We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Sallyann Corn. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Sallyann below.

Alright, Sallyann thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s go back in time a bit – can you share a story of a time when you learned an important lesson during your education?

There are two standouts that were cemented immediately upon hearing. “Fill your reservoir” and “Always play tennis against a stronger opponent.”

Our incredible drawing teacher Mark Lim used this phrase often. It’s a gentle reminder to always be fueling–whether listening to your favorite jazz record, traveling, discovering an artist new to you, experimenting with food–anything you find inspiring. Spending passive time to fill your reservoir, ensures that you’ll always have the creative fuel that you need in reserve.

Our now dear friend Karen Stone shared this gem and its impact has been lasting. Choose collaborators and partners that are smarter, more skilled and with more experience and learn from them. Be challenged and continue to grow.

Sallyann, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Like most creatives, my path was a meandering one. My first start was in Fashion, which quickly pivoted to Visual Merchandising, and made a final, fateful turning point toward Industrial Design. My partner (in business and life) Joe Kent and I met while pursuing our first Industrial Design Degrees in 2002. We quickly realized the strength in our combined talents and later went on to Pratt Institute to pursue our interests in creative entrepreneurship. In 2008 we founded our studio fruitsuper, a multidisciplinary design studio based in Seattle, WA. Our collaboration spans product design, physical environments, art curation, design education, and community experiences. Centered on playful simplicity, fruitsuper designs for the enrichment of everyday life, using small moments to create big impacts. Our retail space and community hub located in Seattle’s Pioneer Square neighborhood features fruitsuper-designed products alongside pieces from like-minded makers across the U.S., and often hosts rotating art and design exhibitions, panel discussions, and gatherings. No matter the platform, fruitsuper’s raison d’être and our ultimate mission is to celebrate the Northwest’s diverse and ever-growing independent creative community.
I’m most proud of the fact that throughout our 15 year studio history, we ignored all “advice” to narrow our path and focus. And instead used our core studio values as a framework to guide any and all projects we’ve chosen to tackle. Whether client work, event programming, curatorial or product design—our approach remains the same; simple, playful and centered on community.

Alright – let’s talk about marketing or sales – do you have any fun stories about a risk you’ve taken or something else exciting on the sales and marketing side?

We opened our retail space 6 months before the start of the pandemic. And only now with the worst behind us (knock on wood), can I say with confidence that it had an incredibly positive impact on the future of our business. Having just opened a brand new brick and mortar, we had no intention of expanding to online offerings, and wanted to instead focus on creating in-person experiences. Having to immediately close this portion, we were forced to get creative and pivoted as quickly as possible. We had to really stretch during the scariest of times—and we learned how to create community without being commerce forward. From curating lists of area hikes, recipes we could all make together, playlists, movie lists, care packages to send to loved ones, walking tours, and studio visits—we inadvertently created a stronger, more tight knit community than we ever would have given our initial business-as-usual approach to retail.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

From the earliest stages of our studio, we’ve always had the approach to follow all leads. This started as a way to keep us creatively curious, but has led to a business practice that keeps us financially diverse. We keep several channels active; retail, wholesale, collaborations, curation, etc. This not only continues to challenge us, but ensures that if one channel dips unexpectedly, it’s not catastrophic to our bottom line. Following all leads means that we follow up on each and every potential opportunity. We take the meetings, we ask questions, we learn more each time about risks and potential rewards. And when the opportunities don’t present themselves, we create them. There are countless times we’ve been turned away, or not selected. Which has led us to amazing places! Not selected for an exhibition? We designed and curated our own. Resilience is a result of learning from mistakes; both small and epic.

Contact Info:

• Website: fruitsuper.com
• Instagram: @fruitsuper / @fruitsupershop

Image Credits
Brooke Fitts, Krista Welch, Amanda Ringstad, Christina Marie Hicks