Originally aired on Wednesday, 01/31/2007 Episode Rating: *** (3 stars out of 5) Episode Overview: In this, the first episode of Bravo's foray into the world of interior design, we meet the designers and judges, have the very first challenge, and say goodbye to not one but two contestants.
Episode Highlights:

• The twelve designers arrive, learn the lay of the land, and have to partner up for their very first challenge.
• Successful design focuses on the needs of the client, but for this challenge, the client is a mystery guest, and their only clues to the person's style are only five random objects.
• Most of the partnerships are successful, but there is one pairing that is incredibly dysfunctional, ergo, highly entertaining.

Recap: First it was clothes, then food...now Bravo has gotten its clever paws on interior design. Top Design is looking to capitalize on the same successful formula as Bravo's other shows Top Chef and Project Runway. Will that formula work, however, for something on the scale of interior design? The premiere episode showed promise. We start the show with the usual: the arrival of all the contestants at the men's and women's separate lofts. (Regarding the lofts: ugh. Cinder block walls? Is this some new style I am unaware of? The prison/dorm room/slit-your-wrists-'cuz-your-living-space-is-so-grim movement?) We meet our twelve contestants and get a quick sense of their style and personality:

• Goil Amornvivat - His first name is pronounced "Goil, like gargoyle" he helpfully tells another contestant. Goil is highly educated, and sees his role as a design is to be a problem-solver, not a stylist.


• Felicia Bushman - Speaking charitably, one could call her very detail-oriented, as she says she would like to take her design to the level of staging the food in the fridge and placing the toothbrushes in the bathroom.


• Andrea Keller - She is an architect who also teaches design.




• Michael Adams - He says he's always been into design, and when he was little, he spent his time watching "Dynasty" and commenting on interior design. He is wearing not one but two polo shirts with popped collars, and so unless this was actually shot about three years ago, I'm suspicious of him.


• Heather Ashton - She has no formal design education.





• Elizabeth Moore - She works in production design





• Ryan Humphrey - He declares his design sensibility is half Henry Rollins/Evil Knievel. He is wearing a Hawaiian shirt. He arrives on a skateboard. He says he likes to think "outside the box." Right, we got that from all the obvious "wacky" and "edgy" stuff you just trotted out. Yawns.


• Matt Lorenz - He is a family man, and sees design as being an everyday thing.




• Lisa Turner - She has 25 years of experience and sees her style as modern ethnic.




• Carisa Perez Fuentes - She is currently a student of design at FIT.




• John Gray - He arrives at the loft and is irritated because he thinks the others guys are "queeny."




• Eric Kolacz - He likes to focus on the client's needs.

