Photo by Michael Valčić

All of your stuff is so happy and clever! I’ve always been really drawn to it. When did you start making Objet d’Art?

I’ve always made art, since I was a child, but after college I liked the idea of these small, functional products that were affordable. I was really inspired by seeing an exhibition of Yoko Ono’s work, where she had all these small, miniature things that you could obtain at a reasonable price. And, I think the first object like this that I made was an artists’ book that I sold at Printed Matter, which used to be in Soho. It was a short story on folded-out rice paper, that went inside a match box. So once I started making these small, precious objects it just sort of kept rolling.

Can you talk about how your work has progressed? When did Optimism come along?

I started the Optimism project when I was in college. I had done a senior thesis, which was our gallery exhibition for the end of the year…

Did you study design?

Design and art and creative writing. You could mix it all up, where I went to school, at Clark University outside Boston. I had written a short poem about an event that happened between my father and I. When I was a little boy, we were outside the Metropolitan Museum in Manhattan. And my father was really a character – came from a very working class background, and worked hard to become a young urban professional, and had a unique sense of humor. So it was just after they passed the recycling law in New York, and you would see these homeless people collecting cans. And my father, empathizing to some extent, walked over to a homeless guy and handed him his soda can and said, “Here you go sir, here’s your 5 cents.” And the homeless man said, “I’m no sir.” My father said, “I don’t have the patience to argue with you,” and walked away.

So, I’d found a quote that said, “An optimist is someone that tells you to cheer up when things are going his way.” I wrote a poem with that line as the intro, and for my senior thesis I designed a line of soda called Optimism. It had the poem listed as the ingredients, and it was displayed as a six-pack. I made these buttons to support the launch of the “product”, as if it was a real brand. I like things that blur the line between consumerism and art. The buttons took off like wildfire. I gave them away, and it was this huge thing on campus. The buttons came to exist entirely separately from the original project.

They took on a life of their own.

Exactly. I made 500, and then I stopped. I moved to New York, and then I started making them again after 9/11. I’d always been interested in public art and things that appear in unexpected places. Some wise people in the art world once asked me what crazy ideas I had, and I said, “Well, I have the idea that this logo I designed could go on the back of a Metrocard.” A woman said, “I love that idea, hold on!” And she opened her purse and went through her rolodex, and gave me the number of the head of the Arts for Transit program at the MTA.

That’s crazy! And so exciting.

Yeah, so I called her, and to my shock, this person took the call! She said, “Oh, that sounds interesting, send me something.” I put together a press kit, sent it, and it came to life. There was some red tape, but we got here.

When I first approached them I thought, “Wow, if they do 100,000 Metrocards that would be so cool.” Well, they’ve done 20 million cards.

Have you gotten feedback from people?

Sure, and it’s been incredibly gratifying. I get random emails – especially when the cards first came out, it was fairly often. I’ve received, directly, only the most positive support for the project.

Well I’d hope so! Does anyone think, “I hate optimism.”

You never know! I’m sure you guys read blogs where people talk about your work. I accept all those things, especially in the context of the MTA.

Everybody has something negative to say about the MTA.

Exactly. So I get it, and I like the irony and the push-and-pull of of having “optimism” being supported by the MTA. Because they need it more than anyone! And they knew that.

Photo by Carolyn Nardiello

Let’s talk a little bit about other projects you’ve done. I just saw the “Forget” spray on Supermarket, which I hadn’t seen before.

Spray To Forget is a functional, conceptual, aromatherapeutic product, designed to help edit one’s consciousness. It allows the user to purposefully forget undesired memories and replace them with desired memories. I got a wonderful reception to that, and had a lot of fun making it. It’s conceptual, but I researched different essential oils that would calm the nervous system and help people let go of tension. I studied people who believe quartz crystals hold metaphysical properties, and I steeped the water with crystals. So I think it has the potential to work as a true healing device, but it also can be decorative art, or kitschy… However people take it.

Where is your work going now?

After doing 20 million Metrocards, I now wish to do precious, one-of-a-kind items. That’s what I’m working on now. They’ll probably involve type, and they’ll probably be personal, but that’s all I can say!

So you’ve gone through this really interesting journey of starting with very personal work, making it very public, and then going back to the very personal. What advice do you have for others who are just starting their creative journey?

I was very inspired by the artist that just passed on, Louise Bourgeois. She said, “I don’t make my art for other people. I make my art for myself.” In some ways, the Optimism project was art I made for other people.

It was very exhibitionist. Buttons are an advertisement, right?

Totally. But what I learned from the Louise Bourgeois quote is that art can be an incredibly personal, spiritual catharsis. So that’s what I’m going through right now.

That idea seems very much in line with the Spray to Forget.

Yes, and now I’m continuing in that direction. I’ve Sprayed to Forget whatever I needed to forget, and now I’m growing into a new space.

She’s managed to turn her cheeky sense of humor and fabulous fashion sense into a wildly successful business, at the crazy young age of 27. What more could we ask for? Check out more of her work at http://a-morir.com

Let’s start at the beginning – when did you start bedazzling and befabulousing sunglasses?

