Most people say separate work and pleasure, but when your husband is your partner — in both life and business— how do you draw a line between the two? For Jolene Kraus, who co-founded Park Studio, an LA-based lighting and interior design company, with husband Ben, the answer is simple: "We like that our lines are blurred. I think that’s what makes us successful."
The duo are also parents to 13-month-old Arden, and work out of the studio in their backyard. But, according to Jolene, when you love what you do "it's not really work," so negotiating this territory is easier. "Yes, we have to physically make every fixture, box it, answer all emails, work in quickbooks, etc," she says, "but I am beyond proud of the business Ben and I built in under two years." Beyond that Jolene notes that creativity doesn't operate on a 9-5 schedule, so bringing business home is part of the job. "It's impossible for us to automatically shut off our creative thinking caps at exactly 5 pm.” Based on the designs Park Studio is putting out, we wouldn’t want them to.
We checked in with the multitasking maven to find out more about those blurred lines, busy days, and Park Studio’s bright future.
HOW IMPORTANT IS COLLABORATION WHEN IT COMES TO CREATIVITY?
We are often building custom fixtures for our clients and we rely heavily on collaborating during that process. I truly believe every fixture has been the result of a successful collaboration. This could happen over months or just weeks, but we generally work from sketches to mock-ups to the final production run. We each speak up during the process.
IS THERE A DESIGNER (OR TWO) YOU'D LOVE TO COLLABORATE WITH?
Of course we would love to collaborate with commune. My product and color heroes are Scholten + Baijings--I would love to work with them!