Rozae Nichols couldn’t find attractive, ethically produced workwear to purchase—so she made her own. Now, her vegan-friendly wares span the home and garden categories.
The study of design’s impact on mental health is a relatively new field, but early research points to a crucial role for designers at the intersection of psychology and design.
Auckland, New Zealand–based James Dunlop Textiles is a fourth-generation family brand with a century-long legacy. So when managing director Ben Moir decided to cut the longstanding product range by 40 percent, the decision raised a few eyebrows ... until revenue jumped.
When Catherine Connolly became CEO of Merida in 2007, she didn’t know that the Fall River, Massachusetts–based rug company was hurtling toward an identity crisis. Facing an unsustainable retail landscape in the wake of the Great Recession, Connolly made a not-so-popular decision to pull the brand out of retail entirely—a move that ended up paying off big-time.
After working in multiline showrooms for 12 years, Katrena Griggs became the vice president of showroom operations for wholesale brand Codarus in 2015, and then launched her own company, Curated Home Brands, three years later. Though the brand is young, when she saw a chance to open her own space in Atlanta last August, she jumped.
High-end furniture and decor brand Kathy Kuo Home has been profitable (and self-funded) since its founding in 2012. In 2019, Kuo met with investors to explore fundraising that could grow the business even faster—but ultimately decided to pursue a different route.
Christopher Peacock, founder of his eponymous Norwalk, Connecticut–based cabinetry brand, had the good fortune to sell his company to British furniture maker Smallbone at the top of the market in September 2008—and the ill fortune to get caught up in the new owner’s subsequent bankruptcy just months later. Here’s how he brought his company back from the brink (and then some).
For Lee Mayer, who co-founded Denver-based e-design platform Havenly with her sister Emily Motayed in 2014, operating her startup far from Silicon Valley has offered her a different perspective. Instead of falling prey to groupthink, the self- described contrarian made a marketing move that was nearly unheard of at the time: not spending a dime on new customer acquisition.