Five Questions For: Jordan & Russell of 2LG Studio
When I started posting interior shots on Instagram last year, there were a number of feeds that made me want to push the decorating boundaries. Emily Henderson, Jonathan Adler, Liz Kamarul, Ball & Claw Vintage. 2LG Studio were one of those feeds that always made me feel inspired. Their stylish posts with a pop of super glam were aspirational and their love of luxe interiors and fabrics were a huge pull when it came to texturing my own home.
With an award winning design blog and a successful interior design studio, Jordan and Russell are regularly featured in the Press including such publications as Elle Decoration, Living Etc and The Sunday Times Home and have garnered an impressive following on social media. They've collaborated with interior brands such as Graham & Brown on wall coverings and other interior companies and studios on a range of home furnishings including rugs and bed linen.
Their transparent way of working has evolved over years of working with clients and allows their creativity to flow. Their ethos is simplicity, elegance, functionality and a signature use of colour makes their designs immediately recognisable in an industry that can often be bland. They embrace colour and aim to create environments that promote growth and happiness.
They're taking part in various events at London Design Week this September including designing an interactive installation and cafe for Design Junction, a panel discussion on social media for 100% Design and a workshop at the House Of Wallpaper.
So I was super happy when they took a break in their busy schedule to answer five quick questions about what makes them tick.
What's your names and where do you come from?
Loving the blind date vibes of this question. Can't help hearing Cilla Black asking, haha! We are Russell Whitehead and Jordan Cluroe, founders of 2LG Studio.
We are based in South East London, Forest Hill to be precise, but originally from the Midlands and Hertfordshire. We are an Interior Design Studio.
How did you decide to go down the creative career path that you are on? What made you decide to start a business together?
We have always been creatives and both started out as actors, working in the West end and television for years before we met and started to work together on this new creative venture. When we got together we started designing our own textiles in our spare time and eventually this led to designing our first property together that got featured in the Guardian several years ago.
We loved it so much and realised slowly that design is where our hearts lie. We also felt like our working life as actors meant we weren't seeing enough of each other and when we got married 6 years ago it was a real turning point for us because we wanted to start building our future together. It was a natural progression from then on to start working towards our own business.
Nothing really happens overnight. It took years of hard work, with two careers at the same time for a while, before we could dive in and launch on our own as interior designers. It's being a steep learning curve, we are growing all the time, and loving the challenge.
What is your own personal style?
We both have quite different personal styles, I'm quite conceptual/cerebral and I love words and stories whereas Jordan is instinctive and visual. We have worked hard to understand our differences over the years and to find ways of communicating, so that we never assume or take for granted we are on the same page. Hopefully it makes us much stronger as a team, as we work from different perspectives. You could say we take each other out of our comfort zones as regularly as we take our clients out of theirs.
The term personal style doesn't come into our work very often as we are interested in adapting to the individual needs of our clients, understanding and appreciating them, just as we used to with characters we were portraying. For us the thrill of the job is interpreting a clients tastes and needs.
On the flip side we have set ourselves a challenge with our latest home, our design house as we are calling it. Treating ourselves like the clients for once and creating a home that is truly us. The biggest challenge of all. We are deliberately taking this process very slowly and growing into the house as our style develops and our business grows.
It has been so much fun and so difficult and we love it. I suppose words that you could apply to our work are; inquisitive, colourful, clean-lined, playful, atmospheric, decorative, functional.
Where do you want to be in ten years time?
On a beach, ha ha. Seriously dreaming of a holiday right now because we have been working so hard for past 4 years to develop our portfolio and make a name for ourselves. So a little break would be lovely. But in all seriousness, we want to be creative in 10 years time. If we can still say we feel creative and are creating beautiful spaces and products, we will be very happy.
We showed our new wallpaper and fabric collection at New York design festival for the first time last month and that was incredible, so more of that would be marvellous. We would also love to see South East London becoming more of an important satellite district for London Design Festival as there are so many talented designers in the area that deserve to be showcased.
Oh, and it would be nice to have several rescue dogs and some chickens and a big vegetable patch - we are home bodies.
Who is your design idol?
Courtesy of the amazing Kelly Wearstler.
SO many! Alexander McQueen, Kelly Wearstler, Sebastian Wong...the list could go on and on.
With lots of love and thanks to Jordan and Russell for taking the time to answer my questions.
NEWSFLASH! If you are London based, you might want to visit the 2LG Interiors Yard Sale today, Sunday 27 August, at their home 11 Perry Rise, London SE23 2QX from 10am to 4pm. Pop along to have a look around, meet the team and pick up a design classic for your own home.
You can find 2LG Studio on the following platforms:
Website
PS: I've been nominated for Best Newcomer in the Amara IBA's - if you've enjoyed this post and my blog, I'd be hugely grateful if you would click this link to vote! Thank you.
