George Sellers, Creative Director for Global Views relaxing in the Channel Back Sofa at High Point
DALLAS — George Sellers, creative director for Global Views celebrated his four-year anniversary with the company on April 1 of this year. However, there is no fooling in terms of what motivates Sellers with his designs for the company. He is drawn to the past by elevating it for the present.
Global Views’ presentation of the channel back sofa in new toast velvet during the High Point Market was a work in progress for several years, according to Sellers. “In my head, I have a five-year plan: To do an interpretation of tried and true classics and to breathe life into them.”
With the channel back sofa, Sellers added, “I wanted to make this sexy, contemporary channel back that is still grounded in the past. We lowered it and stretched it by engineering the frame, so it doesn’t need a central leg. It’s low and sexy rather than a high-seated grandma’s channel back.”
Sellers said he wanted to explore an upholstery technique, and channeling was the challenge. This sofa is made in Vietnam. “In Vietnam, they can build the frame, but it was up to me to teach how to upholster to this degree of specificity,” said Sellers. Sellers put together an instructional video to show how to do the deep channeling to the degree he wanted.
“We worked with someone locally who does beautiful work and had him build the channels in the tried-and-true technique and then deconstructed it and created a training video about that for our Vietnamese factory,” said Sellers. The resulting sofa got raves at the Las Vegas Market in January when it was covered in peacock velvet and was introduced at High Point in toast velvet.
This channel-back sofa was initially launched at the January Las Vegas Market, and relaunched this spring in a warm Toast velvet cover.
If you notice a certain artistry about the upholstered pieces, it’s because Sellers is a trained studio artist. He has a degree in art history with a focus on Greco-Roman art and architecture. Sellers then studied in Italy for his master’s degree. “I like to go back to the source. I can start with the classics and go completely modern. I’m usually inspired by something in Rome with its classic Greco-Roman architecture,” he said.
Another influence for the very modern Sellers is the late medieval period. “During this time, there was an awakening. Furniture had been so clunky for so long, and Italians started going crazy with their pursuit and understanding of perspective and furniture evolved considerably.”
Currently, the company has the Evelyn chair in its lineup that Sellers likens to a sinuous interpretation of a renaissance wing chair.
“Global Views has been known as the color wild child: color, color, color,” said Sellers, adding, “For this High Point, we desaturated the color and rebuilt the collection in a comprehensive way. We focused on making the colors more dusty, thoughtful.”
The color introductions included a mossy green that Sellers refers to as his “Miss Haversham green.”
Sellers’ plan is to try to come out with one lead sofa per season. For the October High Point Market this year, Sellers is working on something that he’s excited about, He can’t share the details just yet; however, he promises it will be a creative re-envisioning of a classic.
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