Helen Rice, Fuzzco: Breathing Life into Brands – Well Made E45

From launching a creative agency to a real estate brand, Helen Rice isn’t afraid to try something new. In 2005, Helen and her husband Josh Nissenboim launched Fuzzco. From their bi-coastal offices in Charleston and Portland, Helen and her team have done branding, photography, illustration, and animation for companies like MailChimp, Etsy, and Bonobos, all while launching their own side projects with the same curious point of view and distinct design sense.

Pretend Store is their pop-up-experiment-turned-ecommerce shop where they sell wildly creative and collaborative products, designed in house. Serious Buildings is a design-driven real estate investment company where Helen and her husband restore historic buildings like Fuzzco’s 9th Charleston office.

On this episode, Helen talks about building trust through thoughtful design (10:30), creating strong brand identity systems (13:08), and using design templates (16:55). Helen and Stephan discuss modern graphic design challenges and minimalism (18:05). She shares how Serious Buildings began (24:40), how she balances Pretend Store as a business and passion project (39:25), and lastly, how she’s learning to pursue all her interests while setting boundaries (43:45).

Keep up with Fuzzco on Twitter and Instagram. Follow the Serious Buildings projects and get Pretend Store product updates on Instagram.

Also mentioned on the show:

• Why Do Google, Airbnb, and Pinterest All Have Such Similar Logos? by Katharine Schwab
• Going Direct to Consumer with Lauren Sherman
• Attack of the Mirco Brands by Scott Belsky
• East Fork Pottery
• Workstead
• Helvetica
• Spreadsheets Hat
• Pocket Art Director
• Pocket Developer
• Call Me By Your Name
• A Bigger Splash
• Fuzzco is Hiring