• Home
  • FAQs
  • WNW News
  • Creative Work
  • Opinion
  • Back to WNW
Menu

Working Not Working Magazine

  • Home
  • FAQs
  • WNW News
  • Creative Work
  • Opinion
  • Back to WNW
×
Cans_085_2000px.gif

Etsy Alums Celebrate Collaboration & Year-Round Summer Vibes

Working Not Working September 28, 2018

Etsy Alums Celebrate Collaboration
& Year-Round Summer Vibes

MIKE O'DONNELL / EDITOR

After working closely together at Etsy, WNW Members and creative duo Melissa Deckert and Nicole Licht decided to keep the party going and form their joint studio Party of One. With their latest project, Melissa and Nicole are exploring the very nature of their collaborative spirit. Below, we talk about what they most appreciate about each other’s style and skillset, as well as the process that went into creating “Summer Empties,” an ultra-collaboration converting hoarded cans into both painted vases and odes to summer.

Follow Melissa on WNW
Follow Nicole on WNW
 

When did you two first collaborate on a project and how did that lead to becoming regular creative collaborators?

Nicole: Melissa and I worked closely together at Etsy on the in-house brand team for four years. Early on I believe that we recognized a similar desired outcome for the look and feel of projects and a similar ambition in each other. We would work shoulder to shoulder after hours and once even coming in during a snowstorm to do our best to create something detailed, unique, and magical.

Melissa: When we both eventually moved into freelancing, it felt natural to continue collaborating. After a couple years of working independently and creating personal projects together—including a series of cathartic piñatas—Party of One was born!

How does your working relationship inform your joint studio Party of One?

Nicole: It is a constantly evolving process, but luckily we had a lot of practice working in close proximity under tight deadlines during our time at Etsy. A lot of the work we currently get is cross-disciplinary, which really helps us divide and conquer based on our strengths. We both enjoy the initial concept process, so our brainstorms for projects tend to stir up a TON of different ideas, executions and references.

Melissa: Once we get started, Nicole’s mastery of materials always leads to great improvisational solutions, whereas I always feel more comfortable planning the structure and story of a project before I can let go and create. As a result, we often bounce back and forth and usually end up with a better solution than either one of us would have come up with alone.

What do you appreciate most about each other’s styles and skill sets? Which of each other’s projects is your favorite?

Melissa: Nicole brings an effortless quality to her work (despite it actually being incredibly meticulous!) which is a hard thing to duplicate if it doesn’t come naturally. That creative spontaneity helps us keep things loose, take risks, reinterpret materials, and generally brings a levity to our work together. One of my favorite Nicole projects is her editorial illustration for the Village Voice—the concept is really strong, and it has this controlled chaos through her use of one material in a ridiculous way. Plus those little eyes always get me.

Nicole: I appreciate Melissa’s bold sensibility, her ability to commit to an idea, plan it out thoroughly, and her perfectionistic drive in bringing it to life. Melissa is fierce and inwardly competitive; she’s always striving to outdo or better her last work. She’s a force to be reckoned with and I admire that strength. It’s very hard to choose a favorite project but a top fave would be from the animated Halloween series for Edie Parker. They are elegant and spooky, no easy feat and I’m so impressed by the motion and styling coupled with the fact she shot and modeled in these all alone like a true boss.

Nicole 1st Round

Nicole 1st Round

Melissa 1st Round

Melissa 1st Round

“I started hoarding cans, and really wanted to find an opportunity for us to incorporate our trash into a project, circumventing the perfection we strive for with an imperfect base.”
— Nicole

Tell us about Summer Empties. What was the inspiration and goal for this project?

Nicole: I started hoarding cans, and really wanted to find an opportunity for us to incorporate our trash into a project, circumventing the perfection we strive for with an imperfect base.

Melissa: We then stared at them for a few weeks trying to decide how to use their crumpled shapes until the idea of collaboratively painted vases dawned on us. The exquisite corpse idea happened naturally as we both started working on a “vase” on our own, and quickly realized how different our styles were within the loose summer prompt we gave ourselves. As we paid more attention to each others techniques, the process materialized!

Nicole: Their sweetness marries the melancholy of our alone together studio name with a sprinkling of an “it’s five o’clock somewhere” summer vibe. Truth be told, by 4 pm one of us is usually suggesting.

Nicole 2nd Round

Nicole 2nd Round

Melissa 2nd Round

Melissa 2nd Round

How did each of your respective styles shine on Summer Empties? How did this project push your individual and joint creative boundaries?

