From left: JARED BLAKE, co-founder of Lichen, 31; CHRISTINE ESPINAL, designer, 25; ERIC MAYES, designer, 27; ED BE, co-founder of Lichen, 33; VIAN LEE, project manager, 25; and ALVARO UCHA RODRIGUEZ, designer, 23. Photographed with wooden furniture of their own design at their store, Lichen, in East Williamsburg, Brooklyn, on March 4, 2021.
Work Friends
Ed Be and Jared Blake bonded over a shared love for design after having met through Craigslist. Today, they run an innovative store and studio together.
From left: JARED BLAKE, co-founder of Lichen, 31; CHRISTINE ESPINAL, designer, 25; ERIC MAYES, designer, 27; ED BE, co-founder of Lichen, 33; VIAN LEE, project manager, 25; and ALVARO UCHA RODRIGUEZ, designer, 23. Photographed with wooden furniture of their own design at their store, Lichen, in East Williamsburg, Brooklyn, on March 4, 2021.
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Work Friends
Jared Blake: About four years ago, I’d gotten some gray Eames shell chairs on eBay — and then my dad bought me a single yellow one, but I didn’t want it, so I put it on Craigslist and Ed came to buy it. When we met, he was wearing something I would wear: a fitted Mets cap with a blue oxford, black pants and checkered Vans, the ultimate business-casual, casual-business outfit. It was like a hidden language. He told me he was stockpiling furniture to open a brick-and-mortar store. And I’d been thinking about dealing furniture online.
Ed Be: We started selling out of a storage unit. Now we’re in a bigger storefront in East Williamsburg that we opened just before the pandemic began. Most days we start at 8:30 in the morning, running around the city and sourcing until 7 at night. We hit estate sales, offices that are moving — wherever there’s furniture, we’re there.
J.B.: Recently, we started making our own furniture, because we’d heard from people who wanted smaller pieces, like a 6-foot-by-3-foot wooden dining table, which you don’t often find in the vintage world. The goal is to create affordable designs that disappear into your home the way a white T-shirt does in your closet; they’re not necessarily inspired by Enzo Mari or Donald Judd, but we try to channel their approaches.
As we’ve grown, we’ve hired people based on energy. No one ever told me, “You should consider interior design,” and so I think we have a responsibility to elevate people of color who have been starting from behind.
E.B.: That’s how our brand’s name came about. In nature, a lichen is a symbiosis between two living organisms that can thrive mutually. We think about that with regard to our role in the community, with the people who work here, with the used furniture that’s getting a second life.
J.B.: We want to merge cultures. Music is actually our secret sauce, and Ed is our resident D.J. You’re probably not going to find a Gaetano Pesce chair in another furniture store that’s playing hip-hop. So people who come to Lichen for the design will hear the music and say, “OK, who’s this guy?” And we’ll be like, “That’s Jay-Z.” Or someone will come in and be like, “You got the new Hov! What’s this chair?” Then we’ll go, “That’s Charles and Ray Eames.” And they’ll say, “Oh, cool. Are they brothers?”
Interviews have been edited and condensed. Photo assistant: Alex Lopez
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