The Company
POLLACK celebrates its twentieth anniversary in 2008 and, as the company comes full circle to start its third decade, the fabric of its identity has never been stronger - or more distinctive. Over the last 4 years the company has groomed and appointed three vice presidents to assume the responsibilities of the main aspects of the business - sales, operations and design. Says Susan Sullivan, a founding partner of the company with president Rick Sullivan and Mark Pollack, "Our executives are homegrown, and each has been with us for many years. Brad Bloom, our vice president of sales, joined us in 1998, and was the first junior executive to be promoted to senior management. Susan Whalen, our director of operations, has been with us since1999. Rachel Doriss, our associate design director, is, like Mark, a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD); she joined us in 2000." With the principals now progressively delegating increased responsibilities, Sullivan expects even more transition over the next five years.
POLLACK first lit up the industry stage at NeoCon 1988 with a memorable offering of 22 designs targeted to the high-end corporate market through 11 showrooms, less than a year after the three partners joined forces to launch the new venture. Six years after opening the company doors in New York City's Chelsea district with a total of seven people, the company moved into a 10,000 square foot space in Soho. By then, they had developed a network of 16 showrooms around the country to represent a steadily growing collection.
When POLLACK cut a swath into the high-end residential market in 1995 with the 31 designs of the aptly named "Residential Collection," the principals established the direction for the company's future sales, which today are 50% contract and 50% residential. The "Travel & Leisure Collection," introduced in the fall of 1996, marked POLLACK's first foray into the burgeoning luxe hospitality market. By the company's 10th anniversary, it had doubled the size of its Soho headquarters, expanded its line to 200 designs, its showroom network to 17 domestic and 8 international representatives, and its staff to 17.
With the fall 1999 launch of the "Alpha Workshops Collection," POLLACK for the first time fielded designs inspired by art coming from beyond its own studio walls. The "RISD Museum Collection" of spring 2002 continued that trend with textiles inspired by details of garments in the Museum's collection. On its Sweet 16th, having grown to 300 designs, POLLACK premiered its extensive website, www.pollackassociates.com, and announced the appointment of Brad Bloom to vice president of sales.
The last quarter of 2006 brought still more growth, with the headquarters expanding to 30,000 square feet and Susan Whalen becoming vice president of operations. In spring 2007, Pollack introduced a second RISD collaboration, "Women's Work: A Common Thread," inspired by needle arts from around the world collected in the Museum's archives. In fall 2007, Rachel Doriss, associate design director, joined the management team as a vice president.
And today, the "alphaPOLLACK" collection pinpoints the total number of designs in the Pollack oeuvre at 450, the number of showrooms at 20 domestic and 11 international, and the staff at 48. Sales continue to split right down the middle between contract and residential, with the hospitality market accounting for an increasingly large percentage.
Mark Pollack
Renowned textile designer Mark Pollack has been "solving problems" - his definition of the design process - since graduating from the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) in 1976. "Anything you design can be used," he insists, "but how well it can be used is a critical measure of how well designed it is". Put into practice at his namesake fabric company, Pollack's emphasis on both function and beauty has earned him the recognition as one of his field's greatest talents.
He has taught textile design at RISD, Philadelphia University and Moore College of Art. Prior to the founding of POLLACK, he spent eleven years as associate design director with Jack Lenor Larsen, Inc. He lectures widely to professional groups around the country and serves frequently as a juror for design competitions.
Pollack's designs have won numerous accolades, including Roscoe/BOY awards and IBD awards, and countless nominations. His widely published fabrics have been included in many museum and gallery exhibitions and are in the permanent collections of the Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, the Denver Art Museum, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, and the RISD Museum of Art, among others.
In 2007, for his contributions to the field of textile design, he was awarded the prestigious Honorary Royal Designer for Industry by Great Britain's Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures & Commerce. He is the 2008 recipient of RISD's Athena Award for Alumni Achievement.
The fine art sensibility infuses every aspect of a Mark Pollack design: "My background is in fine arts. I am interested in fine arts. And I try to inform my fabrics with a fine art sensibility."
Rachel Doriss
Rachel Doriss has been pursuing an interest in textiles since 1996 when she entered The Rhode Island School of Design's undergraduate textile program. An art major for the 2 prior years at the University of Massachusetts's Amherst campus, Rachel brought training in printmaking and painting to RISD, where she worked in both printed and woven fabrics. Graduation in 1999 brought about a move to Brooklyn NY and a job in the custom department of Echo, designing printed silk scarves. In November of the following year, Rachel accepted the position of designer in Pollack's design studio.
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