Rodman Primack and Rudy Weissenberg’s story begins at a 1997 Christmas soiree in New York. “I met Rudy as I was walking in and he was leaving the party,” Primack tells host Dennis Scully on the latest episode of The Business of Home Podcast. “Luckily for me, he came back. We saw each other again for three more nights and [then] for the next 28 years. ... We basically have been together since the day that we met.”

Weissenberg was working in finance before pivoting to TV production; Primack’s career had taken him to Christie’s, Gagosian and Peter Marino before launching his own interiors firm. In 2019, the couple decided to work together: They founded design firm Ago Interiors, as well as a collectible art gallery in Mexico City called Ago Projects. “Instead of following certain trends, we wanted to start a new conversation,” says Weissenberg. “And we thought, because I’m Latin American, because I had worked a lot in the region, we wanted to come here and create a language of contemporary Latin American collectible design, and that’s what we’ve been doing since. We work with a lot of artists, designers, architects, working together to launch collections of collectible design.”

Collectible design can be intimidating at first—in fact, clients can be overwhelmed by the design process in general. The couple work hard to establish an environment where clients can speak freely to share their opinions. “Clients at the beginning are either performing or intimidated, and they think that we’re going to judge,” says Weissenberg. “I think it’s a process of experience, and it should be an adventure in learning, so there’s no right or wrong.”

Elsewhere in the episode, Primack and Weissenberg discuss the lessons they learned from Peter Marino, how social media has shifted design criticism, and why they’re OK with saying no to a client who isn’t the right fit.

Crucial insight: The couple likes collaborating with and championing makers when working on their interiors projects. “To have something handmade—that is the truest luxury at this moment,” says Primack. “If you’re in this place of privilege where you can make choices, choose the thing that’s been made by someone, so you’re experiencing that exchange of energy and respect and love and tradition that goes into making something by hand. Our job is to keep looking for and pushing for those opportunities, and hoping that clients will slow down with us long enough to say, ‘Let’s hand-loom a rug that’s going to take six months over something that can be fabricated.’ There is something so special about knowing that someone has themselves worked on your rug for six months. … That, to me, is the extraordinary gift of being able to do this.”

Key quote: “We end up so often working with clients that become collectors six months down the road, a year down the road, five years down the road. You want to walk into the house and still see the bones of this great thing that you’ve done together, but also see it evolve, and have them excitedly say, ‘Oh my God. Look at this painting I got. What do you think? Do you think it looks great here? Should we move it?’ I mean, that’s such a pleasure,” says Primack. “Hopefully you’ve created this thing that the client feels comfortable enough in to move forward with and not constantly send an email and say, ‘Oh, do you think we can change this vase?’ We want to get to a place where people feel really happy and comfortable enough in their own homes that they feel empowered to live in them the way that they are going to naturally live in them, and not feel like we’ve got to mediate it the entire time for them.”

This episode is sponsored by Ernesta and Kohler. Listen to the show below. If you like what you hear, subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

The Thursday Show

Host Dennis Scully and Business of Home executive editor Fred Nicolaus discuss the biggest news in the design world, including bankruptcy for Wren Kitchens, a Charles Cohen update, and the most valuable design auction in U.S. history. Later, BOH editor in chief Kaitlin Petersen joins the show to recap High Point Spring Market.

This episode is sponsored by Loloi and Chelsea House. Listen to the show below. If you like what you hear, subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.