I will show you the first thing I bedazzled. It’s my Motorola flip phone from when I was sixteen. Which I like to keep around for when people say, “It’s not durable.” This is eleven years old.

Fast forward to a couple years ago – I’d just quit the marketing industry and gone through a life change. I was working at a boutique to kill time before starting grad school at NYU for a Masters in Costuming History. I wanted to either work at the Met or be an authenticity expert for films and TV.

One day I bedazzled a pair of eyewear for myself. I was like, “Oh, I’ve got these stones, I need new glasses, let me just… ” I wore them into the store i was working at, and literally they were like, “Um, why don’t you sell these?” I made four, and they sold out really quick. They were in the New York Post, and were on Mariah Carey. Rihanna and I met, and she bought four pieces, and she kind of helped champion it. When the biggest pop star in the world wears your most unique design… She wore the chain ones out, and it was very shortly thereafter that this blew up. It was really that quick.

In seven months I’d quit grad school, quit working at the store, and I’ve been doing this full time since July ‘09. It was just the thing, at the time, that made sense for me. And so I did it.

How great is it to be able to say, “I started a crazy eyewear company, that’s the thing that made the most sense!”

People that I haven’t seen in a while ask, “What do you do now?” and when I tell them they’re like, “Well of course!” I guess bedazzling is kind of my destiny.

That’s the title of the interview right there.

Yes!

How have you managed to get so much acclaim and your pieces on all these celebrities?

It’s funny, because I come from the marketing world, so you’d think I’d be really good at email blasts and reaching out to people. I do not do any of that. I’ve never sent out an email blast. This is probably the first season that I’ve actually emailed my line sheets to buyers. Last year I think I opened 17 accounts, and it was all because boutiques emailed me saying, “We love your stuff, do you wholesale?” Yes I do!

This all really just came to me, because I was doing something nobody else was doing. I’ve been really fortunate in that sense. And that’s how I always want it to be – I want the work to speak for itself. I think that’s why all the celebrity press happened quickly and has continued to happen, because the work does speak for itself.

What has been the hardest part of the business stuff to learn, once you started doing this full time?

Apparently I’ve got a really good sense for business, or so my accountant tells me. I feel like it’s a lot of common sense. But the legal formalities, like registering with the state, are tricky. Luckily there are books that are written about that.

Other than that, time management. Figuring out a good life balance has probably been the trickiest. For a long time I didn’t go to the gym, I didn’t go out, I didn’t see my friends. I was just here working. Which is part of what you have to do at the beginning. When you start a business, you spend basically every waking moment on it. Even if the business is doing well, and you’re not worried where the next bit of money is going to come from, it’s still the only thing that you do. “Why don’t you come to my party?” Bitch I have shit to do! I have emails to send out! The business completely envelopes your identity.

I always have this thing, this thing that’s much bigger than I am. But I love it – this is the stuff I would be doing in my free time anyway. I wouldn’t do anything else – I would just roll around in glitter all day!

Do you see yourself moving into more costuming? Looking around the studio, you have the helmets, masks, bras… all kinds of stuff.

Yes and no. It’s very difficult when you start off as one person and you control everything. If you look at any major business, there’s way more than one person working there. Even the most incredible “one-person operations” have three personal assistants, and there are teams of people running the show. I want to get there, and once i do I can focus less on actual manual production, I’ll be able to expand into designing more. But I don’t want to overextend myself. I’d rather focus on being the best at custom independent eyewear. I want to be the best eyewear designer that you know of.

Do you do a lot of custom pieces? How much of your work are things people commission?

I’d say it’s like 25% commissioned work, 75% what I already designed. It’s interesting because the pieces that are commissioned sometimes later turn into my new lines. All of the weird show-piecey stuff, like the helmet or the mask, were commissioned. A lot of the Lady Gaga stuff was commissioned. Her team will say, “These are your inspirations. We need these accessories, in this color, using these elements. Can you do this by tomorrow?” And I’ll be like, “Yes I can,” and then I’ll start to cry, but I’ll get it done.

What’s your favorite pair of glasses right now? What are you most excited about?

I’m most excited about the d’arcy [pictured below]. I feel like once a season, so far, I’ve done something that really pushes the envelope. This is the fourth collection I’ve put out. The first season was the very first four styles that I did, which was like the “aha!” moment. The second season was when I did the chains, and I was really happy with that. The next batch was when I did the Barracuda [black glasses]. People are lucky if they get one noteworthy piece in a lifetime. I was recognized as a master in design at a Nike conference, and on the top of every weird end-of-year best accessories list, from InStyle to Rolling Stone. And I was kind of like, “Really?! Awesome!” So the d’arcy is the style I’m most excited about now, where it looks you have a nose-to-ear chain.

All of your designs are a jump past eyewear – it’s eyewear mixed with things you know from other places.

Exactly. That’s my weird subversive humor.

