Maison Bodega is home to our creative practice. You may have noticed that this has been expanding and evolving over the past few years so we wanted to bring the operating principle, Gesamtkunstwerk, or “Total Work of Art” to a finer point.
This idea of totality inspired us when we took on the renovation of Maison Bodega in 2017. How could we create a *living,breathing* space where clients could walk around inside of our ideas and these ideas could be free to become as *meta* as possible? Historic studios like the Wiener Werkstätte or Bauhaus come to mind as they brought together architects, artists, designers and artisans working in ceramics, fashion, silver, furniture and the graphic arts as a way to express ideas in a 360-view.
In the case of Josef Hoffman and the physical headquarters of the Wiener Werkstätte, an apartment, workshop, studio and storefront all housed in one building. These hybridities of execution created space for individual parts to operate as a whole. Similarly, Maison Bodega is the umbrella and Bodega Ltd., Atelier Bodega and Salonnière Paper are stars within the constellation.
Reform Uncomplicated Recipes x Liz Gardner at Maison Bodega Reform CPH is a cabinetry company in Copenhagen, who does editorial-style storytelling about life inside their customers kitchens. Our creative director Liz was asked to contribute to their Uncomplicated Recipes along with design heroes like Zsuzsanna Toth and Julia Heifer, the founders of Gaia Feed, Photographer Adrianna Glaviano and everyone’s favorite food artist Lalia Gohar, among others. To see more images by Aubrey Devin and read Liz’s recipe for a savory take on breakfast with Heirloom Tomato Toast piled with Herbs click here.
Hybridities continue with our trend and culture project, Salonnière Paper. In the spirit of hostesses of meaningful gatherings, we use the salon structure in both IRL and URL formats to extend conversations around nature and culture, to give context for a more beautiful life. Salonnière has three main avenues to participate with the project:
01 • URL Digital Portal Subscription - Our URL Digital Portal is a hub of articles, interviews, and visual podcasts. A highlight for us in 2022 was speaking with Alexis Schwartz, the founder of ThirstyThirsty, an ancestral remembrance project disguised as the coolest food and wine club on Earth. Through celebrating ancestral agricultural lineages, they regenerate the planet and our interconnectedness - deliciously. Our visual podcast episode 03 conversation centers around using web3 infrastructure to restore a decentralized approach to equity, modeled after the gifting cultures within indigenous communities and wisdom. You can watch here. Our past episodes are here.
02 • IRL Experiential Events we partnered with For the Corpse for a second dinner where we explored our relationship with materiality as a vehicle for ritual and connection, while centering reciprocity with nature (and each other) and the role beauty plays in sustaining hope. You can see more here.
Photos by Chelsea Oland + Aubrey Devin
03 • Salonnière Paper Annual Printed Broadsheet connecting to our editorial roots, we’ve launched a printed broadsheet that is a look-back on each year of the project. Issue 01: An Introduction explores how our Maison Bodega operates as a shell to incubate ideas, the relationship between the interior and exterior, the public and the private, how Salonnières and Maison Bodega weave together in a time traveling 40-page newspaper for our subscribers and event attendees.
Atelier Bodega incubates and amplifies the work of designers and fabricators in the home and hospitality industries.
Aside from the obvious structural similarities to historic studios: Maison Bodega being our home, studio, workshop, et al – we used the need to create and re-create materials to complete the renovation as an opportunity to collaborate with artists on custom terrazzo, light fixtures, custom millwork knives to replicate the existing hand-planed trim, herringbone floors, french doors, delft-style tiles, fresco-inspired art while simultaneously our client work expanded to include product development which brought Mad Lenaburg to our team in 2018. While our work in creating strategic and visual languages for clients was at the forefront, our work designing objects, furniture and spaces has percolated behind the scenes. This summer, Lydia Egge, a senior at MCAD in the Furniture Design program, joined us as an intern focused on materials research and development. Watch for the release of the Maison Bodega Collection in 2023. You can read more about our Atelier Bodega incubation here.
A great example of this symbiotic incubation is with long-time client and partner, Dust + Form. This year, we expanded on the original brand work we created for Brielle in 2016, by redesigning her website to consider her artistic evolution as she brings her beautiful forms into many materials. The concept was to connect the ephemerality of experiencing her work in IRL to the digital space. By creating imagery and videos with light passing through water, each material’s characteristics were highlighted in a dynamic way, as if they were being kissed by light in your favorite room. View the case study here.
WoodLand is an umbrella for the projects and products originating from a storied plot of wooded land in central Minnesota. Wood objects, furniture and restoration encompass one side of its name while Land speaks to the restored prairie, its grasses as hay, and the garden bounty that come from this regeneratively-minded farm. Rooted in a love of the land, read more about this project here.
FEATURED CLIENT PROJECTS →
SENTi is a boutique curated around the five senses. Its name is derived from Sentir (to feel, to sense). Our work with founder Jen Knoch focused on branding + web design with the goal of creating a visual narrative that is nostalgic, dare we say sentimental, while also feeling timeless. You can see how this brand came to life in our case study here.
BLNCD Naturals is a women-owned and operated beauty and wellness company creating high performing luxurious products from plant-based ingredients, including CBD. Their vertically integrated manufacturing process is locally sourced from Midwest-grown organic certified hemp. The BLNCD Naturals team, led by an esthetician, herbalist and chemist, is passionate about the benefits of cannabinoids. We helped BLNCD Naturals strengthen their overarching narrative and integrate a cohesive aesthetic into multiple applications, including digital expressions and packaging. See more here.
THE ONLY AGENCY is a talent group with offices in Los Angeles, New York, London, and Nashville who represent some of the best creatives. Our work with TOA started with rebranding, then designing and developing a website in collaboration with Visitor Assembly, an amazing team based in St. Louis. You can see more about the project here.
Dorje Batuu for Vogue Ukraine We had the chance to style multi-hyphenate Dorje Batuu for Vogue UA at Maison Bodega just before war broke out in Ukraine. A writer, journalist, scientist and historian, Batuu currently resides in Minneapolis, works for NASA and is finishing his next book. See more here.
The Paris Apartment is a historic space in St. Paul, Minnesota - a fully intact apartment space that was disassembled in Paris, shipped to Minnesota and reconfigured by architect Edwin Lundie at the turn of the century. This storied space has been magically furnished by interior designer Jacqueline Fortier, friend of the the apartment resident Kelly Dorow. For MSPMAG Home & Design, the crew created a wintery soiree captured by Dane Tashima. See more details here. This is the second time we’ve had the pleasure of working in this incredible space for MSPMAG, check out our shoot with Bill Phelps here.
Mille Holiday Collection Michelle and her incredible Mille crew shot their Holiday 2022 Collection at Maison Bodega. We did Art Direction + Prop Styling, as well as hosted them at our location for a festive entertaining vibe. See more images from the day here.
