CULTURE &
HISTORY: We especially like seeing everyday things that are specifically
created based on highly specalized purpose or with resources that define the
lifestyle at a specific place or time. Whether it's a beautiful bamboo tea
whisk for Japanese tea ceremonies developed centuries ago or some toaster just
for making hot dogs from last year's Sky Mall catalog, I feel like either of
those things are equally fascinating (in how they came to realize) and it say
more about the culture's values than anything else.
SEEING HOW PEOPLE LIVE:
Anywhere and at any point in time its always inspiring to see how people live and
what they surround themselves with. We love visiting people's creative
spaces or even checking out estate sales to get a glimpse into how people
lived.
MATERIALS: We
are suckers for material samples...and LOVE dorky things like swatch books!
(ooh la la) We have piles of them randomly spread around the house.
We believe in materials used in ways that highlight their natural
qualities...to a level of honesty that enhances the product's value and
usability over time.
Favorite designers/artists/architects?
Dylan: Dieter Rams, Viktor Papanek, Donald Judd, Hans Wegner, Allen Wexler,
What's your process like?
For better or worse, we
structure our studio around our life and our life around our studio.
What's nice about that is that we're able to let our ideas develop slowly over
time. This allows inspiration to come from things we own or encounter on
a daily basis. Our most recent work (Segment Necklace, Perimeter Tray, and
Cylinder Shakers) was inspired by a vintage set of wooden building blocks as
well as material samples for our kitchen remodel in using vintage brass handles
on wood cabinets.
One really important
element in our studio/house is that over time we've installed our walls with
more and more open shelves, which now covers about 75% of all our wall
space! The open shelves functions like our brainstorming bulletin board
where we display our favorite findings from thrifting and traveling, books we
collected, photos we've taken, materials we like, etc. By seeing them on
a daily biases, they remind ourselves of the things that inspires us the
most.
In terms of our design
process: Our process is as direct as it can be. When we have an idea, we would
start talking about it, which 99% of the time leads to us sketching it out on
paper of all forms such as on napkins, junk mail letters, cardboard, scarp
piece of wood, and even attempted to sketch on tissue paper (that didn't work
so well..)
There's usually involves a
lot of back and forth between us (and yes, has lead to arguments!). But
we try to stay really objective in make our decisions.
We're both super hands-on
people, so if we get to an idea we both believe in, we then move forward with
making mini models to see them in real life to play with physical materials and
proportions, which is an integral part of the process for us that goes further
than using 3D modeling programs. Being able to explore and play is a big
part of it all, so there are many points in time, where our house would end up
looking like someone robbed our place with materials of all sorts, scraps,
tools, and random models covering our entire living room floor.
How is it working together?
When developing a product,
we work really closely with each other. There's 50-50 contribution to
most products, which is good and bad. We're pretty upfront with
each other about if we like an idea or not (we have to be), which occasionally
leads to extended days of debate and rework...a bit stressful, but in the end
the ideas that survive are stronger and we're both mutually excited about the
direction.
For the other aspects of
the business, we divide the responsibilities according to our strengths.
Jean's the main force behind our marketing and PR, Dylan handles the
majority of the production, but there still remains a lot of overlap in all the
categories, which works well for us.
What household items can
you not live without?
I think we feel the
biggest connection with staple kitchen items so we use them the most...Japanese
knives, vintage cast iron Le Crueset frying pans, Chemex coffee pot,
vintage enameled steel tea kettle, old-school rice cooker, and of all things
our well-used toaster oven...I think over 80% of the food/drinks we consume
touches at least one of these items.
Dreaming of...
What's your ideal living
situation?
We currently live and work
in the same location. It has it's pluses and minuses, but ideally, we'd
like a separate studio for our work...and that work space ideally would be an
open loft where we can subdivide the space for an office and shop.....and of
course...floor-to-ceiling open shelves!
Bigger picture, our dream
is to mix travel with work and be more flexible about our location while still
maintaining L&G Studio in some capacity. Exactly how we're going to
fulfill that dream is still in the works...
What's next for L&G?
We're working on expanding
the L&G line to more furniture and lighting. Beyond that, our goal is
to somehow incorporate travel into our work. We're extremely inspired by
other locations and think a mutually beneficial relationship can exist between
our travel lust and our desire to create. Also we need to do a major
purge of all our stuff (perhaps a spring open studio/garage sale!)
THANKS SO MUCH JEAN AND DYLAN!
