JL: Studio Fuse isn’t actually our original name. We started out as Fuse Design, but were forced to change it about 10 years ago. In the end I’m grateful for the hiccup. That change, having the name start with an “S,” spawned an identity that has been a great foundation for us.

The idea behind the name, specifically Fuse, was collaboration. When my former partner and I first started the business, it was about the fusion of our design thinking, but later it took on a much bigger, and more appropriate meaning: the collaborative way we approach working with clients.

NS: How has your passion for the arts directly influenced your career?

JL: I don’t know if I could do the work we do if I didn’t truly love it. The arts is an incredibly rewarding niche for design, but it’s also very stressful. You’re constantly having to adapt to change so your problem-solving brain has to be dialed in at all times. I think it helps that I have a somewhat unique perspective as a designer. I’m also a dancer and not only perform regularly, but help run the company I dance for, so I understand the chaos from both sides. I suppose that empathy and respect for the process makes me want to help that much more.

NS: Did you always want to have a company of your own, and if so, how important is that for you as a creative designer?

JL: Yes. It was my goal to have my own studio from my first year of college. My plan was to go out on my own by age 30. I did it at 25, and I’m glad I did. I think at that age I was too naive to know that what I was doing was crazy. I was naive and a little cocky. I truly believed that what my former partner and I had to offer the arts world was better than what they were getting and I wanted to prove it. We had had great opportunities to show and hone our design skills at Center Theatre Group where we both worked for four years, but I wanted to do more. I wanted to push further and see where we could take those skills with others arts organizations.

NS: What type of projects inspire you the most?

JL: That’s a tough question. I love any design project. Even the most mundane piece presents its own design challenges. That’s part of the fun…pushing something simple to make it more meaningful. But, to answer your question, personally I have two things that I could happily do 24 hours a day: key art and identity development, specifically logo design. Both are rewarding in different ways. They both involve complete immersion in the project: deep research, intense collaboration with the client, heavy reliance on symbolism and concept, iteration, and refinement. I love that process, it’s something I can live in for a while. And when it clicks, when you see the ah-ha moment when someone gets what you’ve done…there’s nothing like it.

NS: What’s most rewarding about being a creative leader?

JL: I don’t really see myself that way. I love to teach. I enjoy giving just enough guidance to steer something along so that my team retains authorship of their work. You’ll often hear me say, “This is not the Jenn show.” If I had all the ideas and skill (and all the time), I’d do this myself, but I don’t. I hired my team because they’re great at what they do, and they all bring something unique to the table… things I can’t do. It’s my job to give them the space to create, to be their advocate to the client and often vice versa.

NS: As founder and CEO you must always be on the look out for new talent. What qualities do you look for when building your design team?

JL: I suppose you could refer to the previous question for a partial answer, but more than talent I look for personality. We’re a quirky bunch here, and we’re really a small family. The creative process can get loud, messy and at times hysterical so it’s very important to me that anyone new fit our dynamic. A sense of humor is an absolute must.

NS: What do you tell aspiring designers who want to build a career in this industry?

JL: Make your mistakes under someone else’s roof. Find a mentor and ask questions until you’re blue in the face. Watch, listen, read between the lines. 90% of this job is hearing what a client isn’t saying. Take ownership of your work, but know when to let go. Be humble.

NS: What do you like best about working with the non-profit arts community?

JL: The answer is in the question: community. Maybe it’s because I’m an only child from a tiny family, but I never felt more a part of something than I have working within this bunch of crazy, beautiful, visionary people that make up the art community in LA.

NS: What motivates you on a daily basis?

JL: It sounds cheesy, but it’s honest: helping people.

NS: If you weren’t a successful designer, what would your second career choice be?

JL: Hmmm. That’s tough. I already do so many other things beyond my “designer” role, which is probably one of the reasons I still love it so much. I suppose I’d fall back on some of my other loves more: choreography and dance, writing, photography.

NS: What inspired the Fusimal Project?

JL: Ah the Fusimals, our little pet project. They started off as a funny idea for a self-promo piece, a way to play off of our name. If you remember the books we all had as kids that had the split pages with pictures of animals—you could have the top half of a giraffe and the bottom half of a duck. Well, it was a riff on that. The first version was photo-real, and forgive me Scott, kind of terrifying. He didn’t give up on it though, and during some infrequent downtime he came up with the idea to use our logo as the point of fusion. It was brilliant. It took a long time to get the style of the animals down and get the combinations to work from a design perspective. It has been such a fun way for us to express our more humorous, irreverent side; and to showcase our copy writing skills as well. The Fusimal Project itself is a faux nonprofit we created to showcase the creatures. It’s all for fun now, but we’ve got plans in the works for the characters to become much more than icons on shirts.

NS: 15 years is a long time… congrats! What do you attribute most to making Studio Fuse a success?

JL: Dogged determination, great relationships with our clients, and unwavering passion for both the arts and design as a process.

Just in residing here for a little over two weeks, I’ve already been enamored by the different things going on around me.

Deerfoot lamp from T.L. Gurley Odd and Unusual Antiques

Deerfoot lamp from T.L. Gurley Odd and Unusual Antiques

After meeting Jenn and the crew for the first time, I meandered a little ways down the road to be completely surrounded by antique shops. Some even boasting “strange and unusual” items. This is something that doesn’t really exist in Florida, let alone the small town of Sarasota. Of course there are antique shops, but never with the variety of items I saw displayed in my three-hour stint (and again when I trekked to the Rose Bowl). I believe you natural-born Californians really take for granted how much better the resale shopping is when you have that extra 80,000 people contributing their things from grandma’s attic.

