The Blog of Studio Fuse » In the Studio

A Pentadecaversa-tion

Guest — Wed, 08 Oct 2014 21:30:37 +0000

NS: How did the name Studio Fuse come about?

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.

Putting Baby Behind the Fence

Scott — Sat, 31 Aug 2013 01:06:25 +0000

It all started when we came across one of the last catless videos on the internet. It was a video about a technique called “ombro,” a pre-cinema method of animation that involves masking and revealing parts of an image with a “fence” to create the illusion of movement.

As a studio that’s known for its interactive print (at least in our minds), we immediately knew we’d use this technique for a project someday, even if it might be far off down the road.

As it happened, a few months after watching the video, we were gearing up to begin the Dance at The Music Center season brochure. To our delight, The Music Center wanted to try something different from the use of straight production photography—an approach they had used for the last few seasons. Ombro immediately sprang to mind as the perfect “something different.” What better way to express dance than through movement? Fortunately, The Music Center was as excited as we were about the prospect of an animated brochure.

Of course, the solution also had to work for cases where there would be no fence: ads, 3-sheets, postcards, etc. So we determined that we’d use a mix of moving dancers, and static dancers paired with moving type to be prepared for all scenarios.

Initially, we had simply planned to animate the word “moving” itself in a different way for each image. However, as we experimented, we realized the series of unfenced frames were like afterimages, or impressions. That led us to change “moving” to multiple adjectives describing the varied lasting impressions the viewer could be left with by experiencing the companies this season.

With the idea solidified, we worked out each page and built a digital demo to share them with The Music Center (You can still play with it here.) After a bit of back-and-forth involving changes to the color and a couple of new adjectives, the brochure was approved.

The only problem with a piece like this is, after working on it for so long, you begin to lose perspective; by the time it went to print, we weren’t sure if anyone would find it compelling. Thankfully, when it got into people’s hands, our fears were allayed. Indeed, the response was positive, and The Music Center saw an increase in subscriptions over last season. While we surely can’t take all of the credit, we’d like to think this novel delivery of dance captured some minds, and perhaps moved some people to hop over the fence and get closer to the stage. And for those who weren’t moved, well, here’s a cat video. @scottfuse

UPDATE: 9/18/13
We’re pleased to announce the brochure just garnered us a Gold Award in the Creativity 43rd Print & Packaging Awards!

A quick demo of the brochure.

A quick demonstration of the brochure, starring Aless’ hands.

Finding The Ford

Jenn — Thu, 22 Aug 2013 20:44:30 +0000

Ford Theatres, aka the John Anson Ford Theatre or Ford Amphitheater, is an intimate, open-air performance space nestled into the Hollywood Hills. This hidden gem of a venue with its eclectic programming and expansive community outreach brings the arts to those who want to be close enough to touch it.

When I met the LA County Arts Commission, who operates the venue, I was struck by how much was working in their favor: great location, beautiful surroundings, strong mission, brilliant lineup of artists from every corner of LA’s cultural landscape, and the most impressive string of Yelp reviews I’ve ever read. And yet… if I mentioned the Ford to other Angelenos I’d be greeted with a blank stare. Perhaps it was the plethora of outdoor entertainment happening in LA, particularly at the neighboring Hollywood Bowl that was keeping them a secret? More likely it was their lack of identity. We were determined to bring Ford Theatres out of the shadows.

The audience familiar with the Ford love it, and aren’t shy about it. In fact, the audience had already successfully created a brand for the venue through surprisingly consistent language. We needed to create a visual world to go with it. We started with the logo – a self-contained, totally organic, hand drawn logotype designed to encapsulate the descriptives we heard over and over again: Laid Back, Friendly, Fun, Playful, Romantic, Cozy, and Welcoming. Couple the logo with a color palette sampled from the surrounding landscape and things started to take shape.

The Campaign

The Communications team had already been batting around a few campaign ideas for their summer series when we met. “Find Yourself at the Ford” was buried at the end of the list. It jumped out to me as an empowering call to action – not only to get butts in seats, but to find people like you on stage and in the seats around you. It was the perfect way to sum up the Ford’s mission to reflect the diverse cultures of LA County. And, it was memorable!

With a new look, clear message, and a small stockpile of carefully selected audience and performance images; we were poised for implementation. We designed a system of icons to reflect the look of the logo and a variety of foundation materials including a pocket calendar, postcards, web ads, digital billboards, invites, programs and more that would act as a launching point for their new visual dialogue. All materials were tied together with consistent placement of the new logo, all new typography guidelines, and a bold color palette that used the new Ford green as its base. So far the identity is hit! Staff, artists and audiences are enthusiastically embracing it and we’re excited to see how it continues to evolve.

(can include a grouping of images (see folder for options) one of which should be the cover of the pocket calendar that I don’t have)

Learn more about Ford Theatres here. @jennfuse

No Surrender, Dorothy!

