We have heard it all before—more times than we’d like to, in fact—the recession of 2008 has changed the face of design forever. As in all great paradigm shifts, there are winners and there are losers, and in this brave new world, it seems, the winners are those who are willing to work together.

Design collaboration has seen a steady increase in recent years. Some companies are looking for a partner to share the burdensome costs of research and development; while others are clamoring to create new and exciting products that will differentiate them in a tight-squeezed market.  All are searching for ways to move beyond choices and patterns that have gotten them to the point they’re at now.

We’ve seen Nike and Maharam team up to crate a small run of premium material sneakers in 2010.  And this September, socialite Lilly Pulitzer and fabric producer Lee Jofa announced a new textile collection they created together.

But while these and similar partnerships have been mostly about creating appealing new products, one new collaborative effort has stood out among them, simply because it created a new product category: roller shades that bring fine art into a room.

Just last year Hunter Douglas Hospitality and Farmboy Fine Arts came together for a new endeavor: turning a basic window shade into the focal point of a room. Read more…