Interior designers looking to spur their creative juices and graduate out of their home offices can head to a new co-working space in Newport Beach called Studio88.
The white-walled office with accents of wood and an exposed ceiling is a dedicated workspace for interior designers, and the first of its kind on the West Coast, according to the firm.
It opened two weeks ago at The Jetty, a five-building office complex near Newport Beach Golf Course.
Studio88 founder Chris Johnson said the inspiration for her venture came almost three years ago when her 40-year-old design firm, DesignTec Inc., was treading water.
“We were just covering our expenses, and I said, I can’t keep doing this, and I don’t want to.”
Johnson’s firm specializes in outfitting model homes and operates inside Studio88. DesignTec’s previous headquarters was on Campus Drive in Newport Beach, but she moved after she sold the more than 17,000-square-foot building for an estimated $4.7 million, according to CoStar records.
“This model allows me to do what I want, but the burden of all the overhead isn’t on DesignTec. It’s a smart business position to be in to have this wonderful environment where a group of entrepreneurs are sharing the cost of doing business.”
Studio88 is the latest co-working space to plant roots in Orange County, but it’s a smaller player—offering 16 desks, including two already leased—compared to shared-space kingpin WeWork, whose Spectrum Center location can house up to 50 people in one private office.
But Johnson said her concept has a special menu of services for members, in addition to providing perks, like endless coffee, conference rooms, and networking opportunities, typically found at WeWork and other OC creative offices, including Eureka Building in Irvine and CrashLabs in Costa Mesa.
Studio88 offers short- and long-term leases starting at six months. Prices range from $700 for one desk to $1,500 for a semi-private office. Daily and weekly plans are also available.
Members have a free resource library with a plethora of samples, such as paint chips, fabric catalogs, and stone and tile samples. There’s design support, specification/computer-aided design services and even help with clerical tasks at an additional cost. It also has a climate-controlled warehouse next door where members can rent storage space.
Johnson said it also provides purchasing services, which she anticipates will be its second-largest source of revenue next to leasing desks. The service handles expediting and accounting needs, as well as offering deep discounts on merchandise, thanks to DesignTec’s long-standing relationships with multiple vendors.
“An independent designer that works out of their house, they don’t even get close to what our discounts are,” Johnson said. “And I think it’s the right time. It’s so expensive to set up a business like this. It’s a huge expense.”
Fresh Coat
Monica Pavalko, president and creative director of Carlyle Design Studio Inc., has worked in numerous spaces, from her own private office, to a shared office space, to a home office.
“It’s been an uphill climb,” she said. “I had an office with employees 10 years ago, but the recession forced me to downsize. Now, the last couple years have been booming, and I’m blessed with more work than I can handle alone.”
Pavalko, who worked at DesignTec more than 25 years ago, said she initially chose WeWork Spectrum Center because of its design and entrepreneurial culture but that the support staff at Studio88 sealed the deal.
“My decision to go to Studio88 was really dollar to dollar—you can’t do it faster by yourself. Time is money,” she said.
Pavalko has been able to shave weeks off certain tasks. For example, driving to various showrooms in Southern California to find the right tile typically takes several days or several weeks, but Pavalko said Studio88’s resource library helped her find the right tile for a client in one day.
Johnson said she secretly began developing the concept nearly three years ago with Studio88 Director of Business Operations Lee Ann Engel, who previously worked for DesignTec.
“When I first presented this to her, she said to me, ‘Are you crazy? How will that work?’” Johnson said. “I said, Lee Ann, we can’t eat the cow in one bite.”
The pair spent each weekend crunching numbers to create a business plan. Johnson told her DesignTec team in September about the new venture, and the firm moved into its current headquarters three months later.
Johnson, who dropped out of high school at 16, said she went to “the school of work” and earned money as an artist until she landed a job at a now-defunct model home design firm at 22.
“I did the interview and said I know nothing about design, this is my artwork, and I will work for free, full time, to get my education.”
She did so for the first three months, but then moved up the ranks to become the company’s lead designer.
By 1978, she launched DesignTec. The company has won more than 75 industry awards, and projects include The Carlyle Residences in Westwood by developer Elad Group, VUE Newport in Newport Beach by Third Palm Capital and AEG Development’s The Ritz Carlton Residences at L.A. Live.
It averages 150 projects a year—a lot when compared to a residential designer, who typically takes on about five projects in a year.
Johnson said that launching Studio88 helps ease the operating costs of DesignTec and gives the firm enough flexibility to focus on clients, but that more importantly, it supports OC designers.
“Right now, DesignTec is the big dog in the kennel,” she said. “And as this thing grows, it’ll be one of the dogs in the kennel.”
