Original post and photos by Pablo Enriquez. Used in partnership with Apartment Therapy Tech.

Give us a little info on your background. I make drawings and images for books, posters, packaging, advertising, animation, and magazines, which I’ve been doing for nearly 10 years. I stumbled upon illustration in a roundabout way. It started with a Graphic Design elective in the School of Mass Communication at the University of Colorado, Boulder. The instructor of that course, Michael Signorella, offered me a job on the last day of class. I went to work the very next day, skipping my graduation ceremony to go start designing and spent three years learning on the job the ins and outs of typography, visual communication, color, and composition. I entered school as a music major, playing drums, so it’s anyone’s guess that nearly 18 years later I would be a visual artist and designer. I moved to New York in 2002 and it’s there that I eventually quit working as a full-time designer and started my own one-man business as an artist, illustrator, and letterer.

Tell us about yourself and your work: what you’re passionate about, what inspires you, and where you’re going. My work is a mix of drawings, and painted and inked shapes that are scanned into my Mac and then pieced together into a final illustration. I most often look back to mid-century designers, vintage children’s books, tattered record sleeves, and old-fashioned book jackets for inspiration. The goal is for my work to be truthful to what is happening in this moment — reflect contemporary culture — while holding on to some simplicity and innocence embodied by images used in commercial art of the past. Since I wasn’t formerly trained as an artist, a lot of what I do is rough around the edges, so to speak, and I think there’s something to be said for approaching art and design from an indirect or obtuse route — working around limitations and personal quirks to solve a visual problem. I’m currently illustrating and writing children’s books and hope to have kids of my own someday. If all goes to plan, my kids will have a library of books made by their dad. In addition to my books and other commercial work for print, I’ve been directing and designing animated videos and I’m excited to see where that goes.

Give us a little information on your background. I’ve been a freelance illustrator and letterer since graduating from Sheridan College’s renowned Illustration program in 2001. Like most young illustrators starting out I needed a day job in order to make ends meet. So for a few years, I worked full-time as a wiretapper with one of Canada’s largest police forces and moonlighted as an illustrator. Talk about a contrast of worlds. Eventually the illustration gigs picked up enough that I could leave the day job and completely focus on my career.

Tell us about yourself and your work: what you’re passionate about, what inspires you, and where you’re going. For as long as I can remember, I’ve always been drawn to vintage things that have character, good design, and a story, whether it be a guitar, tools, products, or random found objects. I like keeping myself surrounded by those types of things because I find them inspiring and they’re kind of like a receipt for a good story. I guess that’s the artist in me coming out, as well as my upbringing. Coming from a family full of carpenters and woodworkers has heavily influenced the way I create; layering and meticulously working with my chosen materials. The deeper into the digital world we get, the more I desire to produce hand-crafted work. Lately, my focus has been on combining the illustrator side of me with the carpenter side of me, hoping that I can satisfy both of those needs while still making the kind of art that I enjoy making. I’m not sure where it will lead to, but that’s the direction I’m currently heading.

Tell us about your space. What’s your aesthetic? What do you like or dislike? What would you change if you could? For years my workspaces were always tucked away in a corner of my living room. So when I bought my house four years ago, it had an unfinished basement which I renovated in order to give myself a dedicated studio. I also built a larger work area for miscellaneous projects, as well as a workshop. My actual studio space is fairly basic but I love it because it’s comfortable enough to hold everything I need to create work and to relax when I need to. As much as I love having my studio in the house, it’s getting tougher and tougher as my young family grows.

You have an Aeron Chair in your space. What do you like about it? Why did you choose it? I love the Aeron. Without a doubt, it saved my back. The vintage wooden secretary’s chair that I used to use looked amazing, but it was causing damage to my back. A friend turned me onto the Aeron convincing me a good ergonomic chair was a wise investment; he couldn’t have been more right. I also use an Eames Molded Plastic Chair at my painting station.

Photos: Darren Booth; bottom photo – Todd Fraser

Original post and photos by Andie Powers. Used in partnership with Apartment Therapy Tech.

Tell us about yourself and your work: what you’re passionate about, what inspires you, and where you’re going. I recently finished directing and producing my first documentary film called “Linotype: The Film.” It is about the Linotype typecasting machine and its impact on communication and the modern news media. It is also about a bunch of awesome old guys that work with crazy machines.

As trite as this answer will be, I find my inspiration all around me. I love travel and find my clearest thinking at 30,000 feet with my computer off. Most of my favorite projects have started as a result of traveling.

I am currently teaching typography and letterpress classes at Missouri State University and working on freelance design and video projects. I just finished two years of traveling around the world with the film, so I am trying to slow down and decide what is next. I have a few ideas about upcoming films, but I don’t have a direction just yet.