Melissa: I started by taking the form pretty literally, so my first design was like a Party of One beer can label (hint hint, we are taking requests). I quickly loosened up after seeing Nicole’s process and started incorporating her collage technique with some of my more graphic details. The final result was honestly very freeing for me!

Nicole: I wanted to try and let myself make a mark, and just freely respond with another with no real attachment to the outcome, focusing more upon growth and discovery across the span of cans.  That technique shifted as specific imagery and themes emerged after I began to adopt Melissa’s method of applying (literally —we wound up making little tissue paper transfer sheets) graphic details.

What was it like incorporating an exquisite corpse method on this project?

N: Roping people in to making ugly things is hard

M: Being loose is hard when you want to plan every detail.

N: I understand that you can’t tell someone to be free.

M: I like to be free, I like to make rules.

N: What is freedom anyway? I think it depended on the music we were playing.

M: Gerry Rafferty’s “Down the Line” fueled this whole project.

N: This project demanded commitment but you know, like, for fun free time.

M: Did that answer the question?

Collaborative Round

Collaborative Round

Collaborative Round

Collaborative Round

Do you still enjoy working alone or does it feel like something’s missing without bringing in another creative mind? What does collaboration mean to you?

Melissa: Working together so often has definitely shifted the way I work independently—I think I always have a little subconscious whisper of Nicole in my ear, whether I want to hear it or not. That being said, my work has really grown through our collaboration, so I usually appreciate having that perspective to draw from—even when I’m channeling it into something personal.

Nicole: I do enjoy that working alone gives me the opportunity to go non-verbal and  perhaps meander a bit more. At the same time, I value that Melissa and my collaborations require a high level of communication and clarification that often can lead to sharper and stronger concepts and outcomes.

What is your favorite thing about summer?

Nicole: Hot weather, outdoor drinks, sandals.

Melissa: Beach beers + cheetos

Who are some other WNW Members whose work you admire and why?

We always love following fellow Etsy ex-pat Jing Wei and the beautiful work she has created since then! We’re also huge fans of Romain Laurent and his surreal photographic cinemagraphs.  

Nicole 3rd Round

Nicole 3rd Round

Melissa 3rd Round

Melissa 3rd Round

Nicole 4th Round

Nicole 4th Round

Melissa 4th Round

Melissa 4th Round

Cans_232.jpg
Cans_WeedySequence_hero_2000px.jpg
 

Discover more creative talent and projects like this on Working Not Working. If you're a WNW Member with new work, exhibits, products, news, or opinions to share, email us.

 
In WORK Tags Summer Empties, Melissa Deckert, Nicole Licht, Illustration, Working Not Working, WNW, Creativity, Process, Collaboration, Party of One, Team, Duo, Etsy, Cans, Bottles, Exquisite Corpse, company:1059
← Asking Not Asking #3: ExhaustedHow Two Freelance Creatives are Turning Advertising into Altruism →

Search Posts

 

Featured Posts

Featured
Sep 16, 2024
How to Tackle Employee Turnover in 2024: Lessons from Working Not Working on HR Brew
Sep 16, 2024
Sep 16, 2024
Sep 12, 2024
Creatives Spill the Tea: A Pulse Check on Employee Happiness
Sep 12, 2024
Sep 12, 2024
Apr 27, 2022
Nicole Lelacheur, a Senior Copywriter at JOAN, Talks Empathy, Instincts, & Keeping a Foot Firmly Planted Outside Adland
Apr 27, 2022
Apr 27, 2022
Apr 8, 2022
4 Steps to Build as a Business & Show Your Value, Courtesy of Carolyn Bothwell, Brand Strategist & Founder of Freelance Founders
Apr 8, 2022
Apr 8, 2022
Apr 8, 2022
6 Steps to Build Your Best Photography Portfolio
Apr 8, 2022
Apr 8, 2022
Mar 8, 2022
5 Portfolio Takeaways from Apple, Netflix, & Vans Animator Keenon Ferrell
Mar 8, 2022
Mar 8, 2022
Mar 8, 2022
Mischief President & “Sassy Bossypants” Kerry McKibbin on Stirring the Industry, Ideas Over Agency Theater, & the Power of “No”
Mar 8, 2022
Mar 8, 2022
Jan 25, 2022
5 Tips to Find Work, Collaborators, and Community on Working Not Working
Jan 25, 2022
Jan 25, 2022
Dec 20, 2021
TOV Consultant Vikki Ross Helps Brands To Become Human & Humans To Become Copywriters. (Sorry Robots.)
Dec 20, 2021
Dec 20, 2021
Nov 15, 2021
13 Steps to Create a Stand-Out Profile on Working Not Working
Nov 15, 2021
Nov 15, 2021

Powered by Squarespace