Scott — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 19:19:24 +0000

It seems that nowadays Halloween is little more than tired social media memes and carnal desperation in costume form, stumbling into each other at a party (sometimes in the same costume). Sure—maybe it’s that I’m no longer a youth and feel bitter that God has forsaken me. But doesn’t it seem more likely that we’ve irreversibly wandered into the web 2.0 dystopia—an era of celebrity anarchy and narcissistic youth? Either way, it’s clear that the world should have quit while it was ahead. Yes, the candy is still good; yes, it still takes the edge off the beer. But one must wonder “What have we done to the kids?” Fortunately, there is somebody out there still thinking about the kids: The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.

Every year the museum puts on a themed Haunted Museum for their members, bringing together science and scares—and for the past several years, we’ve designed the invitations for them. Last year, it was “Fairy Tales and Scary Tales,” for which we created a two-sided book featuring a mix of characters from ogres to dire wolves.

This year, the museum decided to turn the Haunted Museum into a travel destination of sorts: the “Land of Awes” (as in The Wizard of Oz). This destination concept delivered the design direction to us on a platter: we would turn the invitation into a travel brochure. Fleshing the idea out, we designed one side to be a poster inspired by travel posters from the thirties, while the other side became a metaphoric map of the evening’s itinerary. Naturally, both sides included a hybrid of Oz characters and museum specimens, such as a tin Thomas the T. Rex, a cowardly saber-toothed tiger, flying monkeys, and Fruitaden Munchkins. It was a lot of work, but fortunately Grace the intern was here to help us illustrate Thomas and the tiger.

While it is just one invitation to one event in one city, we feel proud that we were able to do our part to keep Halloween from falling completely into the evil clutches of post-adolescent party culture and keep it just a little bit fun for the kids (however doomed they may be). Plus, it was just awes-fully fun to create. @scottfuse

Take a look at the gallery, and let us know what you think. >>

Tags: client illustration invitation Natural History Museum

Extreme Makeover: Website Edition

Scott — Fri, 20 Jul 2012 21:31:03 +0000

Most of you know Studio Fuse as a print design studio, or perhaps, as a link you accidentally clicked. However, we’ve also been known to design websites on occasion.

This past spring, in fact, we were hired to rebrand the newly renamed Association for Women in Architecture + Design (formed in 1948, they recently added the “+ Design” to “AWA” to better reflect the scope of their mission).

Part of the rebrand included giving their website a makeover. Not only did the look need to be updated to reflect the new identity, they also wanted a backend that was easier to maintain, as well as a blog that they could manage themselves. You can see the before and after screengrabs in this post, or check out the site here (note: the pages may load slowly—this is due to their host, not our code! The site ran quite speedily on a test host).

Executing the website was a walk in the park, if that park is Yosemite National Park and you are a double amputee with a bad sense of direction. I won’t bore you with the details like I bored myself with them in previous versions of this post, but I will share a short list of lessons learned along the way:

Software marketing language is, unfortunately, not a programming language. “Easy and powerful integration with WordPress” does sound nice, though, doesn’t it?

Internet Explorer 9 is by far the worst browser at rendering pages correctly, after Internet Explorers 8, 7 and 6.

There are varying levels of ignorance and stupidity in web development. Find your level, and ask questions with the appropriate humility.

Being the third person to work with a site’s undocumented code is difficult, but still better than being the fourth person (Sorry fourth person. I tried).

Challenges aside, AWA+D now has an online presence that’s easy to use and that they’re proud of. Insert rousing cheer here… or use the one we’ve inserted for you below. @scottfuse

Your browser does not support the audio tag.

 The old AWA homepage 

The new AWA+D homepage

Hello New Intern!

Jessica — Thu, 31 May 2012 17:09:25 +0000

While we were excited for our spring intern Melodie’s graduation, we were sad to say goodbye. With our 4-seater design pit back to being occupied by just Scott and I, we needed someone else to cut down our pun-to-person ratio. Fortunately for us, Grace will be starting as our summer intern next week. She took a break from getting settled in her new apartment to pop in to the office for the grand tour and get to know us a little better.

Fun Facts about Grace:

She’s on loan to Studio Fuse from Ringling College of Art and Design

Her favorite character is the interrobang‽ Yes!

This summer she hopes to get involved in the LA music scene.

She sports a button on her back pack that claims “I <3 FUN".

So do we, Grace. Here’s to a fun summer full of awesome work. @jes_fuse

Sparking our Creativity

Jessica — Fri, 25 May 2012 04:48:31 +0000

Do you ever feel that, some days, you just want to set everything on fire? I know! Me too! Fortunately for me, LA Opera was able to help me out and provide an outlet for my pyromaniacal tendencies.

While brainstorming the look for the fire-themed Opening Night gala, we knew we had to reference fire without getting too literal. We hit upon the idea of using the by-product of fire to create the event title and although we couldn’t get an invitation made out of smoke to work, what came out of that idea was, we think, even better.