Tell us about your space. What’s your aesthetic? What do you like or dislike about it? I share the office with filmmaker (and “Linotype: The Film” cinematographer) Brandon Goodwin. It is in an old brick building in downtown Springfield, Missouri and we share the building with a few other creatives.

My aesthetic is a mix of trying to be clean and modern but also accepting that I am a collector of vintage ephemera and objects. I decorate with many letterpress-printed posters along with objects found at flea markets.

Brandon and I built our own desks using solid-core doors and legs. This kept our costs down as well as gave us a hand-built feel to the space. As a collector, I can never have enough flat files to organize and sort my vintage finds.

One perk of the office is our single-malt scotch collection that everyone shares. This keeps things relaxed around the office. My current favorite is Lagavulin 16 or Glenmorangie Finealta.

Photos: Doug Wilson. See the short film of the office’s Mirra vs. Aeron competition here.

Give us a little insight into your background. I am an artist by nature and a graphic designer by profession. I’ve been drawing as long as I can remember. My earliest memories are of my mother drawing words in bubble letters and me coloring them in. As a child, I was an avid comic book collector, often doodling my own comics mostly consisting of army ants and nuclear dinosaurs. After high school, I enrolled at the Art Institute of California’s San Diego campus. I knew I wanted to do something creative for a living and I liked working with computers, so it was an easy decision to major in graphic design. While in school, I worked part-time for a print shop near campus, learning the in-and-out’s of the print industry. The hands-on experience I was learning at the shop was more than I was learning at school, so I left college after two years and returned home to the Bay area. I put together a portfolio of school projects so I could look for a job. It turned out the print company who printed my portfolio was looking for a designer, so I began working for them. I bounced around different print shops for about eight years before starting my own business as a freelance graphic designer and print broker.

What year was your studio established? What led to that point? I began working in my current studio in 2004. While in college, I began experimenting on canvas. I was interested in showing art in galleries and began submitting my work to group shows in the area. The living room of my apartment quickly became my studio: art on one side, design on the other, somewhere in the middle was the couch, TV, and other clutter. It was obvious that I needed a dedicated creative space, but I didn’t have much money, as the print shop I worked for wasn’t paying much.

My grandfather, a retired general contractor, built a workshop in the early 1980s for his wood-working hobbies. The space was perfect — he had everything an artist needed: a light table, a projector, a large drafting table, and a wood-burning stove to keep warm on cold days. He loved working with his hands and his personal projects kept him young. We ended up sharing the studio for few years until he passed at the age of 92. Times working next to him, often on the same project, are some of my fondest memories with him. I’ve continued to work in the studio, transforming it to suit my needs, but still leaving room for his wood-working tools.

Tell us what you’re passionate about, what inspires you, and where you’re going. Art and design consume most of my time. When I’m not creating, I’m studying other artists work and technique, researching future pieces, and day-dreaming about what they might look like. I also love baseball. I find it most relaxing to work in the studio with a Giants baseball game on the radio. Though I wouldn’t consider myself a math brain, I’m fascinated by the statistics and percentages in sports.

What inspires me is always hard to answer. The world around me is inspiring. Daily experiences, my friends — most of whom are artists and designers. I’m inspired by books because I like to imagine what the story looks like. Dreams often find their way into my work. Architecture blows my mind, especially Victorian-era buildings.

I can’t tell you where I’m going because I don’t think I know myself. I love being creative. I’m fortunate to have the resources and space I have. Art has taken me on some incredible experiences. With every show and mural, I become more confident that art is where I need to be focusing my time. Not knowing what’s next inspires me to work harder. I have faith that everything will work out and that if you concentrate on something long enough, anything is obtainable.

Were there any special considerations that influenced the studio’s set-up? What would you change if you could? The studio space is special to me for the very fact that I’m carrying on something my grandfather started. The space itself isn’t very big. One room, about 400 square feet. No running water, but lucky for me, there’s a faucet nearby to wash brushes. The heater is a wood-burning stove, but the climate in California is pretty mild and I don’t build a lot of fires. The space is perfect for what I need it for. I have room to paint, shelves for supplies, and desk for my computer. Yogi, the sweetest 13-year-old dog ever, keeps me company every day, often laying at my feet while I work. I wish the space was a little larger and had more natural lighting, but I make it work.

You have an Embody Chair and your grandfather’s Eames Lounge Chair and Ottoman in the studio. Tell us how these both came to be. I do design work for Trope Group in Santa Rosa, CA. On occasion, I go into the office to discuss design and marketing strategies. They have a showroom where I enjoy test-driving the chairs on display. I’m not one to splurge on office furniture. Most of what I have now are hand-me-downs or pieces donated from past employers. I liked to imagine how nice it would be to have a real office chair. And then I sat down in an Embody chair and fell in love. The relief it gave my back was instantly noticeable. So I bought one and use it every day. I’ve yet to regret the purchase for a second. I love the look on someone’s face when they sit in the chair for the first time.

