in the studio / biz notes

Last week we shared our new business cards with you. Even though we have had the logo designed for a few years now, it took us a bit of time to decide on the look of the cards. In creating a brand, we wanted to make sure that the look and feel would read cohesively across the board - business collateral, the products that we are creating and the pieces we are collecting to sell in the store. We want to share a little bit of our story in creating xiokat, as well as the process of starting a small business as we go through it, so we've decided to add this column - Biz Notes - as part of our In The Studio series.

First the history (and an explanation for the photos above). The idea began (as you will read in our forthcoming website) when Katty and I went on a two week trip to Europe in 2005, backpacking through Spain, France and Italy. I had just graduated from architecture school and was in love with the city of Barcelona, where I had studied abroad two years prior. I wanted to share this city (and the adventure of traveling) with my sister, who had just graduated high school. My sister was (and is!) very creative and was about to start her degree in fashion design that Fall. So we picked five cities to travel through - Barcelona, Paris, Milan, Venice and Rome - and set off on an unforgettable adventure. We made no hotel plans, just booked as we got there (that in itself created some crazy stories); made friends along the way (some who we still keep in touch with to this day); ate and soaked up the sights, colors, fashion, graphics, and architecture of each unique city. We went to a goodbye party for friends we had just made, drank wine with strangers on an overnight train to Paris, slept off the hangover under the Eiffel Tower, got invited to a free concert in Rome that turned out to be Live8 - all in all a great trip. On one of those train rides, we talked about how we just wanted to continue traveling and see the world. We came up with the idea of starting a company where we could design graphics inspired by the different cities we would travel to and put them on shirts, totes, mugs, etc. This was all before the Etsy craze and the popularity of blogs.We named the company Travelogz and sketched a few designs right there. Then we got back and life happened. Katty started fashion school and I started working at a new design firm, and we both got soaked up into our new routine. Travelogz was  put on the backburner. But every so often, we would come up with ideas and sketches for the studio. 

A few years later, Katty graduated from college and, with friends, we put together a collaborative show that showcased her friend's designs, artwork, photography and more. This molded the idea for a studio that would allow us to create designs inspired by out travels, but also showcase our friends work and other local and independent designers. We named the company Xiokat (after us). We felt that this market, although big in cities like Brooklyn and San Francisco, was just awakening in South Florida, and we wanted to be a part and contribute to the growing community. Plus it would allow us to do what we love and share it with the people we love and care to see succeed. And so we began. It still continues to be a work in progress, but we are excited to see it come to fruition. Right now, we are soaking up inspiration and learning the bits of creating a strong foundation. We have been slow to launch the website and open the shop before we feel its ready, but it will happen soon. And we will be sharing more of that process in future Biz Notes. These are the beginnings, and there is much more story to be written. Stay tuned!