Jenn & Monica Buckner performing ‘Shifting Sands: Age vs. Time’

Jenn and Monica Buckner (wife of 2nd intern Daniel) performing ‘Shifting Sands: Age vs. Time’

By working at the studio, I’ve become more aware of the various cultural activities happening in the LA area, some of which team Fuse are involved with personally. For example, last weekend I attended Jenn’s dance performance (Works 2012) being put on in a newly converted space in a still functioning church. Not only was the performance fantastic, but also being in a new, and unconventional space added an extra sprinkle of awesome to the overall experience. There is definitely no church/dance theatre hybrid lurking anywhere in SRQ. 
But honestly, the thing I’m most star-struck from by living here in Pasadena is the food. As a self-proclaimed foodie, I’m not ashamed to say that one of the reasons I was so excited in coming here was to have the option for a variety of meals again. Florida, but especially Sarasota is a very homogenized area and trying to get a meal that isn’t from a chain can be difficult—and healthy? Try somewhere else. But here, there is usually a separate vegetarian menu and practically everything comes with avocado! Which as you can tell, makes this person a very happy camper.

A vegetarian sandwich from Aux Delices French Bakery and Café

A vegetarian sandwich from Aux Delices French Bakery and Café

My overall goal for these next few months was experience, and because of the internship I was lucky enough to land and the area I am lucky enough to live in, it seems like getting myself involved in what’s going on around me shouldn’t be too daunting of a task. (This weekend you can find me at the Pasadena Chalk Festival and Make Music Pasadena. Art + 100 live bands, all for free! @GraceAhlizabeth)

As soon as Jennifer sent me plans of the new space she had found—a modern garage attached to a Victorian cottage—I jumped at the chance to offer some design suggestions. And being an inveterate do-it-yourselfer, I offered to help build out some of the elements that would be expensive for her contractor to build.

The space was composed of a large former garage opening to an alley, and an attached shop space with high, open structure and skylights. It was perfect for the needs of Jennifer’s firm. The garage, with a new frosted glass garage door was perfect to house her staff, kitchen and restroom. The work room, with garage door opened on nice days could open up to a paved area off the back alley. The shop, with a broad glass storefront and doors overlooking a shaded motor court was ideal for reception, a conference room and Jennifer’s office.

It was a collaborative effort all the way and we had only two weeks to finish the work that was not part of the general contractor’s package. I did most of the carpentry and Jennifer and James did the painting and helped with the installation. The existing glass and metal workstations needed panels to give them privacy. We fashioned dividers out of natural chipboard, added a massive work and storage counter out of prefinished hollow core doors. We created outdoor planter boxes off the staff work area with tall frames that will hold theatrical scrims to screen the alley. We created a work wall/desk for Jennifer’s office out of hollow core doors and salvaged shelving from the previous space—one tricked-out detail being the monitor turntable that faces Jennifer’s work space and rotates to display images in the adjacent conference room. But the primary design element was the “logo wall” that is visible from outside through the glass storefront and forms the backdrop to the reception space and divides it from the conference room and Jennifer’s office. The design, nine feet high by twelve feet long, was also a collaborative effort and features wood 1×4 slats set on a diagonal to form a screen that floats above the floor. The diagonal motif showcases a three foot diameter logo and mimics the diagonal used throughout the firm’s collateral. The wall itself is like a giant version of a calling card. The Plexiglas and wood veneer logo will be laser-cut and fabricated by a sign maker, but the perfectly round housing had to be part of the hand-fabricated wall.

Conception of the idea seemed a natural, but execution was another thing. Because of its size it had to be assembled in three by nine foot sections on a huge makeshift work platform outside. Luckily the weather cooperated and just covering the work overnight with a tarp was all the protection necessary. Once one panel had all its diagonal boards attached to a frame, it was moved aside so the next panel could be started and all the slats aligned on both panels with precise spacers. This nightmarish scenario worked great on paper, but was much more challenging to build with nothing but a table saw, miter-box and hand tools (a millwork shop with computerized cutting and controls could have cranked it out, but at a huge cost, and no such option was available). We were on a slim budget and materials alone were a couple of thousand dollars. Once all four panels were completed (two of them with half-circle cut-outs for the logo), they were carried inside and connected, one-at-a-time, to the open ceiling structure and to each other. With so little time and resources, the logo wall, weighing several hundred pounds, was almost miraculously hoisted in place and fit perfectly with no more than a few hernias suffered by Jennifer, James and 66-year old Dad!

And the installation was completed on the last day of the second week! Finishing touches were added by Jennifer over the next few weeks. Studio Fuse now enjoys a work environment that embodies not only the creativity of its work, but the merging of graphic and architectural elements to showcase their unique brand.

After my long career, doing mostly high-end corporate interiors, with big budgets and armies of laborers, this was not just another project. It was a labor of love for one special daughter, who collaborated to make it the problem that needed to be solved.—Richard

(Thanks, Dad! @jennfuse)

*Jennifer’s dad is an award-winning architect who designed literally millions of square feet of corporate interiors for clients around the world. However, he always loved working with his hands. (Jennifer learned this early on when, as an infant, she lived with nothing but a wall of plastic sheeting between her crib and the outside world while her dad renovated the house). He retired four years ago and has renovated three more homes since then, mostly with his own labor. Design and the will to build are truly engrained in the family DNA!