The Eames Lounge is something that I’ve known my whole life. It’s been in the family longer than I have. As a child, I remember curling up and napping in it, waiting for the adults to finish talking about things I didn’t understand. I never knew anything about the chair until a few years ago. It was always just a comfortable leather chair that was great to sit in with a good book or listen to music. So out of curiosity, I asked my mother about chair. This is the story she told me.

“In the summer of 1963, we moved into a 1940′s stucco house in San Anselmo. It had a large, well-lit area — empty except for a dining table and three chairs at one end, a hi-fi at the other, four Parsons-style end tables, and a matching coffee table (made by my cabinetmaker grandfather). It was the heyday of Swedish modern, and my parents were both working and had saved enough money to have — for the first time in their lives — a living room that was in style.

So off we went one Saturday to buy furniture in San Francisco. It’s probable that from his former profession in architecture, my dad had cards that got him into high-quality showrooms.

I was 16, the decorating gene had skipped me. What I loved were books, so armed with a copy of ‘Betsy in Spite of Herself’ by Maud Hart Lovelace (Betsy and I were the same age), I planned to spend the day reading in comfortable chairs.

They bought, that day, a mustard and grey Swedish modern sofa, a black Swedish modern chair, and a 3″ x 5″ red Rya rug. I was underwhelmed: they were uncomfortable and, to my eyes, ugly; the mustard was a disgusting color and all three items were wool — to which I was allergic.

However, I’d had a splendid time with Betsy, curled up in a seriously comfortable chair. When they were ready to leave, they came to find me. ‘Do we have to leave?’ I asked, stretching in the Eames Lounge.

They looked, not at me, but at the chair. They knew what it was; they’d admired Charles and Ray Eames for years. And they needed one more chair.

The rest is history. If you look at the feet, you’ll see scratch marks from Jack, the Springer spaniel puppy who hated being left alone and took it out on the furniture: he gnawed the Eames Chair legs, jumped on the coffee table so often his claws gouged out long tracks, and tore up feather pillows on the Rya rug. So much for style.”

Photos: Ricky Watts

Give us a little insight on your background. I’m originally from Wisconsin and graduated from UW-Madison with a Bachelor of Science in Art. I was artistic from a very young age. At about age 12, I got very interested in the then-new home computer technologies of the early 80′s. I grew up right along with the rapid advancement of computer graphics. As there was no computer graphics major at the time, I took to many forms of art, including photography. I also had a strong interest in architecture and studied some of that curriculum. I landed a job at a local computer graphics company before graduating. The company grew rapidly and I helped develop software (from the artist viewpoint) that was widely used in the movie industry. It wasn’t long before my ambition caused me to pack up and move to L.A. I started working in the visual effects industry just as it was blossoming. This was 1992. I rose to a supervisor level and worked on over 20 major movies during my film career. The last film I worked on is “The Life of Pi” directed by Ang Lee, which comes out November 21.

How long have you been a photographer? Well, I’ve been a photographer on the side ever since college, but started thinking about it as a serious career change a few years ago. I had the opportunity to study with and assist one of world’s leading architectural photographers, Tim Griffith. This really took my work to the next level and I knew I was ready to go full time. The gradual transition has allowed me time to acquire the costly cameras, tilt-shift lenses, lighting, and computer equipment necessary for the best results. I also feel my 20-year experience in supervising the fine details of film visuals really gives me an edge to produce outstanding architectural photography in which details and precision are paramount. Today’s best architectural photography requires extensive post production, which is very similar to compositing in the visual effects field.

While Los Angeles has world-class architecture and is responsible for my love of mid-century modernist architecture in particular, I felt a desire to explore life in a new city and the mountains of Colorado came calling. I now live in my own mid-century home in Denver. I quickly went to work as a top photographer for the regional magazine Modern In Denver. It’s allowed me to meet many people in the design industry here and I look forward to the rapid growth of my business.

Tell us what you’re passionate about, what inspires you, and where you’re going. My admiration for the modernist architects and seeing their work firsthand in California really ignited my interest in architectural photography. I studied the works of great modernist photographers: Julius Shulman, Ezra Stoller, Ernie Braun, and Balthazar Korab. Photographers such as those give me plenty of inspiration to continue to fine-tune my craft. Although a much smaller market than Los Angeles, Denver has many fine architectural firms and the city has a booming art scene and really great restaurants. I appreciate how the smaller size makes the city more accessible than the wide sprawl of LA, not to mention less traffic! I still have ties to Los Angeles and enjoy going back from time to time. As my business grows, I look forward to more traveling assignments in other markets.

