17 Apr CMJS Creativ Launches New Products at 2015 High Point

The John Strauss Furniture and CMJS Creativ Showroom at High Point market, April 18 – 23rd. In Salon, G-7025, Suites at Market Square.  Photography by, and with permission from, CMJSCreativ.

Today we kick off the beginning of High Point, THE world’s largest home furnishings market, with an interview with that dynamic duo I’ve been talking about, CMJSCreativ.  Furniture maker John Strauss, and interior designer, Carisa Marie Bell, continue to bring new and exciting products to High Point each year delighting us with their collaborative prowess.  I caught up with them this week to learn a little bit more about why their creative collaboration works so well and what’s in store for 2015. I’m so excited to see their finished showroom, because I’m in love with their new Koncept wall sconces and more!

So sit back and enjoy this interview with CMJSCreativ and be sure to follow along. You can find all the links in our #TextureTuesday post HERE where we had the opportunity earlier this week to learn more about the details of their fine craftsmanship.

NOTE: Their showroom has moved to a new location in Salon! Stop by the John Strauss Furniture Design showroom at: G-7025 – Suites At Market Square. And snap some photos to share! Email them to us at inquire@deborahmaindesigns.com and we’ll post them on our social media.

Lastly, thank you everyone for all the birthday wishes! It’s been a crazy busy week, and I haven’t yet had a chance to thank each of you personally, but please know how much I appreciate your wishes.  Being an “income tax baby” and having my anniversary the day before always proves to be one big celebration.  Till next week, get ready to enjoy design trends for 2015! XO PG

DM: Let’s see, you founded your collaboration, CMJSCreativ in 2012? Now that you’ve done four High Point shows together, please bring our readers up to date?

Carisa: Yes, four shows. This is number five for us working together. We planned the 1st one in two months without ever having met in real life. The 2nd one, we decided to make lighting together just to accessorize the showroom and turned out starting a whole new business. The 3rd show, we launched several accessories & tons of new lighting including the “first generation” Dizzy Chandelier in all metal. Finally the 4th show, we launched our very very successful glass, wood and metal sculpture we call Koncept, we perfected the Dizzy chandelier and we introduced a few other collaborative art pieces.

John: I feel like we are hitting our stride after getting this off the ground. We have worked to form a brand of items that create a lifestyle with JS@Home. We now have sculptural accessories together with our original lighting and the variety of lighting is becoming more diverse.

Koncept sculpture – glass, wood and metal – by CMJSCreativ. Photography by, and with permission from,  CMJSCreativ.

DM: Now that you’ve had more experience working together, and I might add, successfully launching incredibly unique products, what is it about your collaboration that has worked the best? What has been the most challenging?

Carisa:  John and I started working together shortly after I challenged him to do better on his showroom presentation.  I proved the power of “pretty” to him. We both have vast knowledge in separate subjects concerning art, furniture, design, marketing, business, lifestyle, branding, imaging and presentation. We put that together and thoughtfully created heirloom pieces and spaces people love to live in. It’s a pretty cool marination when we are in our development stages with new prototypes. We can go into a meeting with a breakfast table and come out with an entry bench.

Most challenging is time management. There is a 3-hour time difference we have to contend with, {as John lives in Ohio and I live in Seattle}. I stay up super late and he wakes up super early. We figure it out, but it can be frustrating during crunch times. 

John: What works best is that we have a spark that happens when we get together on the phone or in person, and you never know what is going to come out of our process. It’s unexpected, exciting and always meaningful. What is most challenging, is that Carisa likes to live on Tokyo time rather than mine.

CMJSCreativ’s new sculptures add a lot to a room, don’t you think? I also love the Salon Gable armchairs and the natural shape and finish of that coffee table. Photography by, and with permission from,  CMJSCreativ.

DM: Being a night owl myself John, I can totally see where Carisa’s burning the candle into the wee hours could present challenges! But obviously you’ve found ways around that because you’re both doing you’re fifth market together. Congratulations!

John & Carisa: Thank you Deborah. It’s a challenge but also fun and rewarding!

DM: How has the consumer, interior designers and retailers, responded to your line?

Carisa:  Enthusiastically! I think people love the option of ordering decorative items that are designed to pull a whole room together. We are recognized for designing and manufacturing functional, well made, statement piece worthy art.

John: We have had great initial success with stores that we have approached. Designers love the customization and artistic feel.

Spotted Fall 2014 by Style Spotter Shay Geyer, are two Sheridan Road Server Cabinets side by side. Photography by, and with permission from,  CMJSCreativ.

DM: Are there any products you’ve launched in particular that have been “Best Sellers”?

Carisa: Best Sellers for CMJSCreativ are currently our chandeliers, which was expected, as they were our first and therefore longest running product launched together. The Koncept sculptures garnered commercial and residential attention when we introduced them in the Fall of 2014. The brand new, never seen before, Koncept Sconces launching for April 2015 have blown away our CMJSCreativ team!  So much that, because of the running enthusiasm, there are already prototypes being made from the conceptual drawings of our next generation of Koncept lighting.

DM: Wow, that’s a success story right there! I remember you had one of your products in the fall of 2014 selected by a Style Spotter, right? Can you tell us about that product and why you think the spotter singled it out?

Interior designer and America’s premier authority on design for Baby Boomers, Mitzi Beach sitting on “Lamar Tables” designed by CMJSCreativ. Photography by, and with permission from,  CMJSCreativ.

 John: We had two different items selected: the Lamar tables by Mitzi Beach and the Sheridan Servers by Shay Geyer. (See above image). Ithink that they both were selected for their artistic and cool finish (both in our cerused noir) and for their urban flexible usefulness.

