In February, we have had the privilege of chatting with Saana Baker of ‘The Textile Eye’.
Saana is a textile designer who founded The Textile Eye, which is a quarterly, visually stunning
trend and product report for home textiles.

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To listen to the conversation, tune into our IGTV here.

Here is an excerpt:

1 – What led you to a career in Textiles and Design?

It is a pretty funny story. I took an aptitude test in high school at Berkeley High in the late 80s, where the test predicts the learning capacity for particular skills. The answer I got was that I was suited to be a ‘Mortician.’ As a sixteen-year-old, it put me into a deep depression!

Soon after, I was sitting in the back of my French class and was doodling in my notes’ corners. A kid that sat next to me looked over at my paper, and he said, “that’s cool; you should put that on a t-shirt or something.” At that moment, I realized that any pattern that you see anywhere in the world, from wrapping paper to curtain fabric, to anything else, is designed by a human being. And I thought that if I could figure out how to doodle and make patterns for a living, then I would not have to be a mortician, and life won’t be terrible!

It was long before Google searches, so to figure out how to do this, I had to ask around and spoke with several of my mom’s friends. I learned about F.I.T. in New York and decided I would go there.

When I graduated from F.I.T., I worked with two various mills and then worked at Schumacher. That was where I started to see the breadth of textiles imported from Europe, India, and other parts of the world. It expanded my mind. Several years later, I moved back to California, to Los
Angeles, to work with Barbara Barry. That experience was a different kind of growth and learning opportunity.

Barbara is the kind of person who can design various products simultaneously, and comes at design from a very visceral, intuitive, and visionary perspective. And I am much more process oriented. I was involved in various product categories- prints, tabletop, rugs, bedding, and bath, and styling, while I worked with her.

2 – What prompted you to start ‘The Textile Eye’? And can you tell me about it?

About five years ago, I returned to San Francisco and transitioned to a consulting role with Barbara Barry. I started branching out and was ghost designing collections for other designers. As part of that work, I was attending trade shows more often than I had during my in-house
career. A few times, I was asked by my clients to put together trade show reports from ‘Maison et Objet’ and other shows. As I was doing this, I began to feel that this information could be valuable for many designers.

Designers tend to be busy with the day-to-day grind of follow-up, spreadsheets, and other stuff that is not inspiring. Going to shows can spark your creativity by seeing the breadth of fantastic work around the world. I realized that this is something that more people need. I wanted to bring this inspiration to others like me ten years ago, sitting behind a computer and not getting out and seeing all this creativity. This was my motivation, and it began as a digital-only quarterly. It’s evolved since then, and six months ago, we introduced print editions.

3 – Two years into your starting ‘The Textile Eye,’ the pandemic hit, and all travel and shows stopped. How have you coped and evolved with that?

The lockdowns happened after we got back from Europe last year. The Spring 2020 issue is the last one where every picture was taken out in the field. With the shows canceled, we had to do a big pivot. We quickly realized that new product was being introduced, and design and creativity was still abundant. We reached out to brands and P.R. companies and small makers whose work we admired, and we got barraged with images. So instead of getting on a plane and walking 10 miles inside a big show, it was scrolling through many photos and finding the pattern of common trends across brands and makers.

The other area that has evolved is spending more time on particular features. For the upcoming issue, we have worked on in-depth interviews with three rug companies.

4 – Personally, what textile patterns do you gravitate towards?

I love moire` patterns and anything that is maze-like and abstracted. I enjoy small spirally geometrics and, of course, plains and warm textures.
As a designer, I tend not to surround myself with a lot of patterns or bright colors. I like my home to be calm. It is a little bohemian and layered but not too much pattern and color.

5 – What is your favorite pattern and color from our seemakrish collection?

I have a few! But the one I love the most is Olema in glitter graphite.
I like it because it ties into my taste of being organic and a little swirly. And I love your signature of layering embroidery over print. The glitter graphite colorway is a bit sexy and glamorous, without being over the top.

Thanks to Saana Baker for joining our Friday Five conversation.
You can subscribe to ‘The Textile Eye’ on her website.

It is offered quarterly with various subscription options.
You could also follow The Textile Eye on Instagram.