Nate Berkus is embarking on his new role as design ambassador for Celebrity Edge, the cruise line’s new ship, and its first new ship class in ten years. The Midwestern showman is such a newcomer to the scene that he still slips up in calling it a boat. But that’s exactly the type of creative departure executives intended to disrupt their industry.
“They didn’t want anyone who only worked in cruises in order to get a totally different point of view,” says Berkus, who hosted the reveal at PortMiami on March 13, when passengers could also book staterooms and suites for its maiden voyage from Fort Lauderdale to the Caribbean in late 2018. “The power of design was hugely important.”
While Berkus is the project's "design ambassador," the ship's interior designer is Kelly Hoppen, who got her feet wet with a marina’s worth of private yachts but hadn’t done a cruise ship for 2,918 guests. She had more square footage to play with and employ her trademark texture and furnishings by Holly Hunt, Bruno Moinard, and Lee Broom, just to name a few resources, thanks to architect Tom Wright’s revolutionary design, on par with his WKK’s buildings in Dubai.
“We put a strong spine down the middle of the ship, so we could get rid of the bulky metal exoskeleton that limited views and space,” says Wright, of the namesake concept. “People can move closer to the edge near the water.”
The line spared no expense, especially in using 3-D technology throughout every step of the design process for the first time. During the launch, attendees were able to experience the Cave, where they wore the same 3-D goggles as Wright did, for example, to test the view from any chair on board.