We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Martine Ilana a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Martine , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to go back in time and hear the story of how you came up with the name of your brand?
Temescal’s name is inspired by Los Angeles, California’s ‘Temescal Gateway Park’. Which is a gorgeous outdoor location in the Palisades, just off the Pacific Coast Highway, where one can hike up its mountains or relax in the park’s quiet spaces. Temescal is where I go to immerse myself in nature in order to get inspired. When I chose to create a sustainable design agency, ‘Temescal’ was the name which I wanted to represent my company’s ethos and values; It captures the beauty of nature, along with providing the space one needs to dream up big ideas and create visions for the future.+
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I am an artist & designer and became a business owner over many years. One of my 1st memories at 4 years old is 80’s style bedazzling my family’s home phone, and to my parents both horror and excitement, realizing that I needed to find a channel for my creativity. I attended ‘Cranbrook Kingswood’, an educational community founded in the Arts & Crafts movement designed in its entirety by Eliel Saarinen the famous architect. So in my most formative years, I was surrounded by art and design.
The beginning of my design career started as a timepiece designer in NYC, and eventually I moved my way across the country working for an interior design firm in Colorado, to then settle in Los Angeles and earn a degree from FIDM in apparel manufacturing & product development. For many years I worked in the Surf / Skate industry at Vans as their Accessories designer. Then in 2009 when the economy crashed, took a leap of faith, and left my full-time role to operate my own timepiece & jewelry brand independently. Those early years were the best education for learning what it would really take on a lean budget to get a design project executed from concept to completion. And in tandem, how to inspire, motivate and collaborate with a team of 50+ employees & vendors to execute the company’s production and its distribution successfully. I worked with suppliers and distributors around the world from China, Indonesia, Japan, and Europe, and traveled to each location so that I could understand hands-on what it would take to have my designs come to life effectively.
In 2016, one of my local US leather production suppliers was about to retire & close their facility, so instead of losing this valuable vendor’s services, I ended up buying that leather binding factory and transformed my timepiece / jewelry business into a vertically integrated factory for design & manufacturing now named ‘American Lacing’. I fell in love with supporting all the other brands that American Lacing serviced, and the variety of different design & manufacturing needs each company had: handbags, shoes, belts, car interiors, jewelry, pet products, furniture – anything you could imagine we helped to manufacture components for.
In tandem could not find ‘hands-on’ professional support for the sustainable design projects which I wanted to get off the ground for my clients. Every person or firm that I encountered was providing data, theory or research on sustainable design and carbon emissions for example, but not one person offered the experienced, educated, and operational means that is needed to take a sustainable concept and execute its vision into reality. I realized that I could start ‘that company’ and help others operationally just as I was seeking support on; And this is when I decided to create the ‘Temescal Creative Agency’ officially.
Temescal now actively works alongside many USA based factories that design and produce accessories and apparel, along with upcycling production waste into beautiful new products. We help to re-coup lost revenue in brand’s production waste and bring these ‘lost profits’ back to each company’s bottom line. Recently we launched in collaboration with Madewell, their 1st ever produced, Limited-Edition patchwork leather tote bags that were manufactured 100% in the USA from Madewell’s scrap leather & sold out within 1 hour. It was an incredible project to oversee and execute for such a large publicly traded company. Everyone involved was So excited as its production turned out even better than expected and was able to prove the point that sustainable design is the future of manufacturing. Temescal also partners with building contractors and architects who also believe in creating healthier built environments. Most recently we have created sustainable tree houses! Each component of those treehouses was upcycled from a local architectural salvage warehouse or only made from materials that can easily be recycled at its end of life. Temescal’s newest project is launching a sustainable woman’s timepiece brand named: ‘La Lune’, which means ‘the Moon’ in French, and will be coming out in the next year. Each material choice within this watch collection is being carefully considered for its sustainability and recyclability; which has been both challenging and extremely exciting to work on, as the timeline and jewelry industry does need a lot of attention and reconsideration with respect to sustainable design and the materials used which its wearers are interacting with daily.
There is a different way to design and produce when one must consider a product or space’s ultimate ‘end of life’. This shift in perspective changes the materials which are picked out from the very beginning, importantly in order to avoid negative environmental impacts during production, its use and ultimate disposal. This change of design perspective is Temescal’s expertise and focus.
Inherently sustainable design is a solution to an overage problem and needs to be considered with strategy and patience. This is what we as a company Love to work on – We can ideate, design, create, and develop in order to execute at a higher quality than previously made.
Have you ever had to pivot?
I have pivoted twice significantly: The 1st time was in 2016, when one of my local US leather production suppliers was about to retire & close their facility. Instead of letting them close, I bought that leather binding factory and transformed my timepiece / jewelry business into a vertically integrated factory for design & manufacturing now named ‘American Lacing’. I fell in love with supporting the 300+ other brands that this new business serviced, and the variety of different design & manufacturing needs each company had: handbags, shoes, belts, car interiors, jewelry, pet products, furniture – anything you could imagine we helped to manufacture components for. It is from this experience that the trajectory of my professional life changed. While daunting to have taken this change on, it ended up being one of the best decisions of my life.
Is there mission driving your creative journey?
The mission which I have created through my creative journey, is to prove the viability and positive impact of circular manufacturing, sustainable design & responsible production on our environments and personal objects.
Design has the capacity to change lives. The physical resources that we as designers choose to use in order to make our ideas come to life, have the capacity to impact people both physically and emotionally. Sustainable design can be a vehicle for change and my mission for Temescal as a Design Agency, is to show clients that responsible design does not need to be complex nor expensive.
Sustainable design is the future!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.temescalcreative.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/temescal_creative/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TemescalCreativeDesign
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/temescal-creative/
Image Credits
© Christopher Payne/Esto @ Marta Xochilt Perez Photography @ Madewell