What colours, textures, eras, and aesthetics inspire you?
Lauren: Green and red are huge colours for me, a classic combo that can be made un-Christmassy through unusual tints (see: pistachio with oxblood). Not to knock Christmas, we decorate for holidays and never take things down, you can wayfind through time through the strata of our stuff.We're both big collectors. My library is very important to me, and Ben built the loveliest shelves that fit my biggest books.I gravitate towards the '70s: warmth, layering of textures. One day I would love a conversation pit and a working fireplace. Dreams! Other loves: the clash of Memphis design, the textures of Milanese interiors (I just went to Villa Necchi and laid an egg, it was so beautiful), fully tiled bathrooms, bricks, concrete, wood. Textures!If I could define our combined aesthetic it would be full-on visual assault, with handmade, antique, and new swirled together. I adore the idiosyncratic mash-up, and Jacqueline Sullivan Gallery in NY curates an incredible freaky mix that feels pitch perfect. Movie posters hold a special place in my heart, and I've acquired some real gems from Posteritati. I absolutely love Star Trek. It's glam and campy and deep and silly.
Ben: Being a '90s child, wacky is a way of life. As a kid I collected matchbooks and loved flipping through magazines. I love old board games and shape puzzles from my childhood. It's a good thrift store day when I find an old game I grew up with.Growing up Mennonite and surrounded by Amish and Shaker pieces, I was always drawn to the ornate craft of subtle details. Pair that with Pee-wee's Playhouse and style with Elsa Klensch, and I was off to the races. MacGyver, a fictional spy, gave me a lens I use for solving problems.When designing furniture, I'm always trying to find a measured way to show my "hand" in the work, whether that's a whimsical or natural element that draws the eye or grounds the space.
Lauren, you're an illustrator, and Ben, you work across disciplines. How did each of you find your way in?
Lauren: I've been a freelance illustrator for over 11 years now! The companies I worked at as a designer/art director kept shutting down, so I jumped into what I really wanted to do, drawing stuff for money! I've worked on a few picture books over the past few years, true wish fulfillment for my childhood self.I went to "Ryerson" for Fashion Design back in the early 2000s and then went on to Visual Communications (graphic design and illustration) at "ACAD." I use quotations because these institutions changed their names since I was there, for reasons honourable and lame, respectively.
Ben: I was always interested in how things work, and felt satisfaction when making something by hand. For seventeen years in New York I was a digital product designer, cutting my teeth at agencies, freelancing, and working in-house, building things for myself on nights and weekends. When we moved to Toronto, we couldn't find or agree on pieces to buy. I rented shop space, we collaborated on those first pieces, and Earth Crust Studio was formed.
When did you first realize how much your surroundings mattered to you, and how did you start shaping them?
Ben: When I was a kid, around eight or nine, I didn't have to share a bedroom anymore. My dad let me pick the colour: NEON GREEN. He was definitely like "what the fuck?!" but I never regretted it.
Lauren: I was always pasting up shrines to my obsessions. When I was a teenager it was Marilyn Monroe (Happy 100th Birthday!) and whatever British man I was mooning over that week. My mother comes from a line of glamorous Egyptian women, and ever since I can remember I've craved sequins, sparkle, colour, and irreverence.A terrible roommate pushed me to live on my own for the first time, at 27, and I landed in a jewel box of a studio in Park Slope. It was my perfect little nest, painted a cool pink, girly as all hell.
