Alice Tacheny, the path to here
Alice Tacheny didn’t go to design school. She learned from a master woodworker in Chicago and continued carving her own path into the world of design. Trusting that there was still a market for meticulously crafted furniture and home accessories, in 2012 she opened her own design studio. Her Concrete Compartments, Leather Wall Pockets and Brass Triangles have been an elegant and crowd-pleasing addition to the PaperandLight catalog. I couldn’t wait to hear more about her business, home life and path to get to where she is today. Please enjoy and check out the full breadth of her work at alicetacheny.com.
What was the least favorite job you ever had?
I’ve had so many jobs, including being a papergirl when I was 14. But in terms of professional careers, I think it would have to be the “Big Box Design Retailer” job I had. I believed in the democracy of design and I thought that I would be able to make a difference in the furniture design department of this huge retailer by designing stuff that was reachable and useful to people. I did that for two years before realizing that it was not my thing. In the end the design team really didn’t matter as much as the merchant driven team. As the design team, we would come up with something and the merchant team would deny it because of the cost, so we could never really move the needle in the right direction.
Shared studio in San Francisco’s Mission district
How did you take that leap from working for someone else to working for yourself?
It was a lot of circumstances around work and home life lining up. I had pretty young kids at the time of starting my company, they were about 2 and 4 years old. When we moved from Minneapolis to California, I had been doing freelance design work for a couple of years but after a while I didn’t like the feeling that I was pumping out designs that I wasn’t excited about and had no ownership of. I had been talking for years about having my own line of furniture, going back to making things and doing something really beautiful and well crafted. So it was this combination of things, I had just had kids, we decided to move, I quit my job and it seemed like the door was open. When I started working on it, it was mostly self-funded and I was taking a major risk. It was a leap of faith to say ‘I have this idea—to have this little company with a line of furniture that is very beautiful, meticulously crafted and modern’ and to trust that there is a market for that out there.
Was there one thing in particular that surprised you about running your own company? Something that you never imagined you would have to tackle?
I think the most surprising thing was learning what products people responded to versus what I thought they would respond to. I’m always trying to figure out what it is that people want. What is that one thing that is going to catch their attention? And it’s not always what I expect. Trying to make those adjustments is a constant struggle.
Knowing what it takes to start and run a business, I don’t know how you are able to juggle all of that and be a mother to two young kids.
It’s so hard. I don’t know if it will ever get easier. Sometimes I look at other designers and wonder how they are so prolific and then I realize that 90% of the time they don’t have kids. They’re doing these collaborations and all different projects and it’s because they can work all the time! Sometimes I think I should have started this before I had kids because I could have done so many things. I wouldn’t change anything but it is really hard.
And, I feel like starting a business is like having a baby, so essentially you have 3 children!
It is, it’s like creating a little child, it takes just as much time and you stay up all night worrying about it. And you’re changing its diaper all the time!
But there’s that time when you’re starting a business when you start making a little bit of money and you can afford to hire that first person. That’s the best feeling in the world. I mean, it’s the best feeling and the worst feeling because FINALLY you have someone else to share the burden, but it’s also scary because now you have to keep them busy, and happy and paid!
Jengo, studio dog (above)
Where did you go to school?
I didn’t go to school for design. I learned woodworking and design after college. We were living in Chicago and I apprenticed from a woodworker there who was an incredible mentor and teacher to me. After that we moved to Santa Rosa, CA and I worked in Petaluma with a couple other woodworkers. I worked on my own for a little while and then interned at Blu Dot before being hired on as a designer. It was surprising to me how far I could get without having an industrial design background, but people were interested in what I did and saw that I could carry myself and learn fast. I didn’t know a lot of the computer programs, but I would just figure it out on the job.
What do you think the essential ingredients are for having meaningful work?
There are so many things but you really have to find the balance of doing the work that is satisfying to you and doing the work that you need to do to make the other work possible. It’s a cycle. If you are feeling bogged down by the daily tasks that don’t inspire you, then it’s impossible to enjoy the stuff that DOES. Maybe one of the best ways of dealing with that is to find a way to get things off your plate that you don’t want to do. I have had to figure out what I’m really good at and what I’m just terrible at and how to find somebody else to do THAT work for me.
What parts of the business do you feel like you are really good at?
Well definitely the woodworking part (laughs)! It’s true though! I am a good designer and I’m good at coming up with ideas and solutions. I would love it if I spent 90% of my time doing that. But I’m terrible at the business side of it. Or maybe I’m not terrible at it, it’s just that I don’t love that side of it. I DO love the people side of the business. Doing a trade show, although it’s a lot of work, can be so fun and fulfilling because I get to see all these people that I don’t normally get to interact with. Connecting with people and talking about your work, it reminds you about what is important and why you do what you do. It’s invigorating!
Do you ever have creative blocks?
I don’t really notice it. The creative part of my job is in fits and starts, or as needed. When I design new work I will pinpoint something that I want to make and then I basically give myself a design brief. Like this year, it was a useful accessory made out of wood that will fit into my collection. So, within those boundaries, it’s not that hard to come up with something. But I’m not the type of designer to come up with like 50 sketches of something and I used to feel bad about that, like I just had no ideas. But I will usually just come up with like 4 really decent ideas so I think I just filter as I go.
Is there a tool that you wish someone would invent that would make your life as a designer easier?
I can’t think of what it would be right now. I will say that jigs are one of the most wonderful tools in the world, for anyone who works in a shop. Whether it’s a template, or something that clamps something else down, they are basically tools that you make yourself and then scrap. Often, you’ll go into a woodworker’s shop and see patterns and jigs for this piece or that particular client, these crazy contraptions, hanging all over. They are all like these unique little inventions.
Examples of woodworkers’ jigs
What are some of the ways that you rejuvenate or schedule down time for yourself?
I go on vacation. I think that it would be great to schedule it in on a more regular basis, but I don’t really do that. I will say that having kids kinda forces you to disconnect, so that I get a lot of my down time that way. When I do rejuvenate, or have a longer vacation, I really don’t like to think about design.
Every year my family and I go out to Montana. We have land out there near Glacier National Park, that’s been in my family for like 100 years and it’s totally off the grid. There’s no phones, no computers, no devices, and I always think I’m gonna go up there and have this creative time in the woods. This year I even brought a bag of tools with me. I thought I was gonna wittle! Like, I’m gonna make tree furniture! But I don’t pick up a tool the entire time I’m there. And I don’t sketch. This year I finally realised that it’s good to just make a clean break, do nothing at all for a little while. Then, as soon as I come back, I hit the ground running.
For me, being inspired isn’t always about being around things, it’s also about stepping away from it all. There is so much out there and you could sit there and inundate yourself with it all the time. It’s so easy to do, but then you can also get into that game of comparing yourself to other people and it can become poisonous. ∆