Hospitality Design - November 2011 - 87

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By Ashleigh VanHouten Photos courtesy of Odaka, Inc.

business of being creative
Although he studied both ﬁber and metal arts in school, Fumiaki Odaka didn’t exactly grow up knowing design was what he wanted to do. It wasn’t until he got his ﬁrst job in the industry and realized he was good at it. “It just happened to me,” he laughs. “I thought, this is a whole new world to me, and I like it.” Originally from Tokyo, Odaka attended the Savannah College of Art and Design in Georgia, a culture shock for someone used to big city life. “It’s so much slower, so it was a bit frustrating…I always missed the city energy,” he remembers. So, it makes sense that he would make his name in New York, where he’s lived since 1995: “New York is the center of design in the U.S.; I wanted to experience what [the city] could offer me.” After building his brand as a division of Innovations in Wallcoverings, Inc. since 2005, he recently went out on his own, launching Odaka, Inc., a high-end textile company earlier this year. He admits that his upbringing in Tokyo has impacted his work, which can now been seen in hotels around the world, including the Westin in Dubai, the Renaissance in Baton Rouge, and the Disney resort in Hawaii. But to him, the real key to inspiration is keeping his mind—and eyes—wide open. “Everything, everybody inspires me,” he says. “That’s what’s great about New York. You can go to a museum or just walk down the street, and you never know what you’ll see.” Translating these ideas to fabric is the hard part, he says, as the process is very personal to him. That’s part of the reason why he’s not churning out hundreds of designs, but rather, opts for a boutique collection. His designs are at once elegant and modern. Lately, he has a penchant for metallics and vibrant, blocky designs—as evidenced by Frida and Jack, two colorful new additions to his collection—and says he gives all his patterns names because “each textile is like my baby.” And he’s always watching for the next trend: “I’m seeing more graphic details and bold, chunky colors.” That’s why he prefers hospitality over residential, even though he dabbles in both. “Hospitality can be more playful, you can experiment,” he explains. “Residential tends to be safer; you just want to relax when you’re at home. [In hospitality], you can always create something completely new and exciting.” And although he’s very happy with his career in textile design, he says he has other interests too: architecture and photography, to name a few. “I just like being creative,” he says. www.odaka.co

Clockwise from top left: Fumiaki Odaka, in a rare moment away from his work; the new Jack collection, characterized by bold colors and a chunky design; and Frida, another recent addition to Odaka’s growing collection of high-end textiles.

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November 2011

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Hospitality Design - November 2011