A note from host Todd Oldham tells the designers to meet him at the Pacific Design Center. Upon their arrival, he lets them know that his role on "Top Design" will be to act in a consultative mentoring role, and he will not be judging the results. Effectively: he is their Tim Gunn. The Pacific Design Center, a very fancy, high-end central location for a variety of design products and furniture, will be their home throughout the competition. After the designers see their spacious workroom at the center, Todd gives them the details on their first competition. They have five objects - a disco ball, a velvet painting, a butterfly in a shadow box, a large ceramic head and some kind of ball television (I couldn't figure that one out) - provided by a mystery client. They have to design a relaxing "inner sanctum" room for this mystery client, just based on the items. Todd shows them their design area - six large white spaces - and lets them know they will have access to seamstresses and carpenters. They will also have a whopping $50,000 budget to "spend" at the Design Center, i.e., borrow items for use in the rooms, and $1,250 for paint and lumber. Of course, since there are only six spaces for twelve designers, the contestants will have to pair up. They are matched using the paint strips they had previously selected. Most of the pairings, like Goil/Elizabeth, Andrea/Ryan, Eric/Carisa, and Matt/Felicia seem to hit it off and decide on a plan without too much friction. Lisa, who admits she likes control, seems to overpower Heather. Heather - like me - seems a little leery of Lisa's idea of an Asian-inspired inner sanctum. While that might, in a rather on-the-nose way, cover the "relaxing" part, it seems to bear no relation to the items the mystery client provided. John and Michael are also not working well together. It's like two tomcats in a sack. They're so busy arguing with each other, I get no sense of what their design is. During the "shopping" spree at the PDC, John and Michael continue to bicker, and Heather is aghast to find at the end of the spree that she and Lisa are $10,000 under budget. When the work starts, Heather has even more concerns. As she watches the developments in the other rooms, she realizes she and Lisa have no design element, and that they are being "decorators not designers." And the bag of tomcats rolls into the workspace, as Michael seems to shrink away from the physical labor (he admits he's never painted anything) and John continues to bully him. After a gentle mid-process critiquing from Todd, and much frenzied last minute activity, the rooms are completed, and the designers head to the White Room to be judged and meet their mystery client. The first "Top Design" judge is big name product designer, Jonathan Adler. Next is "tastemaker" and designer Kelly Wearstler, and finally Editor-in-Chief of "Elle Décor, Margaret Russell. The designers learn who their mystery client: Alexis Arquette, transgendered sibling in the acting Arquettes family of Rosanna, David, and Patricia. Carisa immediately wishes she had gone a little crazier with the design. The judges, designers and Alexis head out to view the rooms, and to hear the designers' thoughts and goals through the process. Felicia and Matt used a relaxing palette of neutrals, and added a niche and banquette architectural elements. Margaret Russell has some concerns about the banquette height, and while they all feels Alexis's items would fit in the room in a "curatorial" way, the design itself is not as reflective of the personality as would be desired. Heather and Lisa's Asian-inspired room is not otherwise very inspiring. Lisa is in love with the Chinese wedding bed that is the room's focal point, but again, there is nothing remotely evocative of the objects in the room. Carisa and Eric's room is playful and young, with wasabi green walls. However, Carisa's reaction that they should have gone a little further with the more whimsical elements seems to be the reaction of the judges and Alexis as well. Despite their difference, Michael and John managed to complete their room. It looks tasteful and well-staged, but same issues: not enough client. Ryan and Andrea also created a green room, and while they were able to capture more of the feeling of the items, Margaret thinks they went a little too literal, with a large mirror installation that too closely mimicked the look of the mirror ball, and that it looks like a "reasonably sophisticated dorm room." Ouch! Goil and Elizabeth seemed to take the most risks. They created a sand pit in the middle of the room and hung a swing settee above it. They created a large art installation of paint chips, painted a blackboard on one wall, and included a variety of slightly oddball items, including one bizarro giant yellow bell pepper that I am now sort of in love with and hope Bravo decides to license and sell key design items like this one from the show. Alexis gamely tries the swing chair and finds it comfortable, but it concerns Margaret that there are not other places to sit in the room. Back in the White Room, the tomcats are out of the bag and John and Michael rip each other apart in front of the judges. While John's bullying initially seemed more off-putting to me, Michael's rather entitled reluctance to do the manual labor offends the judges, who are shocked that he's never painted before. Heather and Lisa are also in the judges' sites for their failed design. Matt/Felicia and Goil/Elizabeth are the two sets of partners the judges felt did best, and Goil and Elizabeth are declared the Top Design for this week. Jonathan tells them this will give them a "leg up" in the next competition. Michael and John, although in bottom two, are declared safe, although Jonathan sternly tells Michael he needs to learn to paint, and Heather and Lisa are eliminated. It appears there isn't yet a cute kiss-off phrase for this show, like "You're OUT!" or "Please pack your knives and go" as Jonathan just bluntly tells the two "Goodbye." However, as he dismisses the rest of the group, he offers up what I think SHOULD be the cute kiss-off phrase: "See you later, Decorator!" I'm starting a write-in campaign today! This first show did a much better job than I had anticipated of successfully compressing a large-scale project like designing and installing a room into an hour. With the current mix of talent and abrasive personalities, "Top Design" looks to be another solid entry into Bravo's reality contest line. Definitely worth a look! - Leslie Seaton, BuddyTV Staff Columnist