How do you find your design inspiration? What’s your process? Even though I know it’s hard to put into words, because it’s kind of a thing we just do…

Yeah, if you are an authentic creative you just sort of do it. It’s harder for me to cook a meal properly than it is to come up for an idea for eyewear. It’s a whole mix of things – it can be I found a really good frame and want to do something with it because I like the shape, or I found this great material and I want to incorporate it into something, or I think up something I don’t think has ever been done before and challenge myself to do it.

Design duo Andy Pressman and Renda Morton share a love for design, sure, but it was a common obsession with a certain Fleetwood Mac album that launched Rumors — the name of their web, print and interactive design studio — which they founded in 2008 with original partner Holly Gressley. Now, Renda and Andy bounce ideas off of one another in a charming “sparring sibling” style, with all the bickering and building taking place in their Brooklyn studio. Unfortunately, Fleetwood Mac was not blasting as part of the creative process, but there was a Frank Sinatra-esque melody in the air.

Whatever they are listening to, the Rumors studio should keep that Pandora station streamin’, because their genius collaborations have already nabbed them clients like New York Times Magazine and Bidoun Magazine of the Middle East. With new designer Zack Seuberling on board, the Rumors team shows no sign of slowing down. Check out more of their work at http://rumors-studio.com

How did the name “rumors” come about?

Andy: We went through so many names. Part of the trick about having a collaborative studio is you only have so many things you share. And we all like Fleetwood Mac. At the time we were heavily, heavily into it.

Renda: Yeah. Tusk is our favorite album, but Rumors was the best studio name.

How did you two hook up and begin working together?

Renda: Andy can tell the story about how I met him.

Andy: I was hiring for a job. I had a website I was making and I needed a developer, and somebody pointed me towards Renda Morton. So I sent Renda an email. After I hit send, I thought to myself, “You know what I should do? I should go on Myspace and see who this person is.”

Renda: And this was back when Myspace was the thing.

Andy: So I do, and I search her by email address. Then I accidentally ended up sending her an invitation saying, “Andy Pressman wants to be your friend on Myspace,” and inviting her to join Myspace. As if this were an important business gesture.

Renda: He wrote me an email saying, “I’m really sorry. Please ignore this. Please continue to think of me as a consummate professional.”

Andy: I was like, “I know how to spin this—by being up front. That’s what professionals do.” But it turns out she never got the Myspace email in the first place.

Renda: That’s how we met. That’s how I knew Andy was cool.

Nice damage control. Some of the best relationships are formed through Myspace.

Andy: Separate from that, we shared studio space in Dumbo as independent designers. We were collaborating on projects and it just made sense at a certain point to bring these things together.

Renda: We went and interviewed other studios or collectives to see how they ran their business to try to figure out what the best way was for us.

What is the hardest part about collaborating on a design?

Andy: We’re pretty good collaborators. Do we run into disagreements? Sure.

Renda: That’s what makes it good!

Andy: What makes it good is the fact that you’re not talking to yourself. The nature of collaboration requires, to a certain extent, disagreement or at least a separate perspective. Maybe the most difficult part is working with somebody day in and day out and knowing their quirks and knowing what they are going to say about something. It is not unlike sparring siblings. Being able to know this is a safe space, but still be able to say that something is stupid.

Renda: We always have to sit next to each other.

Andy: We always conceptualize together, even if we are working on separate projects.

How do your design aesthetics differ?

Renda: I don’t know

Andy: Neither of us have a particular style.

Renda: But I can tell if Andy made something.

Andy: And I can tell if you made something. A designer does certain things because they appeal to him or her and you see that in their work. But I think part of our process is about the ideas more than it is about the design. We both have different things we like to do. I’m not anywhere near as capable a programmer as Renda.

Renda: He’s better at writing emails. Writing really difficult emails and awkward emails, like the ones where we are saying we can’t do something or need more money.

Andy: I would say I’m more invested in print typography than Renda.

Your job requires you to work closely with your clients and understand what they want. So what makes a good client?

Andy: Sometimes we try to give them what they don’t know they want.

Renda: We want something that will make them happy, but also something that will make the people that have to use the thing that they make—whether it’s a book or a website or an exhibition—those people have to be happy too. Which, in turn, makes the client happy.

Andy: We have two clients essentially. We have the people that hired us and we have the audience. So in some cases we end up being advocates for the audience and what the user would want. But what makes a good client? We’ve been trying to put our finger on this lately.

Renda: We had one project in Greece where we had a client who told us to do whatever we want and would approve everything, and money wasn’t so much an object. That turned out to be one of the worst clients because he just didn’t care. He wasn’t invested in the project.

Andy: The best clients are smart and engaged. They take part in this dialogue of what the output is. It’s a fundamentally collaborative process. Like what I said before, we are not fundamentally surface designers or graphic designers. At the heart of it, we think about what it is that we’re doing or saying and how we say it. So the very logic of the thing that we work on is up for grabs and discussion. We want clients to take part in the generative process. They need to be open to ideas and open to rethinking preconceived notions.

I would have guessed a designer would hope for a client that gives them more creative freedom to do whatever you want!