In addition to architectural work, I also shoot landscape photography and plan on more gallery showings of those pieces. The Rocky Mountains offer spectacular and endless amounts of subject matter.

Were there any special considerations that influenced the set up of your office? What do you like or dislike? It’s a great, comfortable space. I didn’t need a large office but wanted to have enough room to allow a seating area for clients. I kept it simple and tied it with the rest of the house by including some mid-century pieces. The carpet and painted walls are neutral with bright-colored furniture and pop artist Roy Lichtenstein prints. I brought a bit of the Pacific Ocean to Colorado with my seven-foot photographic print on canvas by artist Olivier Pojzman. The vantage point not far from where I lived in Marina Del Rey. I confess I miss the ocean. I make my own fine-art prints on an Epson pro wide-carriage printer. Quality prints are great to show architectural clients. As my business grows, I’ll be looking to move into a larger commercial office space. It would be nice to stretch out a bit more and have access to an outdoor area.

You have both a Mirra Chair and an Eames Lounge in your space. Why did you choose them? One of the companies I worked for in Los Angeles supplied Aeron Chairs for all the employees. I fell in love with them. I went to a local supplier intending to purchase the same and came across the Mirra Chair. I really liked the aesthetic difference and the color options… the lower price didn’t hurt either. I decided on a green one to go with my DWR Nine.Two.Five office furniture. I also often work on my laptop in my Eames Lounge Chair. I’ve had it for over 10 years now. It’s great when people that don’t know about such an iconic furniture piece still fall in love with it immediately. It’s definitely my favorite place to sit in the house!

Photos: davidlauerphotography.com

How did you get your start? When I was a child, my mom saw me creating drum sets and playing with pots and pans. So she had me begin piano lessons at the age at three. She loved taking family photos and listening to a wide variety of music, and she and my dad gave me my first Polaroid and toy portable record player, which I took everywhere. While growing up in Uniondale, Long Island — which at the time was a West Indian suburban neighborhood — my visual and musical sense became more pronounced. I heard and saw traditional, modern, suburban, and urban black-and-white cultures. My family also traveled extensively throughout my youth. Through all the adventures, I truly enjoyed the exposure, but I really wanted to create my own art and music.

When was your studio established? What led to that point? Years ago, while working in the corporate music industry as an artist and producer, I became frustrated with the struggle to define my art by the titles that my music didn’t fit. It became a daunting task to negotiate with the gatekeepers who tried to filter my vision. I was determined to create a genre that defined my musical style and interests. I also wanted to execute all aspects of my vision. To fully navigate the creative process under my own terms, I started The People’s Republic of Sound about four years ago to showcase my work as a complete musical, visual, and technical artist. My company’s first release is the video “I Got Love” in which I wrote, sang, and mixed the song, produced and played all the instruments, and directed, filmed, edited, and designed the video. I see myself as an artist who starts with the thought, builds out the concept, and executes my total vision from beginning to end.

Tell us about your work: what you’re passionate about, what inspires you, and where you’re going. Right now I am passionate about merging moving images and music as one complete thought made by the same person. Technology now allows me that option. I don’t have to hire a video director, graphic designer, or photographer. I can produce all the things I want without any interference.

I am inspired by various sources. Museum exhibition inspires my music, be it photography, films, sculpture, art, or dance. Photography mainly influences my film work, and sometimes music inspires my photography. I’m also very much into Polaroid photography, and have two SX 70s that I love to shoot with.

Science, design, and architecture are my secret passions. How is it made, how can it be made, what are the effects on our future, our culture, and humanity — these are questions that underline my work. My favorite visual artists are Chris Ofili, Bansky, Chuck Close, and Ron Mueck. Architects and designers Ray and Charles Eames, David Adjaye, and Santiago Calatrava shape my work. In film and video, I am inspired by the moody and futuristic tones of directors Chris Cunningham, Michel Gondry, Stanley Kubrick, Spike Lee, and Ernest Dickerson. Japanese cyberpunk animation like Ghost in the Shell and Appleseed influences my style; I like how humans interact with technology. In music, my taste is so varied: Gregory Porter, Radiohead, Aphex Twin, John Mayer, The Spinners with Philippe Wynne, Prince, Wolfgang Gartner, Crosby Stills and Nash, James Taylor, Bjork, and The Gorillaz. Brazilian soul music and anything with soul moves me. I also use Pinterest as a source of inspiration to collect, tell, and define my style.

