124 DESIGN LEGEND Tom Graboski’s journey into design began not on the sea, but on the road. From a young age, Graboski was interested in building model cars and between 1966 and 1968, he and his twin brother entered the annual Fisher Body Craftsman Guild model-building competition. He quickly showed talent, with his success being a sign of things to come. “I came second in the state all three years and was one of ten winners of the National Styling Awards in 1968 for my urban electric car design,” recalls Graboski. “This introduced me to the ArtCenter College of Design in California, where I started in the transportation design department. I then switched to architectural interiors after spending a summer on a big bank project, during which the pioneering interior designer Florence Knoll was both our client’s wife and the design liaison.” After his studies, Graboski designed several corporate office spaces, before beginning to work with a partner carrying out retail and small signage projects. It was then that his break into the cruise industry came. He and his partner were asked to show their work to an advertising agency representing Norwegian Cruise Line for the refurbishment of SS France, which was to become SS Norway. “We were hired in December 1979 and the ship was delivered on 29 April 1980,” says Graboski. “We were simultaneously designing and putting signs into production while breaking in fabricators in Europe who were not at all familiar with the techniques we wanted to use. The early signage on ships was done mostly by the shipyard using easily maintainable materials and methods, so we were bringing design to an area on the ship that had previously been viewed as strictly utilitarian.” That first project prompted a whirlwind of activity for Graboski and his team. Graboski recalls a memorable exchange with Norwegian’s chief financial officer who wanted him to head to the ship urgently, saying: “Take the Concorde if you have to, but get here now!” Graboski was soon spending three months working onboard the ship from a makeshift office in the grand Ile de France suite. “As the maiden voyage date approached, we were informed that no workers were available to install the signage and we should recruit a team to do the work,” says Graboski. “We supplemented our on-site staff of three designers with thirteen of our Miami design staff, friends and family – basically anyone who could hold a caulking gun – and sailed with the ship from Bremerhaven to Oslo and then Southampton. “To say the ship was unfinished isn’t an exaggeration. The cabins were far from complete; we couldn’t find bed linens for Tom Graboski Alex Smith asks Tom Graboski about his pioneering 40-year career in cruise ship design, which has seen him sleep on tablecloths, work on the world’s largest ships, and help to transform the way we think about signage
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