I’M OFTEN ASKED IF IT’S “FUN” TO BE THE AIGA NATIONAL PRESIDENT. I KNOW I’M SUPPOSED TO SAY DRYLY, “WELL, NOT FUN NECESSARILY, BUT REWARDING.” IN REALITY, WHILE IT IS HARD WORK, THERE ARE PARTS I FIND ENORMOUSLY ENJOYABLE—FUN, ACTUALLY. THE MOST EXCITING PART IS MEETING DESIGNERS ACROSS THE ENTIRE COUNTRY. WHAT HAS BECOME CLEAR TO ME IS THE ENORMOUS AMOUNT OF TAL­ENT IN EVERY REGION OF THE NATION … AND MAYBE IT’S TIME TO PAY A LITTLE MORE ATTENTION TO WHAT’S HAPPENING BETWEEN THE COASTS. BUNGALOW CREATIVE IS NOT IN NEW YORK, LOS ANGELES OR SAN FRANCISCO—BUNGALOW IS IN KANSAS CITY. THE FIRM’S NAME SUGGESTS COMFORT, A SENSE OF HOME AND FAMILY. CHRISTOPHER HUELSHORST FOUNDED BUNGALOW ON THESE STRONG—YES, MIDWESTERN—VALUES. AND IT’S WORKED. BUNGALOW HAS A THRIVING BUSINESS PRODUCING WORK THAT YOU WILL NOT SEE FROM DESIGNERS ON THE COASTS. IT IS WORK ROOTED IN BOTH A PHILOSOPHY AND A PLACE.

SA: Christopher, you’ve worked in many cities—New York; Washing­ton, D.C.; Atlanta—and you ended up settling in Kansas City. What is it about Kansas City that made you decide to stay?

CH: I was in Atlanta and not really thinking about leaving, and Hallmark called. I’m originally from Omaha, and it seemed right to come back home. I’d done the big cities and was ready for some­thing a bit simpler. I thought I’d sit back and eventually retire from Hallmark. That didn’t happen. I worked with some super-amazing, talented people, but I decided I could do things differently. I left, and Bungalow was born.

SA: What are the benefits of working and living in Kansas City, as opposed to New York or Chicago? And what would be the biggest downside?

CH: The downside is we are not a big city, and the upside is we’re not a big city. I know you’ve just said great design is not just seg­regated to the coasts. It’s happening everywhere. We have several clients in Seattle, and they love that we are from Kansas City. It’s like they have a secret, and they love our approach to business and design. We are small, so our clients always know who’s involved.

We pride ourselves on “creative sells creative”—no sales or account execs. We try to take the approach of doing business on a hand­shake. Of course we have more than a handshake, but it’s the underlying feeling. I don’t think that’s happening in many places.

SA: There are firms whose mission statements talk about “high-powered strategy and aggressive positioning and marketing.” Bungalow’s philos­ophy is very different from that. So what’s the deal? How would you describe your mission?

CH: We created an agency with a soul. We do work that is impor­tant to us, products that make a difference in the community. So we work with businesses and people that enhance lives and com­munities. Our mission is, admittedly, self-indulgent. We want the fun stuff, and we want to feel good about what we do each day. We want clients that need our help and appreciate us. We enjoy our clients personally and professionally. And we need to believe in the clients to take them on as accounts.

SA: That’s brave. I think it’s a mistake to look at design with one pair of glasses only. Someone in Atlanta is going to make something that is different than someone in San Diego. If design is a reflection of our time and place, how is your work affected by not only Kansas City, but the Midwest?

CH: In a way it’s the bootstrap thing and good old work ethics. The symbol of a bungalow is certainly about Kansas City and the Midwest. I also think the cross-pollination of people from different parts of the country settling in different places has led to less localization of design. That said, I think my environment, and specifically the client’s environment, gives design a local flavor. We’re designing a wine label for Precept Brands in Seattle, and it has a Northwestern theme to it … by no means Midwestern.

The Midwestern attitude influences our work; it’s gener­ally positive. It’s never meaningless and is always about promot­ing goodness. That sounds so saccharine, and I walk around with a bluebird on my shoulder. Actually, it’s nice to be putting more “happy” into the world.

SA: I was talking with a great friend, also in Kansas City, Ann Wil­loughby. She mentioned that the design business there is dominated by adver­tising agencies. Is that true? How has that affected your business and work?

CH: Thank god for Ann! Willoughby Design led the way so we could exist here. They put the word creative before advertising and made it possible to compete against the big Wal-Mart-esque ad agencies. And I think we all coexist in Kansas City pretty well. I don’t want their accounts, and they don’t want my clients. Whether to choose a unique creative solution or—how did you put it?—a “high-powered strategy, aggressive positioning and market­ing”? I know what I’d choose.

SA: I first noticed your work when I was judging a competition for AIGA Kansas City. You had submitted the Bungalow stationery system and book. We loved that they had a strong relationship to letterpress and silkscreen processes. This shows up in other pieces of yours. Why that process and look?

CH: At the time it was really cheap. True story: We started Bun­galow in my dining room, and I gave my team a $1000 budget to print the identity. It set such a great tone for what we were about to begin. We love a good fiscal challenge. Sometimes the hardest constraints make for the most inventive solutions.

SA: Bungalow seems to traverse several mediums fairly effortlessly. You handle identity and print, web and environmental. You have a broad range of interests and media. Do you think specialization in design is a good thing or not?

CH: We work hard not to have a specialty. It’s not interesting to me to do one project after another in the same format or medium. We never stop learning, and if you’re always trying something new, you can learn about who you are as a designer and as a per­son. Change keeps you from getting caught up in the rules. We are often free to follow a solution down the rabbit hole. If design is about solving problems, then we don’t want to say that the solu­tion is always a postcard. It might be a message in a bottle.

