We are honored to be featured in our alumni magazine, the Macalester Today. Thanks to Squire Fox for the great photos.

Artful Life

BY FAITH ADAMS

IN CHARLESTON, HELEN RICE ’03 AND JOSH NISSENBOIM ’03 ARE RUNNING A THRIVING MARKETING BUSINESS AND TRANSFORMING A HISTORIC HOME.

Helen Rice ’03 and Josh Nissenboim ’03 were in search of a lifestyle as much as a livelihood when they moved to Charleston, South Carolina, six years ago. With an energy and cleverness that’s become their trademark, they founded a full-service digital agency named Fuzzco and remodeled a historic house and office building to live and work in, while collaborating with the designers, restaurateurs, musicians, and artists that constitute Charleston’s creative class. Along the way Fuzzco has racked up awards for its diverse design projects and garnered some great national press.

The two met in French class, where they were randomly paired for a project. Like many group projects, it ended as a solo effort—Rice finished the assignment—but Nissenboim later showed his appreciation by treating her to an enormous slice of chocolate cake at Coffee News. Ten years later they were married.

After a brief stint in Madison, Wisconsin, where Nissenboim worked for a software company and Rice waited tables and painted, they were eager to move to a warmer climate. Without much soulsearching, the couple chose Charleston.

“Moving back to Charleston had a lot to do with the fact that nowhere else has ever felt like home, and a little to do with all the friends I had here,” explains Rice. “I’ve always felt Charleston was an underrated place. Our decision to move here didn’t have anything to do with opening a business—and at the time, Charleston was still emerging as a design community.”

They started Fuzzco in 2005 “because our interests overlapped in such a way that we saw the potential to be a creative team,” says Nissenboim. Their first project was a business card for a local trucker. They took turns working on Nissenboim’s college computer until they finally decided to spring for a second workstation. “We felt like the underdogs in an overlooked, underrated city,” he adds. “We were also really hard workers and obsessed with growing our business.”

Six years later, with a client list that now includes Google, eHarmony, and Sharp, they and their seven employees work in a spare, beautifully renovated office building that was recently featured in Dwell magazine along with their restored and reinvented 1852 house. “We work with clients of all shapes and sizes, from international to hyperlocal,” says Nissenboim. “We love the mix.” Today the client roster includes multinational corporations, software start-ups, and even a small chocolatier. Fuzzco’s take on projects is often a blend of irreverent and hip, classicism and timelessness.

The same aesthetic can be seen in the couple’s restored home, located just a few blocks from Fuzzco’s headquarters. “The spaces where we live and work are extremely important. They influence how we think and feel,” says Nissenboim. “We love the juxtaposition of old and new, and we try to keep things organized and minimal.”

The home renovation, characterized by a light touch and respect for the distressed bones of the 150-year-old building, was made possible through a combination of bartering for services and much physical labor. When the couple purchased the vacant property, it was a shambles of peeling paint and plaster, broken appliances and fixtures, its windows insulated with newspapers and duct tape. The renovated space is a blend of functional new and stripped-down old, as in the case of tongue-and-groove walls left exposed after outdated wood paneling was removed. It’s also an urban oasis. In a city with few lawns, their yard is big enough for a vegetable garden and a croquet course.

Rice plans to someday build an art studio in the backyard. The former studio art major showed paintings at Charleston galleries until the demands of a growing business made that impossible. She oversees the art direction and strategic creative development at Fuzzco.

Although long working hours are a necessary part of starting a business, Rice and Nissenboim make time for socializing, frequently with clients who’ve become friends. Their synergistic approach to life and work means there are few demarcations between business and pleasure, clients and friends, interior design and graphic design.

How did college prepare them for the life they’re leading now? “At Mac we made some great friends, worked hard, and learned how to live in a small, close-knit society,” says Nissenboim. In Charleston they’ve made use of those college lessons, in a community that appreciates their talents and allows them to mix work and living in an interesting and artful way.

For most of us, this was our first Stingrays game, but Mason and I already knew we were their biggest fans; we just didn’t have jerseys.