Renda: If I did whatever I want I would just sit. That’s what I wanna do.

Fair enough. You guys mix a lot of print work with online design. Does this say something about the future of graphic design or where your studio is headed?

Andy: It definitely says something about the present. That’s something that distinguishes us as a studio—we do all of those things… We like working with clients that want something in terms of an exhibition space, the Web, and even a catalogue too.

Renda: And it changes all the time. The iPad came out six months ago and now everything’s different. Six months from now, things will feel different again.

Andy: How things are made really is changing much faster people see. We like taking part in that.

So you guys are always adapting. How do you plan to grow in your studio in the coming years?

Andy: I don’t feel like we need to make an effort to stay on top of things because that’s just what we are curious about by our nature. We just follow those pursuits and it’s been taking us to interesting places. I’m content that we grow as readers as these objects grow as reading devices. As a studio, we do not want to grow to be a business where we have to manage multiple designers at once.

Renda: No. We live in this neighborhood and it’s nice walk to work everyday and not have to go to Manhattan.

Andy: Our ideal growth comes from clients and projects and not the size of our business. We are always looking for more clients that interest us.

What projects are you working on right now?

Renda: We are working on an exhibition for the Canadian Center for Architecture in Montreal. We are really excited about it.

Andy: We are excited because they are smart people and very engaged and really excited about the ideas. Because they are excited about the ideas, we can throw out things that are like….

Renda: What if the museum were re-curated this way?

Andy: Or what if the space wasn’t the way you traditionally conceive of an exhibition space?

Renda: And we get to go to Montreal, which is fun.

When is the exhibiton?

Renda: November 11. We also just finished a thing for the American Institute of Architects, New York Chapter—the Center for Architecture. This week is Architecture Week, so for the whole month of October, they bought all the ads at the West 4th Street Subway Station and they are showing all their members’ projects—architects that are based in New York and what things they are working on.

The opening ceremony of “Made in New York” will be held Friday, Oct. 8 from 6 to 8 p.m. in the West 4th St. Subway station. Stop by for a glass of wine (staying within the parameters of Subway boozing, of course) and some thoughtful analysis of New York architecture. If we’re lucky, the night will also include some clever dialogue on spinning classic rock into a savvy business influence—an art form that both Andy and Renda have clearly mastered.

When did you decide to start Fair Folks & a Goat?

Aurora: This is something that Anthony had been thinking about for a while. We met and started working on this just about exactly a year ago – September 1st. Anthony had this idea and he told me about it. It was exactly the kind of thing that I wanted to be involved in. It seemed like a project that had heart. Something that would keep me up at night, and I would want to be up working on it. We officially opened the New York space on November 1st.

Anthony: I lived down in the village, and I would walk around at night all the time. I would see these beautiful houses, and I was living in a 350 sq. ft. apartment on the top floor of a 6-floor walk-up. And I was thinking that there a lot of people, like my friends and I, that were living similar experiences. I was so hungry to take in New York, but I was seeing so much of it via New York Magazine and the internet.

There’s all these worlds that you aren’t in, that are behind closed doors.

Anthony: Yeah, and I wanted a place that could function the way these magazines were functioning for me. But rather than flipping through pages and reading about art and culture and fashion and cuisine, I could walk in and experience them with other people. Walking around the village, seeing all these beautiful townhouses, I said to myself, “This is why I came to New York. Not to live in this hovel!”

So Aurora and I started talking. If we could display those old, iconic images that we grew up reading about in the Fitzgerald stories and the Edith Wharton stories and the old movies we watched… I wasn’t seeing them in my life, but I was still looking for them, endlessly. We had big ideas to open a community space which gave that to people. They have their job, they have their home, and then they have this third place called Fair Folks for art, culture, and conversation. That’s what we’re hoping to grow.

How did you find this beautiful space that you’re in?

Anthony: I used to live here. I think I was either going to the Guggenheim or the Met, and I saw all these buildings, and a sign that said, “Carnegie Hill District.” When I got home, I looked it up online and started browsing through spaces just for fun. I wanted to see what the inside of one of these places looked like. That was really it – I didn’t expect it to change my life dramatically. Then I walked into this room. I tried to play it cool, but as soon as I left, all I could think was, “How am I going to get to that point?” I went back to my old job with a new sense of drive, and got out of my old lease, and moved in here. It was just something that once I saw it, had to happen.

When Aurora and I were kicking around the idea for Fair Folks, we were thinking that we had to find space in the West Village, or near Lafayette Street, somewhere downtown. We looked at all kinds of properties, but we wanted a different narrative. When someone walks into our space, we want them to feel transported. We want them to forget what they’re used to. And it works here, with our entrance and our staircase, and the fact that you have to take a physical journey uptown. So this space lent to a lot of the things we wanted to do, understanding tradition and things that will forever be beautiful and connecting them to things that are contemporary.

Can you talk about some of the events you’ve had here, and how you’ve been using the space to make that connection?

