Fellows follow passions to $300K

WHETTING APPETITES: David Dadekian, right, owner of Eat Drink RI LLC, with sous chef Ashley Vanasse. / PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO
WHETTING APPETITES: David Dadekian, right, owner of Eat Drink RI LLC, with sous chef Ashley Vanasse. / PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO

Following their passions led this year’s Innovation Fellows to concrete projects that have the potential to affect the food and textile industries in Rhode Island, and perhaps beyond.

Colorfast, Amy Bernhardt’s project, will take what she describes as a “revolutionary” new tool – digital surface printing of fabrics – and build a research and manufacturing plant with state-of-the-art equipment. A graphic designer, she said she is more interested in launching a company here than heading out of state to join somebody else’s firm.

Exposure to employees of Hope Global through a Make It Happen Rhode Island meeting excited Bernhardt as she explored ways to get into doing surface and textile design and looking at it from the perspective of someone who lives and works in Rhode Island.

“Did I want to travel to New York and be exclusively a pattern designer or did I want to do more?” she said she asked herself. “I had such a strong feeling this technology was the next big thing – it’s revolutionary – and that we could have such an advantage here if we could produce high-quality textiles in Rhode Island.”

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Likewise, David Dadekian will build on his website company, Eat Drink RI LLC, by establishing a public marketplace with stands and/or shops, plus, eventually, commercial production and processing facilities. He wants to see that market become a tourist destination not unlike Chelsea Market in New York City, the Ferry Building Marketplace in San Francisco or Pike Place Market in Seattle.

“We have the great advantage of being a state where it’s very easy to get to anyplace in 45 minutes,” said Dadekian, who is not sure where this “central” market will be located yet.

“We also hopefully can draw tourists to this location. We’d love to be able to say this is a centerpiece, a showcase for people to come to from around the country and the world.”

These are the latest projects the Rhode Island Foundation last week announced it will fund through its three-year, $300,000 fellowships.

The Innovation Fellowships are funded by philanthropists John and Letitia Carter. A seven-member panel made the selections, which included 10 other finalists from a field of 343 contenders. Criteria included exceptional vision and leadership, and the potential to scale and have statewide impact, said Neil D. Steinberg, president and CEO of the foundation.

“The charge by the Carters was very, very broad: Rhode Island solutions to Rhode Island challenges by Rhode Islanders,” Steinberg said. “So, we’re actually very pleased that in year three, we’ve got this variety in different sectors with different objectives and different potential. The long-term benefit to Rhode Island really is the theme we hope cuts through these.”

Dadekian’s concept cuts across “different economic sectors all around food,” Steinberg said, while Bernhardt’s project captures the newest trend in textile manufacturing, an industry with a rich history here.

Both Dadekian, 42, of Coventry, and Bernhardt, 41, of Providence, say it is an honor to be selected as fellows. Both say they likely will be looking to lease space for their projects initially, but could buy a building that suits their needs if the projects take off and other factors, including financing, fall into place.

Digital printing on fabrics has a vibrancy and efficiency that traditional silk-screening does not, said Bernhardt.

“It has this incredible immediacy,” she said. “You can print anything: It’s limitless color, patterns, you don’t have to ever repeat anything and the quality is stunning.”

In contrast, whether using a rotary screen or working by hand, the standard method, silkscreen printing for textiles, involves separating out and printing colors separately, using a lot of dye, more material and more labor, without getting the same dots per inch or detail, she added.

A print-making graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, Bernhardt has been honing her idea for Colorfast since the summer of 2012, when she took a class in “Infinite Surface

Design” at RISD, “fell in love with the process [and] the printer [and] couldn’t wait to use it again.”

Industrial uses for digital printing on fabric include high-end fashion and home goods such as sheets and pillow cases, as well as bedding. Bernhardt’s idea for starting a business outfitted with two digital printers emerged from her awareness of what is happening in the industry, the interest from manufacturers like Hope Global, and the ongoing instruction at RISD.

Dadekian has worked in the food industry through his online business, EatDrinkRI.com, for four-and-a-half years, produced the Eat Drink RI Festival, now in its third year, and also prepares dinners as a chef for parties of 10 to 20 people in their homes.

While the website was a response to the growing food culture in the state, as well as growth locally with small businesses and farming, Dadekian’s idea for a central market sharpens that focus and adds a physical destination to the mix of event listings and media available on the site now.

The idea is for Eat Drink RI to become a “centralized hub” for food both online and as an actual marketplace, he said.

“The fellowship seemed like a great opportunity to get some seed money to try this project,” he said. “The food economy … seems to be one of the parts of the economy that is growing strongly in a mostly downward economy.”

The market could be enclosed or a combination of open and enclosed, and the location will depend on accessibility, he said.

“I don’t think this is going to be a speedy process, but I’d like to try and get this going in one to two years and look at the third year as an evaluation and building process,” he said.

Of the four projects to precede these two, Soren Ryherd’s 2012 grant for “The Retail Project” has created three online stores to date and may open at least one brick and mortar store in 2014.

The other fellows are Betaspring co-founder Allan Tear, 2012, with a “RallyRI” proposal to build platforms to help entrepreneurs launch startups in art and design, food and beverage, and advanced manufacturing; Dr. Lynn Taylor, 2013, with a proposal to eradicate Hepatitis C in Rhode Island; and DownCity Design Executive Director Adrienne Gagnon, 2013, with a proposal to teach design skills through school curriculum and hands-on experience.

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