Inspiration Profile: Marcus Hay

Ah, Winter has arrived with a vengeance here in New Zealand and sometimes, in these cold and dark days, it can be hard to get inspired.
So here we go with a lovely Inspiration Profile from stylist and creative director, Marcus Hay. He is an expat Australian living in New York and I have featured his work here on my blog several times. Enjoy - have a great and warm weekend everyone.

Marcus Hay - Photo: Jonny Valiant.

Blue/Green Trend Story - Photo: Kat Teutsch.

Name: Marcus Hay

What do you do: I am a style and creative director, interior designer and writer. My company is called Studio Hay + Co and we work out of my home/studio in Chelsea. It's a busy hub of activity as there is always a multitude of varied projects going on - anything from photo shoots to apartment fit outs.

Where do you live: New York, USA

What are you working on: I work freelance so on a variety of projects, including my own personal ones. I just did a whole lot of work for Bloomingdales, styling tablescapes. This week I am working on a kids fashion shoot, designing the sets and sourcing props.

Elle Decoration - Photo: Jonny Valiant

Left: Inside Out magazine - Photo: Jonny Valiant. Right: Decorating with Fabric - Photo: William Geddes.

Who/what inspires me:  I find inspiration everywhere - as a visual person your eyes are always wide open. I see a lot of exhibitions as I live in the art gallery district of Manhattan.
I love walking the streets and see inspiration for color stories everywhere - especially unexpected color combinations. It could be in street art, signage or even something random on the side of the road.
I love travelling and gather much inspiration from the countries I visit - in particular Japan, China and Scandanavia.
Flea markets and antique stores are also a great resource for me. You can learn a lot about a culture by their markets - often there are history lessons if you talk to the dealers or make note of items to research later. 

I am also inspired by the following people - Artists: John Chamberlain, Cindy Sherman, David Hockney, Andy Warhol
Designers: Eva Zeisel, Aero Saarinen and Paul Rand.
Musicians: Grace Jones, Marilyn Monroe and Blosson Dearie.

I work best: I work all the time so don’t really have a designated best time : )

What I do when I’m stuck for inspiration: I am never stuck. The world is a big place - how could you ever not find something to trigger an idea?

The best advice I have been given is: Never give up. Fall, get up again and dust yourself off. Mistakes are just mis-takes. Take 1, Take 2...

My latest discovery is: Pinterest - hate to admit it but I love it. It helps me edit my visual thoughts.

Marcus' apartment, Elle Decoration Sweden - Photo: Jonny Valiant.

Left: Interior Project - Photo: Jonny Valiant.    Right: Marie Claire - Photo: Lucas Allen.

Books that I get inspiration from: Always autobigraphies as I love reading about other peoples lives. Right now, in terms of a visual book, I love Martyn Thompson’s book'Interiors' - he is an amazing photographer.

Magazines that inspire me: Elle Decoration, U.K, Casa Da Abataire, Italian Vogue, Apartmento, and Milk.

Blogs that I enjoy: Design Sponge, Daily Imprint, The Modern Sybarite, Spotted by Normann Copenhagen, PJ Mehaffey, The Food Dept, Bespoke Press, Mr Jason Grant, The Bedlam of Beefy, Design Buzz, Style Rookie and Elephant Ceramics        

My favourite room at home is: My Living room. It is a room I multi task in - I hold meetings, entertain, work and even use it for photo shoots when I need to. It also has my favorite chair to lounge in - when I sit in my Womb chair I know I can finally relax.

My office is: Everywhere. Home, on the street, the local café, my storage space and on the subway. I am always writing every second I have.

What am I looking forward to: Christmas with my family in Sydney in December. It’s been nearly 8 years since I spent the holidays with them!

Want to find out more about Marcus and his work? Check out his website here and his blog Fluff'n'Stuff here.

CB2 catalog - Photo: Andy Barnes.

All photographs used with permission from Marcus Hay.

Lovely Light Grey

I was out with friends for dinner last night and one has asked for my help with her apartment. She mentioned that she would be re-painting the walls - which are at present white. She suggested doing something different, maybe adding a colour. We talked about the possibility of greys, which is a nice step up from white. Here are some lovely scenes styled by Hilary Robertson (as spotted on Emma's Design Blog) that has soft light grey on the walls. Looks gorgeous.

Photographs via Emma's Design Blog.

Fresh and Pretty for Ikea.

 

Here is some pretty interior styling work done by Stella Nicolaisen for Ikea.
Photogrpahs via Agent Bauer.

Great Styling by Anthropologie

Check out the olive green leather Chesterfield sofa - nice.

This chair looks inviting.

So does this hammock.

To help get through the winter blues, it helps and inspires me to have a look at all the summer colour happening in the northern hemisphere and Anthropologie has done this so well. Here are some great interior styles from them using their eclectic range of homewares.
Photographs via Anthropologie.

Styling - the Finishing Touches

Close-up of some interior styling.

Getting the interior ready for a magazine shoot.

I did quite a few private styling jobs as a request from some of my clients in 2010. They enjoy the fact that I can come in and re-hash their existing belongings and put them in a new light. I can also point out possibilities for future purchases or what to keep an eye out for. Clients really appreciate this! Last year my mum (she's clever too) and I came on board for my sister's house and styled her place for a magazine shoot. The photographer didn't move a thing so we see that as a sign of success...
I hope to continue to do more styling in 2011.

From the NZ Home magazine.

Home NZ Magazine



The October/November Home NZ magazine out now.



I've scanned the contents page of the magazine - that's our styling work!

 

A great photo of Amelia and Neil in their Living room.



Neil on the deck with Otto the cat. The Dining area to the right.



The cool entertainment unit designed by Amelia (and styled by me!)

Remember my posting a while ago when I styled for my architect sister, Amelia and her hubby, Neil for an upcoming magazine shoot? Read it again here.

Well, the October/November Home NZ magazine is out now and it looks great. Here are some of photographs by Paul McCredie that made the pages - click on the photos to see them larger.

I also scanned in the contents page of the magazine as it is a close-up of our styling work. Very cool. Get your copy now...

Photographs by Paul McCredie.

Styling - Getting Ready for a Magazine Shoot.



Bookshelves - colour coding the bindings



And adding details among the books.



A collection of objects on top of a shelf



Fresh flowers and fantail.



The awesome window seat.

My sister, Amelia is having her house photographed tomorrow for Home New Zealand magazine. So a couple of days ago, she booked in the two best interior stylists that she knows - Mum and me. This afternoon, the three Minty girls got together and worked the place into stylish ship shape. Amelia has a beautiful home so it wasn't hard work - just locating and composing all the elements together. I don't want to give too much away from the magazine article so I only took close up photos of some of the details.
I will mention that the rustic looking skeleton on the shelf was a gift from me. I brought it back from Toto Santos, a small town in the Baja Penisula, Mexico. He looks great next to the two canvases by John Reynolds.
Photographs by Charlotte Minty.