Aurora: When we first started, our plan was to do teas on the weekends. Having people come together around a cup of tea was the initial way to get people to come to the space and stay for a little while. I think it’s something that speaks to an older way of socializing that people aren’t used to anymore, but it doesn’t have to be so out of the ordinary. We still do those, and we’ve been upping the number of special events that we’ve been having. There have been brunches, and musical performances…

That seems like it would go really well.

Aurora: Yeah, it was great. One of them was Meshiya Lake, who’s a musician from New Orleans. It was great to have that bridge between this space and our newer space in New Orleans. Her band and her are ragtime, definitely from another era, and having them lined up here – it was really transformative. The windows were all open, and there were people out on the street who stopped and listened. When the band realized that there were so many people out there watching, they all leaned out the window and played to them. It was really cool.

Anthony: And the acoustics in here were amazing. It’s what the room was built for, I think. There was no microphone.

Aurora: We keep trying to get other musicians to come in and do a show for us, because it was great.

Anthony: The guy that lived in here before was a sound engineer for Lenny Kravitz, so he wrote a lot of music in here. And there were two sisters that were in here that were channelers before that. Some scary things have probably happened in this space!

Ooooh! Before I completely digress and talk about channelers – let’s talk about your New Orleans space. Why did you open that?

Anthony: Well, after getting a little frustrated trying to find the right space here in New York, we started looking all over the place.

Aurora: We love this space, and it’s been really great for us as far as getting our vision out there, but we really wanted an entire house to work with.

Anthony: In New Orleans, it is the full idea. It’s a great challenge, and challenges are fun! We want to create a fully curated space, all the way down to the lightswitches, and provide spaces for people to connect and interact. And in New Orleans, there is a little more heart to it – it feels good to be doing business there. It feels good to be in a place that really needs community building.

How have people been finding out about your spaces? Their allure is that they’re kind of secret and hidden, which is both a bonus and a challenge.

Aurora: Getting press has been really helpful for us, and word of mouth. A lot of people have found their way to us, just by seeing or hearing a little something about us and becoming curious.

Anthony: We do everything by appointment here, because we have to, because we’re in a residential space. But if there’s any advice to give, it’s that we treat every appointment as if it’s the next big opportunity. You don’t know who’s walking in the door or where it will lead, and that’s exciting. We always try to put our best foot forward, no matter who it is. We want them to stay for an hour or two hours, and we want to see if there’s a way in which they can become a part of this.

I think that’s a good note to end the interview on – and we’re really looking forward to collaborating with you! Readers, stay tuned for an announcement very soon about our next event, in collaboration with Fair Folks.

How would you describe your design aesthetic and the way you think about design?

Since I’ve been on my own, and actually when I worked for a firm, I find that my designs are very much dictated by my clients. My clients are very savvy – they have a very strong sense of what they like. If they’re hiring a designer, it’s because design is important to them. The client always dictates the mood.

Which makes sense, because they’re going to be living there!

Of course. And then I put their ideas through my filter, and I help make their ideas more cohesive and functional. If they like this picture, and what it to feel that way, I make that work for them.

Is that what people give you? Pictures from magazines? How do they communicate what they’re feeling?

That’s what I ask them to do. It’s always best to start with pictures. With words, we might be visualizing completely different things, but with a picture we’re on the same page. I think it helps to look at a ton of different pictures and then try to communicate what we like about the pictures.

Could you walk me through working with a client? It starts with bringing pictures to the table. What happens next?

It depends on the scope of the job. I mostly do renovation work. I like to do big projects where we’re really going to change a space. I’ll do decorating jobs here and there, but most of the work I do has been more than that. We’ll figure out how the space needs to function, if there’s a bathroom or kitchen that needs to be updated, or rooms that need to be moved around. Then based on the pictures we’ll do floor plans and pick furniture that meets the mood and the needs.

That’s a nice segue into how I met you – at BKLYN Designs this year. Several of the furniture designers and makers you work with were there.

Right. I do a ton of custom work. I know exactly how I think something should look for my client. Once I get to know them and start to sense their needs and what they like, I find that’s it’s not easy to just go out and buy a pre-existing piece that I think will be right. So 95% of what I buy, I design.

Cool!

I found some really great artisans in Brooklyn – a lot of people that are younger and starting their own businesses, or maybe have been in business for five years. You know some of them – I work a lot with Uhuru and Matthew Fairbank. They are really passionate about their craft, and it’s been great to work with them. I’ll bring them a certain idea, and they’ll bring in their expertise. Those collaborations are one of my favorite parts of what I do.

How did you get into interior design? When did you know it’s what you wanted to do?

When I was in college, I interned at Black Book magazine, and when I graduated I worked there for two years. I kind of floated around there – I started in the art department, I worked in the fashion department… I knew I wanted to do something creative but I wasn’t sure exactly what. Eventually I figured out that publishing wasn’t for me, so I went back to school for interior design. It seemed like a flexible profession, and one where I could either work for a firm, or I could do it smaller on my own. And it was something I could still do if I left New York, whereas for fashion you really need to be here.

