Talent Guru John Patrick’s Top 5 Interior Designers

Entertainment, sports, and fashion have each long since developed their own talent agencies, but Above the Fold may be the first of its kind: a New York-based firm representing all of the players who influence a built environment, specializing in architects and interior designers. “I want to represent the best of all the disciplines that have an impact on a new building or public space,” says John Patrick, the firm’s 28-year-old founder.

Since 2012, Patrick has conducted successful business and publicity campaigns on behalf of established talents such as Preston Scott Cohen and Stamberg Aferiat, as well as emerging brands like Alexandra Loew and the Australian firm, BKH, led by Iain Halliday—both of whom represent the new generation of interior designers that Patrick means to champion.

Above the Fold has recently gained work and recognition for FR-EE, the firm responsible for designing one of the largest construction sites in Latin America, the Plaza Carso District in Mexico City, and HS2 Architecture, the New York firm behind Ralph Lauren’s flagship store on Madison Avenue, the Gramercy Park Hotel and Greenwich Village’s Palazzo Chupi.

Patrick’s judgments on the trendiest and most tasteful names in contemporary interior design are listed below.

• Alexandra Loew is an emerging talent, based in Los Angeles, with a discerning clientele for whom she tailors her design approach to suit each client’s unique aura. Patrick praises Loew’s “inventive, storytelling approach to interiors,” and he is eager to see Loew’s brand develop a reputation worthy of her vision, noting, “It’s only a matter of time with an upcoming profile in Elle Decor.”

• As a guest at all four of Mexican hotelier, landscape architect and perfumer Nico Malleville’s Coqui Coqui resorts, Patrick realized an appreciation for Malleville’s blending of history, color, texture, eras, and aromas. “His rooms and ideas are nothing short of exquisite and his perfumes just make the spaces all the more encapsulating. Smell plays a big role.”

• Iain Halliday’s Australian firm, BKH, has overseen the design of many high-end projects in Sydney. “I’d love to see him bring that Australian flair to New York in a residential development, hotel or restaurant,” Patrick says. “He’s got this funky Sydney vibe and beautifully appointed kitchens and bathrooms. His rigor and seemingly endless energy always lifts me up.”

• Designer and artist Petra Blaisseis known for her gorgeous interior spaces, curtains and landscapes (which Patrick describes as “outdoor rooms”). Her curtains occupy an impressively diverse range of spaces, from museums and universities to private homes.

• Patrick describes David Mann’s office as designed to convey a sense of serious business: colored slick black, with a glass conference room and a resin table. Mann’s work radiates elegance and an understated sex appeal. “It’s stylish but not pretentious, decorated but not full-on ‘décor.’”

As a lifelong devotee of fashion and design, John Patrick nurtured his passion by studying economics at Tulane University and becoming a creative businessman. He went on to work for distinguished firms like Rockwell Group in New York, the Office for Metropolitan Architecture in Rotterdam, and Allied Works Architecture, which became Above the Fold’s first client.

In the future, Patrick plans to continue diversifying his business so that it encompasses a fuller spectrum of players involved with built environments, including but not limited to lighting specialists, graphic designers, and engineers. Borrowing conceptually from the art dealer just as much as the fashion, music or movie agent, Patrick intends to showcase Above the Fold’s talent roster in an exclusive show-room setting, like an art gallery. Looking ahead, Patrick says, “My ideal is to have people call and ask me: who do you think I should hire?”