LOCZIdesign is a team of designers with a variety of creative and complementary talents fronted by Founder and Creative Director, Paige Loczi. Paige loves leading the creative team and thrives in an environment full of talented, fearless people. She likens her role to that of a conductor, and loves when it all comes together through mutual collaboration. We sat down with Paige to discuss her unconventional processes, why collaboration is key, and how daily meditation helps to center her team.
Can you tell us how LOCZIdesign was conceived?
PL: Many years ago, I was in a design shop with an old friend discussing my next portfolio on the HP Global Services team. Whilst discussing, I kept interrupting the conversation with moments of glee. I was distracted by all the curated delights.
Leslie said: “Hello, why are you talking about ITSM when you’re so enthused by that red crystal chandelier?”
I got my first project a month before starting graduate school. It was a penthouse in the Filmore. Barry and Josh were wonderful and adventurous, and we took a chance on each other. I changed almost every element in their home from the china to the landscaping. I did the faux painting, garden planting and furniture installation myself. I worked my butt off and enjoyed so much of it. I completed the project a month after my first semester. I threw a party and invited all my friends. I have been working ever since.
Even from the beginning, I knew it would be important to surround myself with people who knew more than I did. I was lucky to work with a few patient GC’s who showed me the ropes. Over the last 17 years, the projects have become more complex, and the team has grown. We have been blessed to work with many kick-ass people who also happen to be great at their jobs! Each with our fields of expertise, we are now a serious band of misfits who love what we do. Our team and projects are based all over and our studio has expanded to two cities. It’s an exciting time!
I changed almost every element in their home from the china to the landscaping. I did the faux painting, garden planting and furniture installation myself.
Would you describe your process when approaching a new project?
PL: At the beginning of the pandemic a group of us began meditating daily for an hour. Working with others and accessing a shared field completely changed my approach to design.
I am less constrained by proximity, tapping into spaces with a widened appreciation for the seen and unseen. I run my hands over the floor plan and notice where there are points of compression, held trauma like in the body. (I see the flow of circulation and balanced furniture layouts. I notice the colors of the flora surrounding the property.)
I bring this budding awareness to each project and in exchange, I am rewarded by endless curiosity. I enjoy the process of discovering what draws one towards partnership, towards making a house into a home. What are the elements and environments that compel us? What quiets or enlivens our senses?
Conversations about inspiration, process, structure, deliverables, realistic budgets, and time constraints follow.
How important is collaboration to you and your process with clients?
PL: There is no process without collaboration and listening is the basis of any creation. The narrative of the family, the home, the land is available with enough attention. This approach requires spaciousness, confidence, and authenticity. Working at a high level of execution requires vast capability, and humility. We are constantly learning and making our processes better, our designs more refined -a true reflection of those whom we serve.
We ask a lot of questions and remain open. We want to know who makes the coffee and who has an aversion to paisley? We want to know where you travel, what you like to cook and who you invite to dinner.
Our job is to butler the creative genius that wants to be born. We are our best when we’re doing things we’ve never done before with people who know who they are, what they want, how they work and what it takes to get something done.
What would you consider to be the most substantial change in the field of design since you opened your studio?
PL: The world has endless access to information and that makes for an informed client. It also makes for a more discerning process. We want to know where our materials are coming from and how they’re being made and by whom. We have access to everything, but we are learning what matters to us as a community. We are learning to include other voices in the rewriting of our shared narrative. We are introducing each other to old techniques, old ways, slow ways… we are becoming patient. We are beginning to listen to the trauma suffered by many of our subverted sisters and brothers. We are starting to pay attention to those who have lived in harmony with the land.
I am a part of a collective called Make Conscious. We are multidisciplinary practitioners with a penchant for expansive storytelling. We create environments that echo the essence of place, designing modern ornament that weaves our shared narrative throughout.
How does environmental sustainability factor into your projects?
Things have come a long way since my UC Berkeley days where we learned about grey water and passive solar! And we’ve still got a long way to go. One field where I feel we can make an immediate impact is with the construction process itself. We’ve recently joined an The Good Future Design Alliance, “a movement to dramatically reduce waste and change the way the industry does business.” We hope to learn from our collective wisdom how best to build with integrity, drawing more from our local craftsman and less from our finite resources.
PL: How do you see the world of design changing for the better in the future?
We need society to make better decisions based on our collective responsibility for our planet. As we know ourselves more, we align and become congruent. Our actions begin to reflect our values. We lift each other up by recognizing ourselves within the greater structure of society.
Our clients are masters within their fields. Our job is to create an environment where they can thrive and do what they were put on this earth to do. Many of our clients are writers, doctors, and scientists. They make the world work and often, work better, for more of us.
Our fate is hanging in the balance, but we might just pull it off.
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