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names: Nick Ozemba and Felicia Hung
Jobs: Co-founder of Together with
How we met:
Özemba: We met on our first day at the Rhod Island School of Design. We were friends from the start, but as we both started the furniture range we started to realize that our design and working styles were so similar.
When do I start:
Özemba: I usually do some work at home at 6:30 am while I make coffee and get ready for the day.
Hung: I really get going when I’m in the studio at 9.
When I clock out:
Özemba: I try to go until 6pm but keep working when I get home.
Hung: I’m usually in the studio by 7:30 or 8:00. Nine times out of ten, work at home continues until I go to bed.
How to get to work:
Özemba: Our studio is a comfortable 15 minute walk from my apartment. I go for walks with my partner, whose studio is across the street, and our dog Luca.
Hung: I usually drive because we have an external warehouse that we often have to go to during the day.
Three words that describe our space:
Özemba: Calm, earthy, approachable.
Hung: Warm, soothing, organized.
When we move in:
Özemba: Fall 2020 but the studio has evolved a lot since then as we took up more space in the building. The space that now houses our showroom used to be our production studio and office. We quickly outgrew this setup and opened up the walls to create our own showroom. Our production area and workshop now occupies an area of 2,500 square meters down the hall and is more than three times larger.
The most important things on my desk:
Özemba: pen, paper and water.
The most important things in our office/studio:
Hung: Our dogs.
What’s on the walls:
Özemba: A ton of sconces and artwork by Charlotte Hallberg, Christina van der Merwe and Al Svoboda.
Hung: Some mood board pics, nice art and lots of shelves.
Current creative fuel:
Özemba: Cooking, travel and exercise are like therapy for me and help me to recharge my batteries to do my best.
Hung: Travel. It was great to visit places again.
What to turn to when I’m stuck:
Özemba: We have a fairly extensive image archive of interiors, furniture and objects. I love diving deep into the work of another (usually deceased) artist or designer.
Hung: When I’m in the studio, I move on to another assignment and look at it again later in the day. When I work at home, I go into my backyard and pull weeds for 15 minutes.
How to stay organized:
Özemba: We designed bespoke furniture for the studio to stay hyper organized. Everything has a home. In the production area, it organizes everything we need to get the light out the door, from hardware components to ceramic shades to packaging materials. In the showroom, our sideboard houses stationery, finished samples, catalogs and various mounted lights for appointments.
Hung: Lots of great computer programs and spreadsheets.
favorite pen:
Özemba: Pilot Juice Up 03.
Hung: Hi-Tec C Coleto. I love a colored pen.
Best Notebook:
Özemba: I’ll use whatever I can get my hands on. I often doodle on envelopes and scraps when I can’t find a pad of paper.
Hung: A soft sketchbook that can be folded in half. I’m always trying something different and looking for perfection and right now I’m loving this one from Japanese brand Stalogy.
Work bag I carry every day:
Özemba: A random bag. It changes every day.
Technology I can’t live without:
Özemba: Unfortunately, my iPhone, which I affectionately call my Game Boy.
Hung: The cloud. It makes working in a team so easy.
Desk chair I could spend hours in (and do):
Hung: Ico Parisis desk chair for MiM.
Conference table where we meet:
Özemba: We usually meet in the showroom in the living room area, but we also have impromptu meetings in the production room or at our bespoke office desk.
How I combat the 3 p.m. slump:
Özemba: My batteries die at 10pm
Hung: That’s when I’m usually at my peak.
Coffee machine we run on:
Özemba: Stagg’s Pour Over Coffee Maker Set.
Ideal office snack:
Özemba: Love a gummy bear.
Biggest effort that was worth it:
Özemba: We bought a 1970’s German terry cloth sofa on a whim, but it anchors the showroom and is undoubtedly one of our favorite pieces to have collected.
Favorite Soundtrack:
Özemba: ‘70’s and 80’s disco.
Hung: I actually love working in the background, but that doesn’t happen too often.
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