Britt and Damian Zunino trace the origins of their design partnership back to an unlikely place: a pet store called The Salty Paw. At the time, Damian was several years out of architecture school and working for a Manhattan-based firm that converted former fish-market buildings in the South Street Seaport to residential spaces. Britt had taken a more winding path, from competing as a snowboarder to the fashion industry in New York, where she realized she had a knack for retail design.

By the time the pair met, one of the retail tenants in the Seaport had asked Damian to design their space—the soon-to-be Salty Paw. After meeting Britt around the neighborhood, he asked if she would come aboard and share her retail expertise. Each quickly realized they had stumbled upon the perfect collaborator, combining their design and architecture skills to offer clients the best of both disciplines. In 2007 they officially launched their firm, Studio DB, and got married two years later.

Even though the design process felt magical, the remaining work required to run the business was constantly forcing the pair out of their creative flow and into problem-solving mode—an experience that became increasingly common as their team grew and their workload mounted.

“For the first 10 years, it basically felt like a startup,” Damian tells host Kaitlin Petersen on the latest episode of Trade Tales. “We were growing and doing really great things, but from a management standpoint it was very reactive. We were always putting out fires or going from one issue to the next, and never focusing on the systems.”

In the years to follow, the pair discovered that building out a proper team to take over their backend processes was essential to keeping the firm running smoothly. With key hires like a procurement coordinator and a business director, they slowly found their way out of the day-to-day setbacks that bogged down the design team, and got back to nurturing the creative spark that ignited them from the very beginning.

Elsewhere in the episode, the duo share how they communicate to clients the value of a coordinated architecture and design process, how a consultant helped sharpen their structure and systems, and how they’ve honed their ability to recognize when they’re ready to grow.

Crucial Insight: In the firm’s early days, it wasn’t too hard to keep processes straight, especially when the team was smaller and primarily working in the office together. During the pandemic, that changed quickly: Studio DB’s workforce nearly doubled in a short period, and began taking on remote work at the same time. Finding their workflow in a state of disarray, Britt and Damian turned to a business consultant to clear the path ahead. “One of the things the consultant did was documenting all of our systems, being really clear about what our goals were and what our structure was,” says Damian. “It’s still evolving, but I think that we [now] really prioritize the clarity of our systems, our goals, our mission and our values.”

Key quote: “We had to recognize when we needed help—that became a recurring theme,” says Britt. “As our company has evolved over 18 years, [it’s about] recognizing when we need help, when we need to pivot, when we need to just be vulnerable. Recognizing where our weaknesses are and trying to find solutions for them—that’s an ever-evolving thing for us.”

This episode was sponsored by Dallas Market Center and Crate & Barrel. If you like what you hear, subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.