“We asked ourselves, 'Who out there is interested in doing a creative collaborative—a true collaborative?'” Designbox cofounder Aly Khalifa said. The question was posed about two years ago as Khalifa, his wife Beth and a few of their friends discussed what would become the creative collaborative Designbox.
As he speaks, Khalifa sits in the intimate gallery space of Designbox’s Raleigh home while members trickle in from lunch breaks and resettle into their work spaces. What a difference two years makes.
Physically, Designbox is a big white box of a warehouse, enlivened with a Designbox sign and a bright blue door. Its office space artfully betrays industrial beginnings. “We haven't tried to make the space too slick, too untouchable,” Khalifa said of the space. It worked.
Two dogs trot around the open space; the conference room table is lined with chairs in primary colors; member designs and promotional materials hang proudly throughout; the office space bleeds into a gallery area that glances over comfy covered couches.
Ambiance aside, Designbox is not a typical office. It is composed of a variety of creative professionals representing firms from a range of fields, including engineering, animation and filmmaking, product design, interior design, and photography. Designbox is not, Khalifa cautioned, an “art farm.” Members are not financially tied to one another and exist as professionals in their own right.
“What we think is the magic of it is that we’re all individual,” Khalifa said. “We’re all able to function by ourselves.”
Members may opt to rent out a space in Designbox, but must contribute at least two hours a week to Designbox—either at the weekly brainstorming meeting or in some other capacity.
Clients approach Designbox in need of a product—a brochure, for example, or belt buckles for sporting gear. Designbox then refers the client to a member or set of members, and the metaphorical ball gets rolling. Members bounce ideas off one another, and offer each other creative solutions. Contracted member or members then execute the project armed with the creative input from their fellow professionals. Khalifa said that the range of fields proffers more creative solutions to design and practical problems.
“The more diverse our work is, the more creative it gets,” he said of the group's inter-industry “cross-pollination.”
The diverse range of professionals is not an organic phenomenon, but the result of the group’s attempt to eschew in-group competition and prevent the over-saturation of a particular profession. Applicants must represent a profession sufficiently different from those of existing members—if an admitted applicant has a specialty similar to an existing member, that member writes up a non-competition contract. Such measures are intended contribute to a space that allows members to share ideas without reservation or fear of idea theft.
Khalifa called the group’s organization “the opposite of the good ol’ boy system.” Members take turns heading the Wednesday night brainstorming meetings and curating the group’s gallery installations, like next week’s The Art of HELLCAR curated by comic strip artist Paul Friedrich of Onion Head Monster fame.
After two years of existence, Designbox appears to be going strong. But, Khalifa laughed, “There's no way we've got this thing nailed down.”
Though members boast book deals, product designs, and participation in the creation of the Pratt School of Engineering's “Smart House,” Designbox is thinking bigger. “We want to ultimately become a brand of quality on a creative individual,” said Khalifa, so that a Designbox member is instantly recognized as talented, innovative and creative.
Khalifa also mentioned that Designbox would like to plant the “seeds of the idea” in other locations—like Durham. Fuqua: take note.
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