SA: That’s true. It seems like every client is sure they need a 4 x 9-in. bro­chure. How does Bungalow work? Since you are working in many medi­ums, do you have a cast of thousands? Is Bungalow really a little bungalow with a white picket fence? I’m imagining something like the house on Leave It to Beaver.

CH: Back when the agency was my dining-room table, I was living in a Leave It to Beaver house. We had paper strewn across the table, and we might migrate into the kitchen or out on the back porch as we worked through ideas. Some of the best sessions hap­pened on the sofa in the living room with half the gang sitting on the rug. Now we’re in a funky, renovated historic storefront with great wood floors and huge windows. It doesn’t have a white picket fence, but we’ve still retained the feeling and thinking.

SA: Recently you’ve embarked on designing products. I think most of us have a secret—or not-so-secret—desire to make our own line of notebooks, paper products or handbags. But your latest product is about scent. Was that a difficult transition, from the standard design process to working with smells?

CH: The Mood line started out as a paper line and then grew to candles, pillows and wall art. With the candles, we of course designed the packaging and the fragrance. We had never designed with our noses before. The concept is all about fill-in-the-blank: “Today I feel …” You won’t find vanilla-orange, but rather a fra­grance that suggests “bitchy.”

SA: That’s a great birthday gift for several people I know. How do you keep your energy and interest in design alive? Is your outside life responsible for that?

CH: I teach. And you’ve probably heard it a thousand times: The teacher learns as much from the student. In the process of teach­ing, you have to gel your own design theories and ideas in order to guide someone to their own. I also love the teaching situation because students will challenge things that “seasoned” designers have long accepted as the rules. Being naive has its advantages.

SA: So, after they graduate, what would you tell someone just starting out in the business? And, conversely, how do you keep from burning out?

CH: Starting out in the business is an exercise in both fear and cour­age. Courage that you believe in your talents and abilities—you have a special point of view that can bring value to the world. But there’s fear, too. Some nights your stomach will churn, and you’ll toss and turn and worry about paying the bills, or if you’ll get the next client, or even if you’ve done the right thing. In the end it’s all worth it.

As to burnout, I surround myself with good people and find a source of constant regeneration—teaching, for instance. There’s dis­covery in everything. I always attempt to discover, to learn, to expe­rience. I tell my students, let the day inspire you, let new people inspire you, and push yourself to be a better designer and person.

SA: One aspect of your work that I love is its inherent sense of reassurance. There is a quality that tells the viewer it is OK to relax and enjoy the mes­sage. Is that purposeful?

CH: I’ve never thought of our work in those terms, but I guess it is a reflection of us. We try to be relaxed and friendly. Our sensibility generally is inviting, calming and reassuring. Is that Midwestern? That’s the heart of the Bungalow philosophy. We respect viewers. We make the assumption that they are intelligent, have a sense of humor and are just like us. We design for how we want things to be as much as anything else.

SA: In the end, it’s all you can do: Design what you would like. What’s been your favorite job? And don’t worry about being politically correct, we won’t tell the other clients.

CH: We worked on a great campaign for the Kansas City Conven­tion and Visitors Association to help promote Kansas City. We used a spy theme based on the Spy Museum in Washington, D.C. The client allowed us free rein to follow that concept completely. Recipients’ response to that campaign was phenomenal.

One of our other favorite clients right now is Seattle Chocolate Company. Obviously, getting free chocolate is a major incentive, but I like who they are as people. They understand the creative process and want to break rules. It’s refreshing when a client wants to be a leader in their industry and not a competitor. Did I men­tion the free chocolate?

SA: One of the perks of being involved with AIGA is the chance to meet some of the designers you’ve always admired. You’ve been organizing the awards and competitions for AIGA Kansas City. This has given you access to some amazing designers. If you had to give me a list of your top five heroes, who would they be? And why?

CH: I hate this question. I’m in awe of anybody who’s breaking the rules, shaking it up every day and doing a great job. My heroes are young designers and students who give 110 percent and all their hearts, and they’re the 40-year veterans who won’t sit back on their laurels, [the ones who] get up and make good design choices every day. Certainly there are the rock stars of design out there, and it’s easy to throw off a list of names, but I’d have to give a shout out to the rock stars in places like Kansas City, and Indianapolis and Boulder, and Sacramento and Charlotte.

SA: Very diplomatic. How would you define success for yourself? And where do you see yourself 10 years from now?

CH: For me, success is happiness and contentment. I try hard to have a balanced life, and it doesn’t come easy. To be able to have a job I like to go to everyday, love, and friends is all I need to feel successful. For Bungalow, it has been a goal to grow our clients, but better yet, grow with our clients. As they succeed, we hope to continue to work with them. In 10 years? I like the idea that smaller clients will become large enough to be bread-and-butter accounts that let us take on new, smaller, well-intentioned and struggling accounts. In a way, I hope we are still the same as we are today … the money thing could be easier though!

SA: Sort of like the saying that the future will be much like the present, only more expensive. And finally—and forgive me: Is it true that every­thing’s up-to-date in Kansas City?

CH: Oh, and then some. Tumbleweeds used to blow down Main Street every day at high noon … until they paved the street. Jok­ing aside, design is alive and well in Kansas City. I’m really grate­ful to call Kansas City my hometown and to be part of its amazing design community.

www.bungalowcreative.com

[TOP]: BUNGALOW BOOK Bungalow's self-promotion book demonstrates many of the themes that drive the company: a love of the handmade, a heightened sense of craft and a philosophy that has more to do with the Arts and Crafts movement than high technology.