Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Adam and Vanessa Friedman. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Adam and Vanessa, appreciate you joining us today. Can you walk us through some of the key steps that allowed you move beyond an idea and actually launch?

I went to school for industrial design and upon graduating, I worked in advertising and then gravitated towards furniture and design showrooms. At the time , it didn’t feel like I was on a direct path to what I wanted to be doing (furniture design) but looking back, these roles couldn’t have been more perfect. Through these roles, I learned how to run a business and was able to learn from some of the very best in both business and the design world.

My launching pad was Boffi. I was working in their Los Angeles showroom as their Operations Manager. A friend who loved a piece of furniture I’d made for myself decided to order one for herself. It was Block Chair – a seemingly sold wood chair engineered to feel like a soft upholstered piece. When it was ready, I brought it to Boffi to have it picked up and shipped. Their stylist was visiting from Milan and spotted the chair and showed it to Roberto Gavazzi, CEO of De Padova and Boffi Group. Roberto ordered a chair for the showroom in Milan and shortly after, we received an order from the Boffi showroom in Israel.

This is when the aspirations of being self-employed as a designer started becoming more real, though making the jump from a steady paycheck to being self-employed as a creative felt like too much of a risk. The furniture was something I was doing on the side. In the very beginning, I was building every piece by hand in a small garage barely big enough to fit a compact car.

In 2014, my wife and business partner Vanessa and I were expecting our first born, Izzy. About 2 months before Izzy was due, I was laid off from my role at Boffi. A difficult blow in many ways – the timing was terrible and the Boffi had come to be a home for me. I loved the team that I worked with and being surrounded by really amazing design every day. Had I not been laid off, I’m not sure how long it would have taken me to feel brave enough to sever the ties and give this furniture thing a real go.

Looking back, it was this difficult and uninvited circumstance that gave me the push I needed. Vanessa took her full maternity leave and went back to work, allowing us to have the steady income we needed to get the business going. We hired an associate to help with sales and PR and were fortunate to receive a lot of great press that first year. Over time, we built relationships and were placed in independent showrooms in LA, San Francisco and Chicago. We attended trade shows and did our best to get our product seen.

Adam and Vanessa, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

We are a furniture design studio based in the Los Angeles area. We got our start with the Block Furniture and have since grown our portfolio. At the moment, our most popular piece is the Open 45 Credenza designed for the vinyl/music streaming enthusiast. In my design approach, I am highly driven by innovation and function. I’m always looking for new ways to make everyday living more comfortable, more interesting, more efficient, more enjoyable. We are really proud that all of our offerings are made in Los Angeles and Detroit. Our team of makers are amazing – taking great care in every detail. Our clients expect a really well-crafted piece of furniture and that’s what they’ll get, every time. We consider of furniture ‘heirloom’ because a really well-made / functional piece of furniture will live indefinitely for generations.

We’d love to hear about how you met your business partner.

I met my wife and business partner, Vanessa, the first weekend she moved to LA. We were neighbors and she’d just moved into the building. She accidentally left her phone in a friend’s car and came downstairs to looking to borrow a phone from a neighbor. It was a ‘right place at the right time’ kind of moment. My door was open and she peeked in and had a look at the Block Chair prototype I had sitting in my living room. The design really resonated with her and her enthusiasm for the furniture and our business has been unrelenting ever since. We work really well together and and the time and effort we put into the business is always balanced with the mutual love and respect we have for each other.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

Being able to have a pure vision, a pure concept that I can take to the finish line and not to have that concept eroded by external pressures. Having a small batch furniture company, the prices are high, but we don’t have to make any sacrifices along the way. We are really lucky to have this freedom and we don’t take it for granted.

Contact Info:

• Website: geologystudio.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/geology_studio/