Tell us about your space. How would you define your aesthetic? What do you like or dislike about it? With my company, I’m trying to redefine a creative person — to make a boutique multimedia label based around one person. The space I live presently is not ideal. When I bought the house, my girlfriend and I had to rent out the top two floors. I was going to put a studio in the basement, but I wanted to have some natural light. At the moment this is a temporary space until I take over the floor above me; I’ll then turn it into one big visual and music studio. In the meantime, I created a small workstation much like a graphic designer’s and less like musician’s, which I’ve grown to like. Space is very challenging, because on occasion, clients come over or I need to record vocals late at night while my girlfriend is sleeping. Again, it’s temporary. I’m working on making it more modern with an organic, warm feel and a touch of cyberpunk.

You have a SAYL chair in the office. Why did you choose it? I decided to buy a task chair because I sit a lot and my back was beginning to hurt me. I wanted to buy something that was the right price with great quality. I was used to the Aeron chair in bigger recording studios, but wanted something smaller and lighter for this small space. I was always a big Herman Miller fan. (I still have dreams about the Eames lounge chair.) I love the SAYL’s futuristic design, which is unlike any other chair on the market. It fits just like any other Herman Miller chair: supportive and comfortable, yet easy to maintain. The design fits well with my modern aesthetic — I just fell in love with it. You don’t know how much strain you are putting on your back until you get a good chair and you feel the relief. And I love that it photographs well, too.

Photos: Thomas Piper; Tie by Pomi Power

Tell us about your background. As a kid I grew up drawing logos, cartoons, and Nintendo game characters with my older brother, Brad. I was always more attracted to simple graphics. Along with drawing I was always taking something apart and trying to rebuild it or re-purpose scrap components for something else. Every day I was making some type of Rube Goldberg machine or drawing in my sketch pad (an 18″ x 24″ spiral bound).

I got my BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, MD. I moved back to Cincinnati after graduating and got married to my wife Jennifer. We considered moving somewhere else, but made the choice to stay and invest in the city and continue to grow the amazing friendships we had here.

Most of my inspiration comes from word puns, strange human interactions, and the overlap between Art and Design. Some of my favorite artists include Henri Matisse, Charley Harper, Saul Steinberg, M.C. Escher, Paul Rand, René Magritte, and Josef Albers.

I have always wanted to build our own house. I love the concept of the Eames House, Case Study House #8, and the environment it created for their work.

Tell us about your space. Any special considerations that influenced its set up? The studio is the top floor of our house.  I used to have my studio downtown, but after we moved we compressed our residence onto just the first floor to allow for a studio to be combined. The setup is great because I have all my workspaces on one floor.  There is a main studio where I make most of my work, a workshop with all my tools and materials, a music room, a kitchen, and a bathroom. The space is very efficient. I can walk downstairs at any time to see my family, eat a snack, hang out, and head back upstairs to work. The idea of the home studio is extremely appealing and I would love to have it also function as a guest house for friends and other artists.

You have a few pieces by Charles and Ray Eames in your office. Why did you choose them? They are just as nice to look at as they are to sit in. Every line is so simple and beautiful. They are easily the best chairs we own.

Photos: Andrew Neyer

You started your photography studio in 2005. What led to that point? I started out photographing weddings in college. Several of my classmates did not see the “art” in shooting weddings, so they would turn those kind of projects down. I personally thought it was a great way to gain experience. I wound up contacting other photographers in the area and shadowing them as well. I talked with all types: a horse photographer (yes, that is a thing), studio portrait photographers, wedding photographers, press photographers with the Houston Chronicle, and even a crime scene photographer. Working with these different types of photographers helped me to find what I was good at.

I shot on the side for quite a few years. Soon, after getting tired of working outside sales for a mobile company, I decided to jump in feet first and see if I could run a successful studio.

Tell us what you’re passionate about, what inspires you, and where you’re going. Of course, I am passionate about photography; but deeper than that, I would say I am passionate about people. I want to give my clients not only great images but also a great experience. I always tell my friends that I want my clients to choose me because of me — my personality and my work, not because I fit their budget. Inspiration for me comes from everywhere. Other photographers in my area inspire me, as do graphic designers and movies. As for where I am going, I honestly just want to keep photographing weddings and hopefully do more destination weddings.

Tell us about your space. Were there any special considerations that influenced its set up? What would you change if you could? My current space was designed with Eames and Herman Miller furniture in mind. My previous studio was a 100-year-old farmhouse that was designed for my clients’ needs only. It was great and it had a lot of character, but I didn’t feel like it expressed me as a whole. So when it came time to move, I knew I wanted all new (and some vintage) furniture for the place. The new studio is located in a warehouse/business complex. There are several other creatives in the complex, which helps with inspiration. I love the concrete floors, but do not like that I am the second floor.

Why did you chose these particular Herman Miller pieces? My first Herman Miller pieces were the four vintage orange Eames molded fiberglass chairs. I knew I wanted them at my meeting table. I love how the orange pops and how it reminds a lot of people of their old school chairs. My favorite is the Eames Storage Unit (I will never let that one go). It is very versatile, has plenty of storage, and is a piece of art in itself. And I like that I can move my Nelson tables around easily and rearrange the seating areas.