Can you describe how you transitioned from working for someone else to deciding to do your own thing? That’s always an exciting part of the story!

I always knew I wanted to start my own business, but I wasn’t expecting to do it so soon. I worked for different designers when I went back to school, but I’d really only been out and working full time for about a year. A friend of a friend called me because she had bought an apartment on the Upper West Side and wanted to gut it. She said, “I’ve met a bunch of interior designers, but they’re all older and they’re completely out of touch with what I want.”

My first reaction was, “I work for a firm and I don’t have time, sorry!” But I ended up just meeting her for coffee, and we got along really well, so I took on the project while I was working. Then I got another client, so I just quit my job! It was a leap of faith, and it’s been good. It’s been almost three years now.

What’s been the hardest part to learn about working for yourself?

The hardest part for me is that I’m not sure how I’m going to get my next client. I’ve worked well and gotten along really well with all my clients, but I never know where they’re going to come from – they come from the most unexpected places. I’m always scared that my projects are going to end and I’m not going to have any more work, but it hasn’t happened yet!

It’s definitely a rollercoaster! Now that you’ve been in this a few years, what advice do you have for creatives that want to strike out on their own?

You need to go into it knowing that it’s not going to be easy. But if your really want to do it, I think you can make it work no matter what. If you stick with it long enough, it will work.

What’s been your proudest moment along the way?

I’ve just started completing some of my bigger projects. I take easily two years to do one job. When you’re working on something that long, having a project wrapped up and photographed is amazing! And seeing my clients satisfied. I know they’re putting a lot of faith in me, and hearing them say that it looks great and they’re really happy is the best feeling.

See more at laurensterndesign.com

Design Glut is a very small company of 2 people. We’d gotten pretty comfortable with that, until our latest adventure. As we curated and organized a show during Design Week called Uncomfortable Conversations, all of a sudden we were working very closely with a group of 15 designers and 6 sponsors.

There were plenty of times when we found ourselves less-than-amused by the number of uncomfortable conversations we had to have to pull this thing off. It was a ton of work, but by rallying a group, we were able to make a statement of such greater magnitude and depth than we ever could have done on our own.

On May 16th, 400 people came out to the opening party. Uncomfortable and comfortable conversations were had. Conceptual design was appreciated. And we realized that Design Glut has the ability to bring together the design community IRL, not just on the internet, which is super exciting. Here’s a recap of the our first event – with more shows definitely to come!

In the gallery, a.k.a. an empty storefront in the Meatpacking District that we took over for a week.

photo by Jacob Krupnick

Chrissy Conant’s A2Zzz Pillows. Cuddle up with some Ambien.

Will Robison’s Kevin Carpet Bench. For an hour each day that the show was open, a fetishist was rolled up inside the carpet and show-goers were invited to sit on him. Here’s a series of pictures showing Julio, the human carpet, going in:

Will sitting on Julio.

photo by Jacob Krupnick

From left to right: Liz, Julio’s wife, Vincent, Julio’s adorable little baby boy, and Matthew Waldman of Nooka

photo by Jacob Krupnick

Demian Repucci’s Consumption dinnerware is decorated with infographics that describe the vast differences in food and water consumption around the world.

Vincent Lai’s Deterrent bag is reversible, allowing you to bust out some spikes on a would-be attacker.

Uncomfortable Typographic Situations by MSLK shows what can happen without proper kerning. Also a good litmus test for how dirty your mind is – different show-goers saw different things on first glance…

photo by Luke Escamilla

Body Function by Matthew Waldman. It’s uncomfortable. Enough said.

photo by Jacob Krupnick

Materious’ briefcase/paper shredder (cleverly titled In Case) is a must-have accessory for crooked CEOs.

photo by Luke Escamilla

Chi-Merica by Paul Loebach is a reconfiguration of his Half Mirror, putting an uncomfortable conversation about the ethics of furniture manufacturing out there. That’s the designer, caught nervously biting his nails.

photo by Ryan Heiser

Ana Linares’ It’s Not You / It’s Not Me necklaces are a conversation starter, but a relationship ender.

photo by Ryan Heiser

Which contrasts with Sruli Recht’s Garrote necklace/choker – a conversation starter, but a life ender.

Karl Zahn’s hanging lamp, Heavy, addresses the terror of the cartoon world – death by falling anvil.

And then there’s the Trashlight by Craighton Berman. What do you throw away? What dirty little secrets get hidden in those black plastic bags? If you think you have nothing to hide, or if you’re a bold exhibitionist, cast light on your refuse and put it out on display.

And the final theme of the show was uncomfortable conversations about touching. For those of you who find the subway too germy and and tightly packed, put on a pair of Andrew Haarsager’s Mind The Gap gloves. Should someone’s hand start to drift down the pole towards yours, you’ll be well-protected and ready to impale them.

If you’re the angry type (and New Yorkers tend to be), perhaps you should consider letting go of some of your grudges. Shaking hands with your enemies might seem too extreme a first step – so use Dominic Wilcox’ Pre-Handshake Handshake Device to get used to the motion.

photo by Ryan Heiser

This year, Model Citizens has grown tremendously. In a huge gallery, gleaming white walls and natural light, many young designers showed the freshest design work I’ve seen in a while. Here’s a breakdown of our favorites.