DM: Well congratulations on that. I know that must have been very exciting! With four successful markets as CMJSCreativ now under your belt, what’s in store for 2015 in this April market and the fall one?  Any specific goals you’re hoping to accomplish? Any new product designs your launching?

Carisa:  Thank you Deborah, it was! But I for one, am not even giving hints to my fall collection concepts yet. I will say that there will be several new pieces that are based on drawings John and I have been discussing for two years that I’ve been flashing on my several social media sites por vida.

One team goal is to launch our new One and Only line, based on our love for precious, one of a kind items. We are currently set to be collaborating with a modern jeweler, a leather artisan, a metal smith and our starring woodworker, John, to create a gorgeous unforgettable collection of decorative functional items.

John: We are launching new looks with Black Crow Studios papers on our furniture for this 2015 spring season and they might be the show stoppers. We also came up with an incredibly sophisticated wall sconce with the help of a talented metal smith in Cleveland that takes the Koncept sculptures to a whole new place.

The armoire in the back of this image has doors covered with a gorgeous watercolor wallpaper by Black Crow Studios. I love the white furniture too with the circles! Photography by, and with permission from, CMJSCreativ. 

Detail of the new 2015 wall sconces featuring hand blown glass and metal. Photography by, and with permission from, CMJSCreativ. 

DM: So you’re increasingly collaborating with other artisans…that is wonderful. And our readers have seen pics of those incredible wall sconces (which, by the way, I absolutely love!) on  our weekly #TextureTuesday blog post right HERE.

How can consumers see your products and purchase them? Do you only sell To-The-Trade? Or, can the end consumer, the general public, directly place custom orders with CMJSCreativ?

Carisa:  We have a website, JS@Home, that shows many of our products. John also has a showroom in Ohio that we use as our hub for prototypes and custom manufacturing. We take in orders from the general public, architects, designers, retail & trade showrooms. We have several reps around the US that work with us and showrooms that we have built relationships with.

Love this view of the wallpapered cabinet, sculptures, chandelier, dining table, mirrors and more! Photography by, and with permission from, CMJSCreativ.

DM: How has this collaborative partnership helped you both in your individual businesses as an Interior Designer, Carisa, and wood craftsman, John? Are all the businesses merged, or do you still keep your own businesses separate?  And will we continue to see CMJSCreativ grow?

Carisa: Our first months of being CMJSCreativ have been wildly successful in many ways. We both feel blessed and honored that we’ve been allowed to have this much fun everyday!

Of course our partnership has benefited my biz greatly. Carisa Marie Design clients have struck gold, it’s custom furniture for everybody!! I mean why not? It’s too easy to send a drawing to John & have whatever I want made. Our collaborations for my clients often end up as designs in his furniture lines and my clients requests often set a marker for what we need to consider designing next.

John: We feed off each other creatively, as each others’ muse and as a way to bounce design ideas back and forth. And we have created value for each other’s individual business by supporting the other, and that we do! I build furniture for Carisa’s design clients. Carisa also joined me recently on a sales trip to Florida and learned a lot more about what other regions are looking for and how we can work together as a sales team. We are growing, so watch out!

A closer look at the details and finish of the dining table and more. Photography by, and with permission from, CMJSCreativ.

DM: That is such an inspiring story to see your collaboration be so successful, be of benefit to your individual businesses, and fuel your passion for creating even more CMJSCreativ products and with other artisans!

What would you recommend to interior designers  and artisans that are considering collaborative work?  Have you built a model we all can now replicate for success? 

Carisa:  I would recommend to anyone wanting to collaborate with others in the design and manufacturing business to find a team of people you trust, admire and respect. Build a team you can communicate with effectively and easily. Hopefully you really like each other because when biz is good…WOW, it’s like that person (John) is calling you (me) every 5 seconds until you (I) want to strangle them (him) on certain days (yesterday).

Our business model is based on passion, excitement and the development of innovative, ergonomic pieces of art that balance a classic heirloom sensibility with the cutting edge of technology in manufacturing. Each piece is made in Ohio entirely constructed of American parts by American manufacturers and artisans. As far as replication goes…well I highly encourage individuals to envision their own path. I have found in life that trusting my instincts and surrounding myself with awesome people is the way to joy and light in this one life we get to live.

John: I don’t know that there is a model here for replication unless you are a bit insane! Really, the key is the combination of our respective skills and our personalities meshing so well. There is no recipe for that as far as I know. You would need a Match.com service for business partners.

Photography by, and with permission from,  CMJSCreativ.

DM: That’s a great idea John! An Entrepreneurial Match.com for small business owners looking for partners, or just collaborative projects to work on with other designers and artisans.  I think you’re really on to something there!

Thank you both again for taking the time out of your busy High Point prep process to share your collaborative story with our readers. I wish you both a very successful show as your work is truly inspiring!  Now John, when will you have that Entrepreneur Match program up and running? Ha!

Dear readers, please remember to follow along with us during High Point using hashtags #hpmkt and #CMJSCreativ on Twitter @deborahmain, @carisamarie11 @johnstrauss. And, be sure to check out the list of amazing High Point #StyleSpotters HERE and follow them to see what catches their attention and trends for 2015. Who knows, CMJSCreativ just might have another product selected?  I know if I was Style Spotting, those Koncept wall sconces would be numero uno for me!

Note: This is not a sponsored post. My views are my own. All images and answers to interview questions are by, and with permission from. CMJSCreativ.