aesthetic or their vibe to, I hate to say the masses, but to. Well, which is basically what it's doing is it's tapping into a new audience. It is. So each brand, Kelly Wurseless brand and the visual comforts brand are tapping into each other's audiences to kind of cross, promote each other and both build each other. Totally. And the beauty that I've been witnessing is it's not a dilution of the brand either. It's really a way for these brands to tap into new markets. It could be offering it to a different, you know, sex. It could be offering it to a different age group. There's just so many avenues that this collaboration is really revolutionizing. I believe that this change in design in the way in which people are marketing and running their businesses can really flow over to so many different industries. It's not just interior design. It's tech. It's beauty. I mean, even plumbing has this has this going on. It really could be in any, any industry. And it's something that people should, everyone should be looking at who are running, if you're running a company, you know, who can you collaborate with to grow your audience and grow your brand. Well, one of the social media stories I really enjoyed tagging along to, I guess, is what we do through this voyeuristic life that we are now living. But so Erin Lauder, who is a trusted source in beauty as her family was. Estee Lauder. She's also created a very huge lifestyle brand, taste maker brand. And, you know, it started through beauty and that palette and then it was carried through to, you know, you're setting a bath vanity, you know, where a woman does makeup. So it became aesthetic, you know, so the surrounding where you sit and do your makeup every day. So it became the tray that you set your Estee Lauder perfume on, like she actually was able to tap into so many little details, evolving her brand that went to the picture frame on the vanity. The tray that, like I said, you're setting it down to. I recently saw she was behind the scenes at Kohler. I mean, so obviously in our industry and for me, Kohler is like kind of exciting because of its history. And it's staying power. And through the years having opportunities to work on homes that were renovating and have these sneak peeks into history of a design detail. She was actually taking us along as she was now going to collaborate with Kohler. So you have like this huge beauty entrepreneur from this, you know, amazing family dynasty and legacy crossovering, crossovering, crossing over, geez, to plumbing, you know. And I just feel like we get so, you know, in this world of easy consumption and NAI and, you know, these sometimes, you know, architecturally void houses that I really am totally in appreciation and support of really going back to archives and continuing to educate consumers on these design details, not only just for your home, but for your life. And I do think that this collaboration is key continuing moving forward. I don't think it's necessarily a new thing. It's obviously marketing, but where we are our own brand now, you know, even we've had conversations creating our kids brand, you know, just starting things from the ground up. I believe that these collaborations are only going to be stronger. Well, a lot of these collaborations, what they also generate in these days, you know, now is content, scrollability, scrollability in terms of being able to create a lot of interesting content on the collaborations that are then used for TikTok and Instagram. So it's one of the reasons why collaborations are growing also, because it does give all of that additional content that can be used for those short form little scrollable videos and content. And one thing living in South Florida, as we do, it is an area where, you know, there is a lot of traffic and people do come and go. It's a, you know, a town that area that people like to visit. There's constant pop-ups. Which is a whole other aspect. It's almost like a collaboration, but it's a unique kind of collaboration. Yes. Collaboration where a brand doesn't go into its normal storefront with a five-year, two-year, six-year lease, but it's popping up somewhere for a month or two weeks, which again becomes scrollability. I keep on using that word because it's more visual content for Instagram and TikTok and the way in which a lot of these brands are popping up for a short period of time. And as I was doing some research and homework on, you know, people that we do want to have on the podcast, there is a company that we purchased from called Society Social, which is a furniture company, smaller venue, I mean, smaller business, whimsical. As I was researching the couple, it's owned by a couple and they are doing a pop-up shop in South Florida. Which creates urgency. It does. It creates, okay, we're only going to be here for a month in this really cool place. Come take some visual pictures, bring your family, bring your kids. Well, and as they're creating these pop-ups, they are becoming destinations. Right. And creating urgency. So it drives the consumer thinking, oh my God, I don't want to miss out on this. Let's go see this. So that kind of is lending to where industries get blurred a little bit. Whereas as I started, you don't need to stay in your lane, which is exciting because that does keep things fresh. It keeps things evolving. There is growth to be to have, you know, in this, I feel like sometimes we get a little stunted at least. I feel like when I hear, like, you know, talking to our kids, like, oh, so what are you going to, you know, like, where do you want to step? What do you want to study growing, you know, and family business and all those good things. And, you know, you talk about AI and is AI going to be printing home? Like, are we going to have like homes printed from these mass scale? What is that? We saw this on the Sunday morning show, those 3D printing, you know, concrete. We don't want to allow that new function to dull our life. I want to create a platform where we support and continue to thrive with brands that really, you know, focus on standing out, doing their thing, being creative, being innovative, but staying creative and not falling into a easy cookie cutter life. And I think that these collaborations as they continue to evolve and continue to cross over, it just creates more lanes. And when one, you know, even if a time span runs out, it's not a bad thing. I actually like that there is that consistency of, you know, keeping it interesting and exciting that this is only available for a short time. You know, it keeps it fresh. It keeps innovation going. And I have a lot of appreciation for it. And I look forward to doing it ourselves as the future. But it's an aspect. Anyone who's running a business doesn't matter what the business is or they have a business. Is there a collaboration that you can do that will help grow your business? Is there someone or another entity that you can somewhat team up with? Maybe it's just a short term, you know, team up like a pop-up that creates an excitement and awareness for your business. Either short term or long term, you know, or is there someone that you could partner with and bring in that's going to help elevate because of name recognition and so forth. And we do look forward to having feedback from, you know, our listeners and we do, you know, open up people to, you know, chime in through social media themselves, through our website and other avenues because we would love to collaborate. We would love to get feedback on other people's thoughts on collaboration and, you know, where they... If anyone has any interesting collaborations or ideas they'd like to run by or pass by us, head us up at curate at twinterius.com. Sounds good to me. Yeah. So kind of wrap up a little crowd collaboration today and our thoughts and pertaining to the subject. Thanks for tuning in to the iDesign Lab podcast. iDesign Lab's podcast is an SW group production in association with the five-star and TW interiors. To learn more about iDesign Lab or TW interiors, please visit twinteriors.com.