The Model Citizen
How cute are these Model Citizen dolls?

B.Light Design
All of Ben Light’s pieces have so much personality.
See more of his work at blightdesign.com

BangBang
BangBang launched their first collection, ‘Domestic Weaponry,’ at Model Citizens.
More at lovebangbang.com

Michiel Cornelissen
Michiel Cornelissen is a Dutch designer – we particularly loved his jewelry. At just $15 (!) his Happy Bird pendants are a total steal.

Niels Cosman
Niels is a Brooklyn-based designer who does very interesting things with glass and wood. More at nielscosman.com

Directives
Carla Diana is a senior designer at Smart Design, who debuted her “Directives” line of furniture at Model Citizens. More at carladiana.com

Future Retrieval
I’m not at all sure what’s going on here, but I like it. Also, their website doesn’t appear to work, adding to the mystery.

Lara Knutson
Reflective necklaces from Lara Knutson. I will always be sucker for shiny things. More at laraknutson.com

Catherine Merrick
Catherine designed these uber-fun bent-glass-tube candleholders.

Brendan Ravenhill
Brendan showed these fun bent-metal pendant lights.
More at brendanravenhill.com

Lauren Vanessa Tickle
Necklaces made from finely-cut dollar bills. An unabashed flaunting of wealth. We like it. More at laurentickle.com. (Also, how great is Tickle as a last name?!)

We believe it’s the role of creatives to start the uncomfortable conversations that cause people to grow.

“A person’s success in life can usually be measured by the number of uncomfortable conversations he or she is willing to have.” – Timothy Ferriss

Inspired by the quote above, we challenged a group of designers to create something which provokes an uncomfortable yet important conversation. Participating designers were given complete freedom with the type of object they created, the materials they used, and the topic of the conversation they set out to provoke.

As a result, we have ended up with a wonderfully broad body of work – housewares and furniture, jewelry and fashion, graphics and video. Still, everything exhibited here has one thing in common: the desire to make you uncomfortable. It’s your turn to judge how well they succeed.

- Design Glut, Curators

GROW HOUSE GROW
Grow House Grow is a wallpaper line created by Katie Deedy, and it’s like nothing you’ve seen before. All of her wallpaper patterns are inspired by stories. At BKLYN Designs this year she’s showing three new patterns, all of which are inspired by female scientists from the 19th century. How cool is that?! If you want to learn more about Grow House Grow, read our interview with Katie from last year’s BKLYN Designs.

The lovely designer (and new mom!) herself, on the left:

HUGH HAYDEN AND KATIE VITALE
We met Hugh Hayden last year at the GSS Jello Competition, where we adored his jello “chicken” wrapped in “plastic wrap.” Well, this talented guy is at it again. At BKLYN Designs this year he’s showing a line of wall-hanging, framed, ANT FARMS.

Hugh and Katie:

This one is my personal favorite. Fun fact: The black stopper in the upper left is covering the hole that you can feed your ants through!

PALO SAMKO
Palo Samko was one of our favorites at BKLYN Designs last year, and this year he did not disappoint! His furniture pieces have a fun sense of whimsy about them, and his sculptures are incredibly intricate little worlds.

MATTHEW FAIRBANK
Matthew Fairbank returns with a new collection, branching out into hanging lamps and ceramics. I’m digging the bright colors and gold accents, and am always impressed by the impeccable craft of Matthew’s work. To learn more about Matthew, read our interview with him.

ESKAYEL
Shanan from Eskayel is another designer who’s branching out. She’s applied her patterns to ceramics and textiles this year, creating a comprehensive line for the home. We love the surreal quality of the having plates and pillows with the exact same pattern as your walls. For more Eskayel, read this interview!

RAM METALS
RAM Metals is a custom metal-fabrication studio that had a bunch of great pieces on display. Raine Heidenberg is completely new to us, and we love her work. She designed this huge, severe, geometric chandelier.

These planters were one of our favorite pieces in the whole show, designed by Charles Constantine for Platerworx.

The ‘Flight’ shelves below, designed by Charles Constantine for TIDES OUTDOOR, also have very striking geometry.

LAMACEK
Last but definitely not least, we completely fell in love with the lighting from Lamacek! They won Inhabitat’s award for Best Lighting, and we completely agree. I’ve sworn a million times that I never want to see anything again with antlers, and then someone goes and proves me wrong. And the robot with it’s little red heart is, well, irresistable.

THAT’S ALL FOLKS
These are our favorites – go see the show and let us know if you agree!

Stephan Jaklitsch has been the sole architect for Marc Jacobs International. In the ten years since his firm opened, he’s built an impressive 100+ projects all over the world. He also recently published a monograph with ORO Editions which is receiving great reviews. Stephan’s work is modern yet warm. He is best known from the balanced yet unexpected mix of materials used in his work. http://sjaklitsch.com

When you started your company, what was the transition like from being an employee to being self employed?

