World's First AI Designed Sink - #KBIS2024 Recap
It’s taken me two weeks to settle my emotional excitement down - enough - to sit down and write this post as a way to thank everyone who came to the unveiling ceremony [ or came later ] to see the introduction of my AILA sink for Thompson Traders at the National Kitchen and Bath Show in Las Vegas.
And not only to thank those of you who were there, but to thank others, too, who have written about AILA - the world’s first kitchen and bath product created from a Midjourney AI generated image.
I won’t go into the backstory of AILA here, as I’ve written a post about that, here, for those of you who don’t know it and would like to come back and read it, later.
First on my list of people to thank are the incredible, loving, generous and hospitality driven Thompson family, and their key employees who were at the show, shown below.
L to R, Clifford Thompson, Sr. , myself, Andrew Holben, National Director of Sales [ who had the original idea for AILA ], Alejandra Ochoa de Thompson, Thompson founder and Creative Director [whose bathtub from her own new PERMANENTE collection won a Gold Award from Designers Today! ], Alejandra Thompson de Jordan, Vice President of Marketing and Sales for Thompson, and Clifford Thompson, Jr. - Thompson’s President.
Missing from this image of the Thompson family is Samantha Thompson Lizarraga, who helped her mother grow Thompson since its inception. Samantha is currently on sabbatical, but she was the person who first suggested the #TTweekendretreat idea to her family that was held back in May of 2023 for 12 of my TX based designer girlfriends in the Texas Hill Country, and which the Thompson’s underwrote.
You can read about that here in this recap post I wrote about it, if you’d like to do that, where you will meet Samantha.
Also missing from the above image is Alejandra’s other son, JJ Thompson. He, too, is involved in the family business as the Vice President of Operations.
This family is one of a kind and I have been so blessed by my association with them. Alejandra, Alex, Clifford Sr and Jr., and Samantha: thank you for EVERYTHING.
And Andrew: I hope everyone throughout history now will remember you as being THE ONE with the idea for AILA.
It was a lot of fun to get these early pictures of AILA being made from a sheet of solid copper. Did you know that copper was found in the earth over 10,000 years ago? It is the oldest mineral ever found.
The coppersmithing artisans Thompson employs in Santa del Cobre, Mexico [ close to where Alejandra Ochoa de Thompson grew up ] make each AILA sink by hand, using the same tools and techniques they’ve used since the 16th century. I love the idea that we can now use artificial intelligence [ a new tech tool ] to support centuries old artisan craftsmanship.
Each AILA sink made is an individual work of art, no two are exactly alike, and each one sold is numbered as the Thompson family [ and I ] believe they will one day be collectibles.
The stunning coloration of the AILA sink’s interior is developed through the firing process, not a chemical application, making AILA a completely green product for those who need or prefer products with no chemical additives.
The drain was a major manufacturing and technical achievement for the Thompson team, as my original Midjourney AI image didn’t have one. The innovative drain is completely functional, without disrupting AILA’s design aesthetic, and everyone who saw it at KBIS was in awe of how beautiful it looked.
Many friends came to the grand unveiling held in the Thompson exhibitor space the first morning of #KBIS2024. I was so surprised and grateful to see so many there, as I know how much there was for everyone to do and see right after the opening bell at 9 am.
If you see this post and you made the time to be there, thank you! And, if you were there that first hour, and you’re not in any of the pics below, like you, Meredith Zaretsky Weiss, I’m sorry. But thank you for being there and for what you said to me!
In the image below, you will see, L to R, and top to bottom:
Susie Feia, owner of Feia Construction in Madison, Wisconsin, Ilse Benard, owner of Ilse Benard Designs in League City, TX, Janet Lorusso, owner of JRL Interiors in Boston, MA, Judith Sentz, owner of Judith Wright Design in Seattle, WA, Nancy Holland Young, CKBD/, owner of Nancy Young Designs in Opelika, Alabama and Lisa Slappey, owner of Postmodern Rugs in Houston, TX and also Secretary of the Houston Gulf Coast chapter of the NKBA.
Here’s what it looked like right before I pulled off the black silk velvet cloth covering AILA.
AILA was positioned right in front of the stunning range hood and sink from another new Thompson introduction, the PERMANENTE collection, designed by Thompson founder, Alejandra Ochoa de Thompson.
The PERMANENTE range hood was mounted on top of these stunning tiles designed by Christopher Grubb, who gave a presentation about his collaboration the next day, which you can watch on You Tube here.
That’s Andrew on the other side of AILA. Thompson filmed the unveiling presentation and if you’d like to watch that on their You Tube channel, click here.
