Wow - what a year it has been. It seems surreal that it is coming to a close, but here we are! To be honest, if you asked us a few months ago if we'd be doing Mayesh Design Star in 2021, we wouldn't have had an answer for you. This year brought many challenges and unknowns, and we really weren't sure what we would be able to pull off. But, drumroll please... we're excited to share that we are, indeed, continuing Mayesh Design Star next year! It is, however, going to look a little different this time, so let me give you a little background:
One silver lining of 2020, as I'm sure many would agree, is that it forced us to really reflect and to look at everything we do with a new perspective. When we sat down to discuss what we wanted Design Star to look like this year, we knew we needed something different and fresh, and that's when it came to us.
Rewind to the middle of the first quarantine, when Carlsbad sales rep Valerie McNichols came to us with an idea for what is now known as Beautiful People of the Flower Industry. We realized we needed to do our part in shining a light on floral designers from all walks of life, and share their stories and floral journeys with the world. Our industry is made up of such a beautiful melting pot of people, and it only felt right to use our platform to highlight that. So off Val went, reaching out to designers and conducting Zoom interviews from her living room for us to share with you all.
Val's interview with The Wild Mother | August 2020
Fast forward to today, and we've now posted fourteen episodes featuring designers from all over the country, even the world! So what does this have to do with Design Star, you ask? Well, my flower friends, it only made sense in our minds to marry the two together to create Mayesh Design Star x Beautiful People of the Flower Industry!
While Val will still be posting her Zoom interviews and continuing her series as is, we will also be featuring six designers over the course of next year for Mayesh Design Star. Each designer will produce two design tutorials which will be aired over a two-month period, and will be a guest on Mornings with Mayesh following each design video. This will give you a chance to ask them questions, dig deeper into their designs, and really just get to know them and their stories!
We are so excited to kick things off next week and introduce you to our first featured Design Star of 2021! That being said, because COVID forced us to do a little rescheduling and shuffling in 2020, we do still have some more content coming out from Anthony Maslo of The Boy Who Cried Flowers. Anthony was such a team player, reacting & adjusting with us as COVID hit, and still producing beautiful, top-quality design videos for all of you. It was no easy task to coordinate these shoots with all of the uncertainties and restrictions in place, but he & his team pulled it off beautifully and we couldn't be more grateful to him for that.
In the meantime... get ready for our first designer - it's gonna be good guys.
Until next year!
-Ali & Yvonne