I knew I wanted original Herman Miller pieces and not knock-offs. I scoured Craigslist, garage sales, storage auctions, and business furniture liquidators. I chose these pieces because they function as art; to me, they are not just chairs — there is a lot of nostalgia there.

Photos: Clark Lara

What year was your firm established? What led to that point? MASS was co-founded by then-Harvard graduate students, Michael Murphy and Alan Ricks, in 2008. Deciding to take a break from design charrettes, Michael attended a lecture by Partners in Health co-founder Paul Farmer, and the conversation about how a built-environment has a direct impact on our lives, especially health, began. This led to the building of our most celebrated project, the Butaro Hospital in Rwanda, in 2011. Now, MASS is a 501(c)(3) pending firm and we’re looking forward to continual growth.

Tell us about your studio space. Any special considerations that influenced its set up? What do you like or dislike? At MASS, we value collaboration. Everyone brings something valuable to the table, so naturally, our studio space reflects this dynamic. Our main working space is modeled like a conference room, with individual tables joining together to make one big communal table. We have a cute little nook that is encased in glass which gives a nice view of the courtyard (its Herman Miller furniture makes the space even cooler). We also have a small presentation room where we all can convene and critique presentations before they are completed as final, polished versions. We just recently upgraded one of our walls in the main working space to be a whiteboard for project tracking.

With several projects happening around the world at the same time, what does a typical day in Boston look like? How do you coordinate with teams in the field? There is no typical day in Boston as the team is always coming in and out from our different sites and offices around the world. The faces you see around the table one day could be different from the next. With lots of projects on the docket, we put in long hours to deliver the best designs to the communities and partners we work with, but try to keep it fun. Because we have such a global team, we have had to get creative in coordinating conference calls between multiple time zones and spotty connections. There have been many early morning and late night Skype calls as well as some interesting devices to make it all work. One of the most satisfying feelings is when our team members from different sites get to meet face to face after months (or even longer!) of exclusive communication through technology.

Have any of your projects influenced the design of your space? Our space is filled with models and boards from all of our past projects. Our communal work space puts everyone from principals to interns, designers, and researchers in the same room and at the same long table. Aside from our couch space, we don’t have any closed off or private offices. We think this allows for a more collaborative design process and work culture across all of our projects.

What are you working on at the moment? We have a lot going on! We just broke ground on two health facilities in Port-au-Prince, Haiti [photos below], and are finishing up a housing complex for doctors and staff working at the MASS-designed Butaro Hospital in Rwanda. This summer we are also working on the design of a pediatric hospital in Monrovia, Libera, for the John Snow Institute; a renovation of an old facility to create the first cancer center in Rwanda; and an ongoing research project that is working to create a database of design methods for infection control around the world. Exciting things are happening at MASS — stay tuned.

More than two years after Haiti’s devastating earthquake, medical patients are still housed in poorly ventilated shelters.

In Port-au-Prince, MASS begins to break ground on these much-needed health facilities.

Photos: MASS

What do you listen to while you work? It depends on what I am doing at the moment. If I am in the studio, I usually start with R&B or bossa nova. Bossa nova seems like the perfect sound to ease into the day. And for practical purposes, it is just there and enjoyable without having to hit you over the head with its presence. But usually I end up back at the R&B vault. Lately, toward the end of the day, I have found myself tuning into jazz-inspired electronica artists like Shigeto and Shlohmo.

If I am in the workshop using sanders and saws, I put on reggae or jazz vocalists from the 50s and 60s. Especially Lambert, Hendricks and Ross. Even when what I am doing is super noisy, I can still hear the music.

How do you listen? I should be a sales rep for the Bose Companion system. We have four of these. They are great for hooking up to your iPod or iPhone and also streaming Pandora or Last.fm. We use these while shooting or making surfaces.

At my desk I use Sony headphones (that I had bought to use for recording sound for video, but ended up mostly using to listen to music) and my iMac or just the iMac.

Do you have any favorite music websites/providers? We jump back and forth from Pandora and Last.fm. Maybe a bit more lately with Pandora.

Where do you find music recommendations? Mostly online. I’ll spend time going through the iTunes store and one thing leads to another. I also tune into NPR and Soundcheck. And of course there’s nothing like having an assistant or client plug in their iPhone or iPod to get a whole new outlook on music.

What song or artist best represents the work you create? I would say it is a toss up between Sergio Mendes and Stevie Wonder. The song “So Nice” from Sergio Mendes and Brasil ’65 is fantastic as it straddles jazz and pop and has an amazing vocalist in Lani Hall — not from Rio, but from Chicago! And “Don’t You Worry ‘Bout a Thing” from Innervisions by Stevie Wonder is an all-time favorite and Latin-soul inflected. Upbeat and beautiful.