This is Patrick Meredith, the Houston based photographer I’ve been using to come with me to the two major events I’ve been involved in so far this year, this one and the world premiere of my company’s Metaverse Lighting Trendhouse project for Dallas Market Center’s Lightovation tradeshow, with my collaborators, Annilee Waterman and Shay Geyer, which took place in January.
Patrick captured most of the beautiful images you see in this post and besides that, helped me out with all the things on Day 1 - including meeting me at 6 am [!!] at the Bellagio, where I was staying, to get some early morning shots in their beautiful garden conservatory that was all decked out for the Year Of The Dragon.
That’s what I call going the EXTRA MILE. Follow Patrick here on IG and if you need a great photographer who is reasonably priced, he’s your man.
It’s hard to tell you how much it meant to me to find out that Rob Mathews, the President of Keller, TX based [ [near Ft.Worth/Dallas ] based Signature Home Services, bought an AILA sink for his business partner and wife, Robin Burrill, CEO and principal designer of Signature Home Services, as a surprise for her, after she told him she wanted it for their guest bathroom.
The top image is Robin finding out at the unveiling ceremony that Rob had done that for her and the bottom image is Robin hugging AILA, an image I treasure.
Rob and Robin have owned and managed one of the most successful remodeling and design firms in the country for the past 28 years now, with many awards to their name.
I had a wonderful chance to get know them both better at KBIS, especially Rob, who I found out is an ex-Marine, a firefighter, a paramedic and [ still! ] a registered pediatric nurse.
That is exactly the kind of person I would want working on my home, if I were remodeling, and it’s no wonder they have so many repeat clients, some going into the 4th generation.
Robin and Rob and their team produce a wonderful quarterly magazine, SIGNATURE HOME STYLE, which I invite you to subscribe to here. The new SPRING edition, just released, contains a section on AILA that’s wonderful.
They also write a very, very good weekly blog and I invite you to read this post and this post, where Robin talks about top #KBIS2024 innovations and her favorite brands from the show.
And if you want to get to know Robin better, see this video of her being interviewed by Andrea Lillo, editor in chief of Designers Today magazine.
Here’s Robin, who loves all things pink, with Alejandra Ochoa de Thompson, Thompson’s founder and Creative Director, whose beautiful jewels that we were all oohing and aahing over were purchased on a trip she took to Turkey.
Below are Jeanne and Ray Chung, owners of the extremely stylish retail emporium and kitchen showroom, Cozy Stylish Chic in Pasadena, CA.
Jeanne has been a long time friend of mine, before she was Jeanne with a capital J and before she was named Kitchen Bath Business Magazine’s Person Of The Year in 2022. Jeanne and Ray are also Thompson distributors. For anyone that wants to purchase an AILA sink, please reach out to Jeanne or Ray.
It was so special to have them both there for the unveiling ceremony!
Side note: Jeanne was also the one who designed the entire upstairs in the world’s first ever virtual designer showhouse, a project of my company for then client, Seasonal Living, which debuted in Dec. of 2020.
You can see the stunning bathroom, principal bedroom, upstairs balcony area and closet that Jeanne designed [ and the rest of this home - a collab between 15 sponsoring brands and 11 interior designers ] -here.
Below on the left is interior designer, Nicole Culler, principal designer of House of Culler, who traveled with one of her best friends, the effervescent Autumn Porchiro, principal of Autumn Dawn Design, shown on the right.
Nicole has been the biggest supporter of my AILA project with Thompson from the day it was first announced last June. It was so wonderful to see her at the unveiling with Autumn. Autumn took my AI class last year and mentioned my company and class when she was quoted in this Business of Home article about how 3 designers are putting AI to work in their businesses, which I so appreciated.
And can we talk about Autumn’s beaded dress? These two fashionistas bring a huge dollop of fabulous style to whatever occasion they’re attending!
Thank you both for the tremendous online support you showed to the Thompson family and I while we were at KBIS - it was so appreciated!
Autumn, Nicole and I had a little fun together when we noticed that all 3 of us had painted our nails red! I love Autumn’s fun nails, given that we were in Las Vegas, and Nicole’s ring? #iwantit
Also at the unveiling were my friends on the left in the top image, Zach and Irina, the founders of the Midwest Furniture and Design Fair, which takes place each year in Kansas City.
Will Brown, principal of Will Brown Interiors in Kansas City, MO, is advising Zach and Irina and is an extremely talented designer. I loved Will’s jacket!
Below this top image is a group photo, with Hong Anh Sievert to my immediate right, principal of Kansas City based, Blossom Spaces.
