We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Regan Nix and Kasey Johnson. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Regan below.

Regan and Kasey, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

We believe environmentally conscious design makes the world better. Life is best lived when you feel in harmony with your environment. At BPC™, our environmentally conscious designs are made to last and created with the life of our clients – and the planet – in mind.

In addition to making sustainable design decisions, we further enhance our mission by supporting Minnesota Land Trust. Minnesota Land Trust is a public charity organization that serves to protect and restore some of Minnesota’s most precious land. In partnership with the Trust, BLUE PENCIL COLLECTIVE donates a portion of their profits, including $100 for every project referral and 1% of our annual profit.

Our time is also spent volunteering with the Land Trust as “Land Ambassadors”. As ambassadors, we join staff and landowners in visiting and observing protected properties, to ensure they remain in their natural state forever.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

BPC® is an Architecture and Interior Design Agency featuring boutique architectural design for an exclusively curated client list. We create inspirational, connected & environmentally compassionate spaces with big firm capabilities, but our boutique agency feel fosters intimate connections fueling deep, nurturing relationships.

Regan, Kasey (co-founders), and the BPC® team deliver an experience dripping with provocation, realized through intimate client relationships and intense precision. We’re bold, passionate, and deeply driven to build a better, more sustainable, beautiful existence. Our clients, partners, and collaborators become family.

BPC® excels in full renovation and new construction. We specialize in a range of project types including residential, commercial, hospitality, higher education, government, healthcare and retail.

Intentional design makes life better. At BPC® we cultivate intimate, family-like client relationships to create spaces that feel and function exceptionally meeting people’s wildest dreams. We make magic by focusing on our core values.

100% Full Service: The best environments deserve an experienced director from the earliest stages of dreams to fruition. We’re there the entire way.

Deep Connections: We cultivate large-firm services with a bespoke white-glove feel, integrating our clients into our family for a connection that’s impossible to beat.

Fully Women Run: We’re damn proud to be WBE certified, battling the gender norms in our field and often the only women on the construction site.

Have you ever had to pivot?

Small business is constantly pivoting, falling and picking yourself back up. BPC® has learned to flourish in these moments. Looking at them as learning opportunities. It would be so easy to let the curveballs knock us down… but who wants easy? A perfect example would be following the shut down of businesses around the world due to the pandemic. BPC® was no different. We had a full project load and seven team members. Within a matter of a few months, our team plummeted from seven to two while our workload remained the same. Regan and Kasey picked up the pieces and saw an opportunity to re-focus on the foundation of the business and our mission + values.

We reached out to industry colleagues to consult and help with workload until we could manage it ourselves. First, we prioritized our clients to make sure they were taken care of. Then we focused on the business plan and what WE wanted this business to do and represent.

Today we are stronger than ever and have learned that structure, process and brand awareness are key to a successful business. We have a built a business that does not rely on employees but rather on specialized consultants we bring in as needed to create a customized project team. Consultants take pride in their work because they are representing their small business as well. This model is a win-win for everyone with small businesses supporting each other.

Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?

We met working at a large corporate firm in downtown Minneapolis, Perkins+Will, the third largest architecture and interior design firm in the world. Starting at relatively the same time, we were naturally on the same projects and our personalities instantly bonded, although you could say we are as opposite as they come! This makes for not only the ideal business duo but also perfectly balanced and thoughtful designs.

Pretty soon we were labeled as the “magic team” by others in the office because we met our project schedules, came in on budget and had fun along the way. During our time at P+W, we would go for long walks and dream about someday starting our own firm but it seemed like a pipe dream.

Until randomly one day… we received a message from a college friend asking for help on their lake home. Little did we know, it was a very large, 11,000SF build that needed focus, attention and then some. Enter BPC®! Six years later you will find us not more than six feet apart day in and day out, collaborating on designs and giggling as much, if not more, than we did at the very beginning. Of course we’ve had our ups and downs but have grown stronger because of it. It’s a true love story!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.bluepencilcollective.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/bluepencilcollective/?hl=en
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/bluepencilcollective/
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/company/11800445/admin/

Image Credits
Spacecrafting Free Afternoon Rachelabella Photography Kaylee LaMoine Videography