Ideal place to sit and listen to your playlist: The Eames Aluminum Group Management Chair in black. I’m all about fun and function, plus beauty ranks pretty high on my list of things to have.

JIM’S PLAYLIST

1. Mais Que Nada, Sergio Mendes & Brasil ’66
2. He’s Misstra Know-It-All, Stevie Wonder
3. Got to Give It Up, Marvin Gaye
4. Love T.K.O., Teddy Pendergrass
5. Soaring, Shigeto
6. The Look of Love, Sergio Mendes & Brasil ’66
7. Let’s Stay Together, Al Green
8. Didn’t Cha Know, Erykah Badu
9. Sumthin’ Sumthin’, Maxwell
10. Places, Shlomo

cred

Photos: Jim Franco

How long have you been working as a photographer? What drew you to shooting? I graduated with a BFA in 2002 from the from Alberta College of Art & Design. Assisting for 4 years I officially started shooting full time in 2006. I originally went to college to specialize in graphic arts/design, but changed my major after the first year. I really had a hard time sitting in the same room working on drawings all day. Photography allows you the freedom to explore the environment around you. I appreciate this and wanted to fully discover the medium.

Tell us about your workspace. Any special considerations that effected the way it is set up? I actually share a workspace with two other photographers. It’s a large setup with a car studio and two smaller studios. I feel very fortunate to have the freedom of space.  The first part of the series started in the studio space but found some of them would take me far too long with many interruptions. I recently moved it to my office above the studio and am able to work on the projects much easier.

Your new work, Disassembly, strips down electronics to their elements. You’ve managed to capture a real beauty in the bits and pieces that come together to form once ubiquitous pieces of technology. The typewriter and rotary phone certainly no longer have a place in our home offices. Was there a reason you didn’t choose a laptop or cell phone? Most everything that I have taken apart has been mechanical. If you press a button or turn a knob you can physically see it doing its job. They are very interesting and complex inside. New technology although very complex, is not on a level you can see physically. I have taken apart my iPhone before and inside there are minimal parts.

What inspires you in your work? Things I see, sounds I hear, conversations with people, it’s amazing what can come up if you let your mind wander.

What do you listen to while you work? Like most people, it depends what I’m working on. When writing or reading, I really need to minimize distractions, so I often wear my headphones without listening to anything at all. If I’m painting, though, it’s usually a mix of Americana, folk, roots, country, blues, punk, indie rock, and a bit of electrofunk thrown in for good measure. There are also lots of times I end up listening to public-radio programs and podcasts much of the day. If it’s an interesting story, it works just as well as good music to distract the left side of my brain and allow the other side do its thing—plus it makes me feel like I’ve learned a little something about what’s going on in the world despite the isolation of working from home.

How do you listen? My man and I share a studio/office in our apartment. We’ve got a turntable, Bose Wave, and tape deck set up near his desk. He needs the room quiet much of the day for conference calls and writing code, though, so I usually listen to music or radio programs with my Sony headphones connected to my computer.

Do you have any favorite music websites/providers? I begin lots of mornings listening online to a couple local college radio stations, WMBR and WZBC. They both do a good job archiving their shows and playlists, so I can usually track down a song/artist if I missed the name during the show. I tried Pandora for a while, but have recently switched to Spotify and have started checking out Rdio as well.

Does music influence your work? I can’t think of a concrete visual example that I could point to, but music definitely helps me get out of my head and let the painting happen. One thing I have noticed is that I tend to listen to different kinds of music depending on the size of the painting or the level of detail I’m working on. For the smaller pieces and more detailed parts, I like to listen to stuff like Will Oldham, Cat Power, Scout Niblett, Devendra Banhart, or Herman Dune. However, when I’m working on bigger paintings or on large expanses of sky and ground that require lots of repetitive rhythmic brush strokes, I prefer listening to bands like The White Stripes, Gossip, The Kills, Pixies, Battles, Wire, Make-Up, Quintron, or Chromeo. Not only do they make me want to dance while I work, but I often find myself painting to the beat as well.

Who influences your musical taste? I was raised on a lot of Bill Monroe, Loretta Lynn, Janis Joplin, Bob Dylan, and Johnny Cash, and that foundation continues to influence much of my musical taste to this day. I’ve also been graced with friends who have given me the most amazing mixed tapes and CDs over the years complete with handmade covers that were pieces of art themselves. These days, friends usually just share playlists or links to videos on YouTube. The music’s still good, but I gotta say I miss the handmade covers.