It was Hong who connected all the dots that brought me to the attention of Zach and Irina and Will, which led them to invite me to be a featured speaker at @MWDAFF this May. Hong brought other Kansas City designers, who were attending KBIS, to attend the unveiling, too, Michelle Schneider, Georgia Fuchs, Shelby Puetz - all standing to her right.
Also in this bottom photo is Emily Cathcart, CMKBD, to my left, principal of Emily Cathcart Designs in Bend, Oregon, who also took our metaverse and AI workshop last year, and has been using AI ideations with great success in securing her clients’ approvals to move forward.
Emily: thank you for bringing me my favorite water: HINT’s cherry flavor. You rock.
As mentioned above, I will be a featured speaker on AI and Metaverse Spaces: New Ways For The Design Industry To Create Revenue at the upcoming Midwest Design and Furniture Fair.
Thompson is a sponsor along with Cosentino, Pella Windows and many other well known brands. Andrew will also be speaking and he’s bringing AILA with him, so the rest of the Midwest design community can see the world’s first sink generated from a Midjourney AI image - in person.
I was so happy to be interviewed about AILA, along with Andrew and Bill Cook, Thompson’s Director of Communications, for the new SPRING issue of their excellent regional design magazine, design KC, which just came out.
If you’d like to read the article, please click here.
The entire Gulf Coast chapter of the NKBA from Houston and surrounding regions, [ those who were attending KBIS ] also came to the unveiling ceremony! It was wonderful to see everyone. Thank you all for making the time!
L to R, Peggy McGowen, the recently retired founder of Houston’s most well known kitchen and bath showroom, Kitchen and Bath Concepts [ and a former national President of the NKBA ], Agha Hussain , the Communications Chair for the @nkbatgcc, myself, Rima Nasr, the President of the NKBA TGCC chapter, Lisa Slappey, the secretary of the @nkbatgcc chapter and the designer on the far right is someone whose name I didn’t catch - but someone….please tell me!
Standing in front on the left is designer Judith Sentz. Judith was tagged above and she’s from Seattle, WA and kneeling on the right is Kay Diamond, Programs Chair for the @nkbatgcc.
Agha is a master at online sharing and the NKBA’s Texas Gulf Coast Chapter is lucky to have him as their Communications Chair.
I swore to myself when I started this post that I would try to include an image of every person who took their time to attend the unveiling, and a few more are below.
Top right: My close friend, Laura Van Zeyl, Vice President of Attendance for Dallas Market Center’s Lightovation tradeshow, was there. Laura moderated a panel on the KBIS Next Stage later that same day on The Transformative Power of Lighting.
If you missed this cute little video I took of Laura, announcing her talk at KBIS, within the metaverse lighting trendhouse experience at Lightovation, make sure to catch it, here.
Bottom right: Me giving Debbe Daley a big hug. Debbe is an amazing human, and designer, and she recently commissioned Thompson to design custom ceiling tiles for her historic luxury vacation rental home up in New Hampshire called The Clementine House. If you haven’t seen it yet, you MUST…right here.
Top right: meeting Avril Martin, principal of Los Angeles based, The Silver Lining Design, for the first time.
Bottom right: me visiting with Jake Gulang from Southern California.
Below to my right is William [ Bill ] Cook, Thompson’s Director of Communications. Bill is also a professor at Temple University, and you can read more about his background, here.
To my right is Toronto based interior designer, Judith Taylor, whom I first got to know when she started posting gorgeous blogs about her trips to Japan, where her grandmother grew up, into my Facebook group for interior designers, Design Wealth.
I was so excited to see my TX friend, interior designer and stager, Juliana Ewer, the following day. Juliana was part of the #DesignHoundsKBIS influencer group to this show, and gave AILA one of the 5 coveted #FavoriteFinds tags each Design Hound had been given to bestow upon their favorite products.
Juliana: thank you so much!
All in all, Thompson received 3 of these tags from various influencers on the #DesignHoundsKBIS tour, including one given by Jana Donohoe to the gorgeous SEDA range hood that looks like a ruffled skirt, shown to the left behind me in this image, the first product designed solely by Alejandra Thompson de Jordan for Thompson.
I didn’t meet journalist Heather Wright at the Thompson space, but later, at the AI talk on the KBIS Next Stage. Heather is a writer for Livabl, a division of Zonda, and was the first journalist to contact me to write about AILA for a consumer facing magazine. Her excellent article which appeared in Jan. of this year, is here.
