Archives at NYSID: an overview: Color in Design, Textiles + Rendering techniques

Joann Nelsen was a Staten Island-based fine artist, wallpaper, and textile designer in the second half of the 20th century. Her archives at NYSID consist mainly of her artwork--beautiful original acrylic and watercolor paintings of her designs, some fully rendered and others "working" sketch-type paintings where you get glimpses of her design process. Nelsen's use of color is complex and dynamic, and many of the renderings include color reference charts at the bottom--making them great color studies for designers. Her work is stylish and often joyful, capturing the spirit of the decades in which it was created. See some project ideas using this collection here (password protected).

Joe Martin was born in Connecticut and attended the Parsons School of Design both in New York and Paris, studying advertising and illustration. Though fashion was not his focus, he was asked to teach a course in fashion illustration to his fellow students. After college, Martin began working for the industrial designer Eugene Lucks, and he later took a position at Macy’s in the display department where he remained for the next five years. Throughout this period, Martin was illustrating editorial articles and advertisements featured in various publications such as Vogue, House Beautiful, Today’s Woman, and House & Garden.

Martin shifted to textile design in the 1950s. Moving first to Paris and then Milan (where he would remain for the rest of his life) he created designs for companies in the U.S. and Europe including Patterson Fabrics, Quaintance, Arundell Clarke Ltd., Bloomcraft Inc., JOFA Inc., Piazza Prints Inc., Suzanne Fontan, and Goodall Fabrics, Inc..  In 1958, Martin, designer Ken Scott, and Vittoria Fiorazzo founded Falconetto, a company specializing in printed furnishing materials. In the 1960s, Scott and Martin produced textile designs for Robin Roberts, founder of Clarence House.

Some of Martin’s career highlights include:

• Winning the AID International Award in 1965 for the wallpaper design for Piazza Print titled ‘Singeries’.
• “Room portraits”: a series of renderings of rooms designed by well-known designers such as Ruby Ross Wood, William Pahlman and Billy Baldwin, published both in Vogue and House & Garden.