Lori Weitzner

Lori Weitzner is an American textile and product designer. She is the founder and Creative Director of Weitzner Design, Inc., a New-York-based design studio, and the head of the Weitzner Limited brand.^[1][2][3]

Career

Weitzner studied design at Syracuse University and earned a BFA in Textiles.^[4] After graduating in 1983 she traveled to Europe where she worked as a freelance designer selling to Italian and Swiss fabric makers such as Missoni and Boller Winkler / Schlossberg. Afterward she returned to New York where she did packaging design for Estée Lauder, Elizabeth Arden and Calvin Klein; product design for Dansk, Rosenthal, Marcel Schurman and Johnson & Johnson; display design for Saks Fifth Avenue, Barneys and Florian Papp; and environmental designs for Lufthansa, amongst others.^[5][6]

In 1993 she began working for world-renowned textile designer Jack Lenor Larsen. With Larsen, Weitzner was given the opportunity to create independently-designed collections that bore her name. Their collaboration produced many celebrated designs, a lot of which are now housed in museums worldwide. In 2007 the Minneapolis Institute of Art honored the pair with a special exhibition under the title "The Jack Lenor Larsen Studio Part II, The Lori Weitzner Years 1992-1995".^[4][6]

In 2000 she began designing fabric and wallpaper for Sahco Hesslein, becoming the first woman and the first American to design for the renowned German textile manufacturer.^[4][5] In 2004 she launched Weitzner Limited, an innovative textile and wall covering company known for combining modern techniques with unconventional materials.^[1][4][6] Some notable wallpapers include "Newsworthy," made from 100% upcycled newspapers hand-woven together with nylon thread in a similar technique used with grass cloth and finished with a water-based topcoat;^[7][8] "Quarry," made out of super-thin layers of actual rock; and "Magnetism," a wallpaper coated in magnetic minerals.^[9] In 2011 Weitzner Limited entered a merger agreement with Pollack Associates, a New York-based textile design company whose founders, like Weitzner, are alumni of Jack Lenor Larsen’s studio.^[10][11]

Weitzner’s products grace celebrity homes including those of Julianne Moore, Will Ferrell, and Beyoncé, and often appear as costumes and sets for movies such as Gangs of New York and Mission: Impossible. Her designs have also adorned notable public spaces such as numerous Four Seasons Hotels and Google’s New York Headquarters.^[4]

In 2012 Weitzner began a collaboration with Philadelphia University’s College of Design. The program combined class work at the university and in-studio presentations and talks at Weitzner Design Inc. in Chelsea. Throughout the semester teams of interdisciplinary students worked together to develop textile concepts, which they later presented to a panel of judges for a chance to be selected for commercial distribution by Weitzner Limited.^[12][13]

Weitzner also lectures frequently, often on the benefits of holistic design.^[1]

Awards and Recognition

Weitzner’s work belongs to the permanent collections of such museums as Cooper Hewitt, Musee des Arts Decoratifs, the Museum of Architecture and Design, and London’s Victoria and Albert Museum, among others.^[13][14] She is the recipient of over 25 prestigious design awards, including several Best of the Year awards from Interior Design Magazine and a nomination for a Chrysler Design Award.^[15]<ref name"interior2">"Best of Year 2014: Products and Materials Winner," Interior Design, December 5, 2014.</ref>

References