If your work was a song or a musician, what or who would it be? I tried to come up with a playlist that would answer this question with a dozen songs instead; but, if I had to choose just one, it would probably be “Little Boxes” by Malvina Reynolds. When people see my paintings, they often assume that I grew up in suburbia. But I was actually raised by hippie artists deep in the woods of New Hampshire and have spent most of my adult life living in a small but sunny apartment near Boston. As a kid, I longed for suburban life and assumed that people lived normal, happy, and predictable lives in those neighborhoods. As an adult, I’ve discovered that the reality is often far more complicated and bittersweet than I ever imagine—but I’ve continued to be captivated by these types of homes and the impossible promises they offer.

LEAH’S PLAYLIST

Strange, Wire
Little Room, The White Stripes Tribute
Let’s Build A Home, The White Stripes
Repetition, The Willowz
Kissy Kissy, The Kills
Cactus, Pixies
Listen Up!, Gossip
Cabin, The Pack A.D.
Be So Happy, Heartless Bastards
Little Boxes, Devendra Banhart
My Home is Nowhere Without You, Herman Dune
Home, Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros
True Love Will Find You In The End, Daniel Johnston

Images: Leah Giberson

We moved our office to this space about 12 years ago, a modest 1,000 square foot corner of a 1950’s bow-string truss warehouse on what was then a sleepy industrial block of Culver City– since then the neighborhood has changed dramatically, with new art galleries, restaurants and bars cropping up almost daily.

Our intent for the space, in addition to being a home for our graphic design studio, was to balance our various activities and interests. To that end there is a soundproofed shop for building things (with a combination of new and inherited tools from Lance’s grandfather), space for making music and storing music gear (the main floor often becomes one big rehearsal room, and our daughter Amanda’s drum kit sits in a loft space above the shop), places to stash Lance and Amanda’s silkscreens and Jennifer’s many objects from nature that she uses both in and for inspiration in her art (tumbleweeds, branches, seed pods, rocks etc.), an area for flat files, samples library, bookshelves, a small kitchen, and a few under-the desk snoozing spots for our two dogs, Ben and Puma.

It is a space unstructured enough to allow for continuous experimentation– the only fixed elements, aside from walls demarcating the shop and Jennifer’s office are the kitchen and the bookshelves- everything else is on wheels or portable sawhorses.

We find that working in this environment brings an open-ended sense to our time there– on those days we’re not crunching a deadline, when the skylight darkens it’s a cue that it’s either time to go home or to step away from the desk (or workbench) and make a little noise…

How long have you worked in your current studio? And where is it? We’ve been in our studio for over 4 years now. It’s in the Arts District of Downtown Los Angeles. A really growing part of downtown… cool restaurants, bars, cafes and still a very pedestrian part of downtown LA. It’s not far from the hustle and bustle and still maintains a cool neighborhood feel and a strong sense of community among the residents here.

Describe your style? How would you define your aesthetic? It’s hard to define our style. Both Angie and I design and curate all of the artists and the products on Poketo. We’ve collaborated with other 200 international artists for Poketo. We both have eclectic and different tastes, but, when we both like something, we know it right away. We like to think of our aesthetic as happy, modern, colorful, bright, full of personality, and accessible.

How do you keep your work space organized? Our space is a small 1200 square foot open floor plan. We have no dividers to separate work spaces. The way we work is pretty democratic, everyone chimes in at any given time on different topics in the office. Organization is maintained within each of our desks and small shelves above them. Because we house most of our products here at the studio, light industrial shelves are important for storing all of the thousands of goods we carry.

When you set up your office what did you have to keep in mind? Were there any particular obstacles to overcome? We set up the office as open, flexible, and modular as possible. Because we do everything here from design, outreach, packing/shipping, meetings and events, we wanted a space that flowed freely and furniture that could be moved around easily. For example, on any given day, it could be a normal day of designing at our desks, doing a photoshoot and the next day could be an artshow with tons of work on the walls and hundreds of people in our space. We needed a studio that could function as both office and event space, one that could change at whim with a fair amount of ease.

What do you like about the office space? I do like the shelf above my desk as it holds art, personal gifts from artists, and other knick knacks from our travels. The office turntable is also highly coveted, everyone here brings their records in for a spin.

What desk accessory can’t you do without? I can’t live without my Poketo Desk-It and Bookmark Tabs. The Desk-It keeps my week straight and the tabs I use to mark inspirations in magazines and books.

What would you change about your work space? As we are growing, more and more people are in the office. As much as I love an open floor plan, having a separate area for meetings and brainstorm sessions would be amazing. I would love a giant room with huge dry-erase walls, a long table, and comfy chairs- a room solely for ideas and play.

What inspires you? We recently renovated the kitchen in our home. Cooking has now become a huge inspiration… and then, eating.