A fter the September 11 terrorist attacks, New York designer Tobias Wong created a small souvenir called “nyc story matchbook.” Starting with a handout from Florent, a restaurant in New York’s downtown Meatpacking district, Wong sculpted the matches to reflect the pre-9/11 skyline, tearing off the heads of all but two. At first Wong sold the matchbooks on the street with his then collaborator, an artist known as Trade Marc. Later, he made them in limited editions available in galleries for the purely symbolic price of $911.
That’s why Wong was surprised to find similar matchbooks on sale last year in New York design stores for a mere $25. They were called “new york city story matchbooks by tobias wong for Conduit,” referring to the Conduit Group, a company formed several years ago by architect Ray Koh to promote and market innovative design. The problem was that Wong never gave Koh permission to produce the matchbooks.
Wong isn’t the only designer who has complaints about Koh. In a lawsuit filed in April in New York State Supreme Court, he and two other New York–based designers—Andrew Coates and Carlos Salgado—are accusing Koh of illegally appropriating and marketing several of their designs. Moreover, the suit alleges that Koh has withheld royalty payments and has not properly accounted for sales. “He is selling the items and making money and something needs to be done,” charges Quinn
Carlos Salgado alleges that Conduit produced his original design for cast aluminum Bookends without fully compensating him.
Heraty, the lawyer representing the three plaintiffs, who are claiming compensatory and other damages of not less than $390,000, with the final amount to be determined at trial.
In response, Koh wrote in an email that he wants to resolve the issues outlined in the suit, including any payment disputes, and he is “looking forward to an amicable outcome.” He did not
respond to specific allegations of nonpayment of royalties, but said he is “personally overseeing this gets handled properly.” As for illegally appropriating the plaintiffs’ designs, Koh wrote: “Why would we do that?”
When Koh created Conduit in 2004, many designers cheered. At the time he touted the company as a think tank and incubator of untested ideas, stating
in an article in I.D. (May 2004, “Changing Channels,” p. 30) that Conduit would erase the traditional boundaries between client, designer, curator, and manufacturer. For the most part, he was true to his word: Conduit’s website successfully sold dozens of objects, many of them culled during open competitions and subsequently exhibited in galleries. Koh supplied products to retailers like Moss
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