With a direction in mind, I took the implements of destruction (a borrowed pink Bic lighter, a pad of white plain paper and a hose in case of emergency) and headed outside so as to not burn down our lovely new office.

Things that were learned during this experiment:

While you think alcohol would be flammable, it turns out that painting with 8 year old rubbing alcohol and trying to light it on fire only leads to a wet, blotchy piece of paper.

Despite our name, nobody at Studio Fuse carries a lighter. Our friendly neighborhood spa, Cote d’Azur, on the other hand, needs something to light all those aromatherapy candles and were happy to help us set things on fire.

Blowing gently helps the embers singe the paper better. Blowing a little harder makes for a full on conflagration.

Having access to an outdoor water source is good. Wearing close-toed shoes is better.

The results turned into an excellent starting point for an idea that we’re really proud of. The final version is still smoldering on our server, but we’ll be sure to update once the final invitation is hot off the presses. @jes_fuse

Note: Forgive us for the puns… but sometimes you’re just on fire.

Blowing gently helps the embers singe the paper better. Blowing a little harder makes for a full on conflagration.

Not Just Another Project

Guest — Fri, 18 May 2012 05:10:44 +0000

Having retired from a 40-year career in architecture, I had been aching to find another project to keep my idle mind and hands busy. When visiting Jennifer and James on a trip last year I had offered to help them rebuild their deck, but alas the time wasn’t quite right. One might wonder if a father/daughter team devoted to design pursuits might work well together. James, always the dutiful mate, was grateful for the offer, but just a bit skeptical, and had an interesting comment: “You guys work so well together that you will figure out ways to solve problems that may not need to be solved”. He’s right, of course. Jennifer and I could talk design day and night, and anyone who doesn’t share our unrelenting passion may not fully understand. But the opportunity to work together presented itself last fall when Jennifer determined that it was time to move her office to a new location. Old Town Pasadena charm notwithstanding, the crumbling masonry and drafty, under-lit office space on Fair Oaks needed to go. Studio Fuse needed a fresh, light, creative environment worthy of the firm’s emerging reputation.

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!

“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.”

“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.”

“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 highly individual brand.”

Studio Fuse Innovates with Web-Log

Scott — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 00:55:16 +0000

While we have waited patiently—fingers crossed, heads in sand—it seems that blogs and social media in general are not going away any time soon. Though we’re certain that these things will have the relevance of telegrams some day—barreling as we are toward a Borg-like hive mind—it seems that that day is still a couple of years off. The hive mind is not happening in this election cycle, anyway. So we find ourselves, purveyors of communication solutions, submitting to the tide and boldly stepping into the present. Though a bit late to the game, we’d like to think the wait was worth it—for those of you who’ve been waiting…mom, or whoever.

Take a Right at the End of the Page

If you haven’t yet noticed, the layout is a bit different than most blogs; the site scrolls horizontally. Not only that, it scrolls incrementally. You can use your mouse or keyboard—or if on a touch device, your finger—to navigate left and right, one page at a time. Moreover, the site is responsive to screen size, adjusting the layout accordingly, all the way down to mobile screens. Magical? Yes. Magic? No.

Saving Trees, Losing Hair

We’d love to take credit for the code that makes it all work, but in actuality, neither our blog nor our recently rebooted main site would be anything without the open-source Treesaver platform. As designers who spend the majority of our time designing for print—including publications such as FORM—we were immediately taken with the promise Treesaver offered. In short, it seemed to be the perfect bridge between print and web. Indeed, the end result as created by Scott Kellum and the folks at Nomad is impressive, but getting there isn’t as easy as it looks. Bags were added to eyes, hairs were torn from heads in our implementing Treesaver. True, it was partially our personal learning curve. But also true, is that Treesaver is currently only on version 0.93-beta—so there is a lot in flux, and a lot yet to be resolved (there is no way to guarantee images will stay in the order you place them, for example). That said, it is a remarkable framework even its current form.

A Gimmick is Something a Marketer Does for Money

It would seem that some corners of the designer blogosphere feel that side-scrolling, multi-column publications are a gimmick—that they’re simply an appeal to the familiarity of print conventions. Though some horizontal sites are indeed a tedious novelty, we feel that Treesaver creates an effective digital analogue to page-turning—or perhaps, the unfolding of an accordion-style pamphlet. Unlike vertical scrolling, with the disorientation that occurs as one tries to follow the last line of text to the top of the screen, Treesaver gives the eye a consistent starting point, helping the reader move through the article. Further, multiple columns also improve the reading experience, as it is easier on the eyes to follow text in small chunks, as opposed to the wide lines of a typical single-column page. Indeed, one or two columns is not a matter of taste. We hope you’ll agree and will join us again on our horizontal, multi-column journey, even as we are still forging its path. In future posts, we’ll be covering design and the arts, as well as the goings-on of our own studio. Until then, feel free to comment or tweet @scottfuse. —Scott