In some ways it is not that different. I think everyone has this view of an architect as a single person deciding things. But it’s a team of people working together, working with the client, trying to solve problems.

When you start your own practice, there is also the issue of finding your own voice and taking the time to explore the issues that you yourself are interested in. In that sense, it is very interesting and, for me, it was a good challenge.

What were your early projects like?

My first solo project was for a hedge fund in Manhattan – designing their offices and trading floor. It was a great challenge. The project was located in a neo-gothic townhouse off of Madison Avenue, so the design was very much about respecting the spirit of the existing building.

Some of the other projects were apartment and town house renovations. One of my first fashion projects was a small showroom for Danilo Dolci, which is in my new book. The design had to adapt to three different brands simultaneously, which was a challenge. Shortly after, we were asked to work on our first Marc Jacobs store.

Oh, so right from the beginning of your career you have been involved with very high end designers like Marc Jacobs?

We started doing Robert Duffy’s apartment in June of 1999 and then by the fall of that year we began working on the San Francisco store.

And how did you get to this point? Were you with a team of people or was it just you as a sole proprietor?

In the beginning it was just me, working out of my studio apartment. Within a year, we grew to three people – all working out of my studio. We moved to our current office on 27th Street in February of 2000. I remember it being a very liberating thing to finally have that separation. We started out with just two little offices on the 9th floor. As the business grew, we started taking over more and more of the floor. About a year ago we took over the entire floor.

That’s great! Do you feel that there is a connection between your design work and that of Robert Duffy and Marc Jacobs? There has to be an interesting relationship between the architect and the client when the client is also a designer. I would imagine you have to be very in tune with their design sense, would you say that’s true?

Yes and no, it’s not really an easy, one-to-one thing. There are things about Marc Jacobs clothing that make them special – things that maybe only the person wearing the clothes would know. Like a simple thermal T-shirt made out of cashmere. They take ordinary things and transform them, using refined materials or tailoring to make them special.

Marc and Robert didn’t even have a sign on their offices, and the sign on their first few stores were only about two inches high – which is still true of New York’s Bleecker & Mercer Street stores and the San Francisco store. So, their aesthetic was very quiet, and subdued. I think, if you look at our work, you first see one broad stroke, and then as you look more and more into the details you begin to see the complexity in the work. And in that spirit there is definitely a connection.

And, why do you consider the details and texture to be so important to your work?

I think architecture has to work at the large scale, the medium scale, and the foreground. It has to work from across the city, as well as being up close. I think the closer you get, the more information you may begin to process. For each project, we always try to play with details and explore different materials and textures. But there is always a thematic core that runs through each of our projects, which connects the materials we choose.

Is there a specific approach that your firm takes to design?

Well, it’s one approach for a residential project and another for a commercial project. Though, there is a certain theatricality that links the two. For a commercial project, I ask the client what they want the customer to really experience as they cross the threshold. Do they want surprise? There’s a sort of psychological component to it. Do they want calm or do they want excitement? It changes for each brand and client. From that conversation, a certain mood that is set, and then we go onto manipulating lighting, scale, proportion and materiality to reflect what the client is looking for.

Speaking of scale, you have recently been expanding into product design as well as urban scaled projects. How is that going?

How IS that going? It is definitely a process! We are currently developing some houseware products. We are exploring a number of different themes; some of them are directly related to structures we find in nature. That’s really about all I can say about it right now, it is still very much in progress.

We’re always open to doing other things though. I was trained as an architect and there has always been this sort of dichotomy between interior architecture and architecture, which I view as false. I am sort of surprised by the profession actually, and how they view that division. But, being trained as an architect makes you believe that you should be able to design anything from a soup spoon to a city. It’s a natural sort of progression. Most architects get smaller projects early on and as they mature and gain more responsibility the clients become more willing to trust them.

There is always this problem, I think, with clients who think you can only do a project if you’ve done one before. We’ve worked with clients who have asked us to do things because they like to work with us and they respect our attitude, even though we may not have done that project type before. We actually just finished our first restaurant in Milan which is a new typology for us. I had never done a retail store before working with Marc Jacobs and I had never done a trading floor before working on the hedge fund’s office.

No better way to get experience than to dive right in!

Well, there is a passion that you should invest in what you’re doing. As long as you’re willing to learn and you’re willing to put a certain amount of energy into it, I think that a smart client recognizes that they are probably going to get a better project as a result of you putting in that extra effort.

What advice do you give to young architects today that are looking to dive in and start their own firm?

Well, it’s really not a bad time. Actually, a downturn can be a really great time to start, if your overhead is low and you’re willing to take risk. It can be a great time because you’ll grow as the market recovers. It takes time for people to know what you’re doing, where and how to seek you out, and help you realize a project. But, I think it’s also a matter of remaining true to what you really believe in. We take an academic approach and we treat design very seriously. We have never lost that. That’s what we do, and I don’t think that will ever change here.

See more at http://sjaklitsch.com