FYI, the AI talk was extremely well moderated by Andrew Long, founder of House of Digby. I did meet Andrew in the Thompson space, but unfortunately didn’t get a picture with him at that time.
Andrew wrote about AILA for Canadian Interiors magazine here and was kind enough to give me a shout out while moderating the conversation on the KBIS Next stage that day.
Andrew: thank you for that and for your support. It was great to meet you in person at last!
My favorite picture of Alejandra and I is below. She’s an incredible executive, leader, visionary, creative, wife, mother, daughter, sister, grandmother and philanthropist. I am so blessed to know her and to have been embraced by she and her family.
Alejandra made all of this possible and I hope more is written about her - a dynamo of energy and still exploring the boundaries of creativity in order to continue to ensure the coppersmithing artisan traditions in her beloved Santa del Cobre live on forever.
Most of you know of her famous Day of the Dead party, held at her home in Greensboro every 2 or 3 years during High Point Market, a party I was fortunate to be invited to the last time it was held. This is a woman who doesn’t do anything halfway.
Whether she loves you or entertains you with the depth of hospitality she’s known for, she’s all in.
Above is the stunning tablescape in Alejandra Ochoa de Thompson’s home for her Day of The Dead party in October of 2022.
I know this has been a long post, but the opportunity to partner with Thompson to create a real world product, conceptualized in my imagination and designed by Midjourney’s AI bot via my text prompt, was a highlight of my career.
Thompson produced this beautiful video showing my text prompt to Midjourney and the process of making AILA, don’t miss it.
It was SO thrilling to see, after the show, that the NKBA named AILA one of their choices for the Top 5 New Technologies introduced at KBIS. Read their excellent article here and learn what else is coming to you for your homes.
My sincere thanks to the NKBA team [ and I know I speak for the Thompson family, too ] for choosing AILA amongst the hundreds of other technologically innovative products introduced at KBIS.
I hope that all designers reading this post will realize that with this proof of concept project I’ve completed with Thompson that now you, too, can utilize Midjourney AI to design a product, submit it for a quotation to Thompson’s Tailor Made program, here, and deliver to your clients a beautiful, bespoke product they would be proud to own, and one which has a very interesting backstory for them to share with their family and friends.
If you’re a showroom owner reading this, I encourage you to purchase an AILA sink, and hold a local event in your own showrooms, similar to what we did on the national level. It’s a wonderful way to showcase cutting edge technology to your local customers and potential customers.
If you’d like to purchase AILA for your own home, any of Thompson’s distribution partners can assist you, and you can find the one closest to you through contacting Andrew Holben, Thompson’s National Director of Sales, at afh@thompsontraders.com.
If you’d like to see AILA in your own homes, first, before purchasing, Thompson has added AR [ augmented reality] functionality to their website, and you can play with that here on their product page for AILA:
https://thompsontraders.com/product/aila/
if you’ve never used AR before, here’s a quick HOW TO:
1. Scan the QR code with your mobile phone.
2. Tap the link that you will see pop up.
3. Now, the product will appear on your phone and you can move your phone around anywhere in your home and the product will appear wherever you want it to appear in your home.
4. Pinch the mobile phone screen with your fingers to scale the product accordingly.
That’s all there is to it!
Lastly, be watching for something very FUN to launch this month, very soon, that will have ignite your creativity AND lead to a fabulous grand prize - and no, the prize isn’t an AILA sink, but something you will value even more!
#trustmeonthat
As a digital marketing strategist that has provided strategic advice and/or designed and implemented many, many innovative campaigns for manufacturers, retailers, tradeshows, publishers, and software providers over these past 22 years I’ve been in business, it’s my job to think about things differently. To be innovative. To always look towards the future.
I hope this project with Thompson has opened a new way for you of looking at how you, too, can take advantage of new technologies like artificial intelligence to create revenue for your businesses.
And if you’re an interior designer reading this post, I’ve worked with almost 100 interior designers over the course of my career to help them move their businesses powerfully forward, via digital marketing strategies to attract their ideal clients and to garner them national media attention.
If you need my assistance in any of the above areas, please reach out to me at leslie@savourpartnership.com.
I’d love to talk with you.
And if you’ve made it this far in reading this entire post, thank you. I truly appreciate your attention and invite you to subsribe to my blog here, follow me on Instagram here, or connect with me on Linked In, here.
In Gratitude To All Of You Who Helped To Celebrate The Launch OF AILA - The World’s First Kitchen And Bath Product To Be Manufactured From An AI Generated Image.
Leslie Carothers
Principal, Savour Partnership
”Named One Of Home Furnishing Magazine’s Top 40 Most Inspiring Women In Home”