Step 1 to Becoming a Number 1 Fan: The Template Study

Mason cutting, oh-so-delicately, our blue felt base

Fast-forward all the cutting, and add lightning and jewels for electricity. (We would have sewn everything, but hot glue saves time)

Three minutes into the game and a fist fight electrifies our lightning and jewels.

N1SFFL (Number 1 Stingray Fans For Lyfe)

(Above: Kristen the Teacher demonstrates to the group how not to hold the target.)

(Above: Dulaan kills this target / pose with the .22 rifle. Yay! Bulls-eye!)

(Above: This Luger is obviously too deadly gangster to shoot. But in truth, its too dirty, and nobody dares to put their fingerprints on it.)

Ammo spent, we left the woods to visit Duke’s BBQ. Duke’s is a weekend only, all-you-care-to-eat-but-beware-big-eyes buffet. It is good all the way down and if you should decide to visit, make sure to b.y.o. spoon, b.y.o. cash, and see the business card shelf:

(Above: We aren’t sure what “honey doin’” is, but we like it.)

(Above: Post Duke’s real-country-store digestion session.)

(Above: Most who play rail-chicken die, but win. The few who survive mourn during a back-o-the-truck, back-o-the-woods ride home.)

Upon our return, the celebration of life takes place with heavy drinking, interrupted only by a tour of Neighbor Tommy’s 40 years-in-the-making taxidermy shop. The inquisitive city-folk in us fired more questions at him than bullets at the range, and however parched we were for answer-juice, we could not drain him. For his brain-fountain of knowledge proved to be a never-ending gusher. Learning ensued:

Neighbor Tommy tells us: squirrels are among the most difficult woodland creatures to stuff (probably too squirrelly). As well are fish, due to the painting process required which involves layer after layer of translucent paints.

Neighbor Tommy tells us: pets are out of the question (why shouldn’t we enjoy Brother’s lovable face forever?). You see, the prefabricated forms used with the popular game (deer, snakes, moose, etc.) don’t exist for our cuddly domestics. One alternative to form stretching is to use of wet wood pulp, creating a moldable paste. The process is pretty straight forward, however the anatomical structure becomes questionable looking even for the most seasoned taxidermists such as Neighbor Tommy.

Know-How Tommy tells us: about a wolf pack attacking a buffalo at an animal stuff-off competition (or something). Unfortunately, I was absent taking photos and missed most of this seemingly titillating story. Fortunately, the unrelated shots remain:

(Above: We didn’t ask any questions about this little guy.)

Tell-All Tommy keeps animals with beating hearts as well. Plenty of chickens, two roosters, a bunch of chicks that were a total surprise to him, pheasants, large quantities of high-quality quail, and a duck that thinks of himself as a rooster. He also fosters two glorious deer who live in a fence built for a tennis court, but hardly ever play tennis. Blake and I wandered beyond this and into the woods where we found two old school buses. They must have been there for a long time because all around were grown-ass trees, making any attempt at a tow-away escape futile.

Later, back at the country house, awkward, haunting things took place which our memories have replaced with dark, but happy voids. In the morning, we ate 1000 tiny chicken eggs and walked to the pond where the legendary white catfish lives. Catch him and you get a wish, for he is a catwish!

(Above: Helen sacrifices her body to build a bridge to Catwish Pond.)

Believe it or not, Helen noodles the catwish out, and not taking the myth seriously, squanders all infinite possibilities by wishing for a pair of XL boys long-johns in place of pants “with red stripes!”. Regardless of her disbelief, her wish came true. And we laughed. And it was at her and not with her and it was good.

(Above: Helen’s new pants and our tired dogs.)

The end.

We designed these cans for Westbrook Brewery. Purchase White Thai and IPA at Bottles, Earth Fare, Whole Foods, Charleston Beer Exchange, Piggly Wiggly and a whole bunch of other places in South Carolina. See more work for Westbrook in the case study.

Blake snapped this photo of Ryan Cockrell this morning as he was delivering our skateboards. We’ll be contributing to Skate and Create 2012, a fundraiser for Skate Pass. Skate Pass brings skateboarding to the PE curriculum of the Charleston Charter School for Math & Science. This will be the first school in South Carolina to teach skateboarding in PE. Read more about it and get involved on pouritnow.com.

Back in 2009, in collaboration with Coast Brewing Company we designed these labels for the fictional beer “Colbeert.” Stephen Colbert happens to be in town today. We’re hoping that somehow he discovers and endorses the production of Colbeert.

This pointless question recently spawned a work-disrupting conversation about what can and can’t be sent through the mail. The rules governing mailable items have tightened up a lot in recent years. But in the first few years after the establishment of the parcel post in 1913 people were really pushing the envelope – sending butter, eggs, livestock and even stranger items.

Some even used the service to ship their children in an effort to avoid the cost of train travel, as shown in the photo above from the Smithsonian collection. On January 16, 1913,  the New York Times reported on a disturbing letter received by the Postmaster General, in which the writer requested information on how to properly wrap a baby for transport. Eventually the Postal Service decided that children didn’t fit the definition of ‘harmless live animals which do not require food or water while in transit’, putting an end to a delightful and economical practice that made parents everywhere very happy.

For a real belly laugh, read the 1911 testimony of Mr. W. J. Pilkington of Des Moines, Iowa, delivered to a Congressional subcommittee considering the establishment of the parcel post service. He argued that if rural families were able to have goods delivered to their homes they would travel into town less frequently, affecting education, church attendance and ‘the finer instincts in our beings, which cause us to want to have better homes, better furniture, better everything.’

Some other gems from this font of reason:

‘…[T]he man who buys and wears up-to-date clothing because of having gone into a store and having it explained to him is a better man for wearing up-to-date clothing. …The man who rides in an automobile is a better man for his country than the man who rides in a two-wheeled cart.’

‘It would be better for our country if by some means we could force every farmer to visit his local town at least once a week…’

‘[The farmer’s children], when they visit the local town, see the well-kept lawns; they see things that tend to cause them to want these thing, these well-arranged homes, etc., on the farms where they live.’

Not surprisingly, Mr. Pilkington was the publisher of the local Merchants’ Trade Journal.

Like many in our office, Mason has succumbed to the lure of attractive professional eyewear. As luck would have it, staring at the computer all day has put a strain on his peepers causing a slight case of myopia (just enough so that he can focus on obtaining a handsome new pair of glasses).

Before going any further, it should be noted that 2011 has been the year of Mason’s amazing luck. He has entered and won a laundry list of exciting prizes including pizza, drinks, male enhancement medication, baby burgers and even points toward a plane ticket. OK we made one of those up. However, we were not surprised when he announced that he’d been chosen to receive a free pair of glasses this morning.

In his words: ”I got a note which reads ‘SURPRISE! These glasses are FREE!’ Just like that. My true love, Warby Parker, gave me prescription/polycarbonate/antireflective glasses. But not only this, they also donated a pair to a person in need. Possibly someone with actual vision problems. Bless you, Warby.”

We are proud to see our work for Westbrook Brewing and Nick Jenkins in this year’s RDA.

We traveled to the Riverbanks Zoo in Columbia on Friday to attend this year’s awards celebration. We were happy to take home 12 cube-shaped awards. Congratulations to all of this year’s winners!

Best in Interactive: Fuzzco Website

Special Judges Award: La Wine Agency, Logo, Business Cards, Websites (1) (2), Packaging

Pigeon: Logo

PCIA: Brochure

Kickin’ Chicken: Logo, T-shirts, Posters, Website, Menus

La Wine Agency: Logo, Business Cards, Websites (1) (2), Packaging

The Lit Pub: Logo, Stickers, Bookmark, Website

Lorraine G. Vale: Business Cards, Collateral, Website

Helen and Josh Sitting in a Tree: Website

Dark Sky Magazine: Website

Fuzzco: Business Cards and Stamp

Fuzzco: Website

See photos from the night.