Words according to Thomas, Co-Founder, Jack of all Trades, and Creative and Visual Director of Raven Vanguard
As this decade draws to a close, as a business owner, I have come face-to-face with the utter mind-boggling unpredictability of commerce and aesthetic taste.
No ifs. No ands. No buts. No doubts. No second-guessing. Raven Vanguard is an extraordinary labor of love. Brooke’s labor of love. Dakota’s labor of love. And, most assuredly, mine.
At first blush, Raven Vanguard might appear to be like most other interior design businesses. That is until you realize that we artistically subvert every preconceived notion found within interior design’s conventional rulebook. In reality, one of the absolute preconditions to the formation of Raven Vanguard was our determination to obliterate the fucking rulebook entirely. Which brings us to whether being so utterly uncompromising and unique works to our disadvantage in the economics of the marketplace of interior design. I, for one, have no desire to be banished to the Island of Misfit Toys.
However, at a time when the importance of subtlety, nuance, shading, and refinement appears to be forever waning from society’s collective consciousness, I admit to some measure of consternation over Raven Vanguard’s somewhat precarious place in the world of commerce currently. Here, I must confess to having feelings of immense frustration, but not worry, never worry.
Raven Vanguard celebrates its third anniversary on May 22, 2020. Considering that most small businesses never survive long enough to experience the commemoration of their third year, Brooke, Dakota, and I have plenty to rejoice over, and we are certainly not without thanks. But damn if we aren’t occasionally disheartened by what passes as luxury design in most projects we see coming to fruition in the world around us. So like Einstein himself once asked, are we the crazy ones? Interestingly enough, I have always believed that Brooke, Dakota, and I share an otherworldly peculiarity of mind so, perhaps, we are the crazy ones.
To ensure the permanence of Raven Vanguard’s ascendance and consequence in the worldwide creative community, in the summer of 2018, we adopted the approach that if we create and build it, they will surely come and find us. So, now that we have taken great pains to create it, we have finally reached the juncture where we hope that they will surely come and find us.
When you find us (or, when we find you), what can you expect? And will the experience we have conjured for you be worth your while? For starters, what you will find is Raven Vanguard House. What we have conceived transcends the realm of the ordinary in every way imaginable. With a nexus to no one and a visual language known only to us, we set out to explore relationships between the avant-garde, tradition, religion, eroticism, and the unknown. And, in doing so, we have created something that has taken outwardly incompatible aesthetic vocabularies and transformed them by art, craft, and alchemy into something that is both mysterious and the embodiment of sensuality. Raven Vanguard House sets new benchmarks for intimacy and lingering.
There is something extraordinary about how we have curated Raven Vanguard House that feels original, modern, and transformative all at once. It is as if the DNA of centuries of art, architecture, and design have been re-coded in a single, special place by a design team that the world is only beginning to grasp and fathom, much less comprehend or understand. But, that’s OK; we’re not crazy – instead, we are buoyed by a conglomeration of faith and patience that is utterly unshakeable.
In our mind, to create change, and to be of absolute and permanent consequence, making contradictory things coalesce creatively will forever be our Raven Vanguard calling card. See for yourself, and experience that which will change your perception of what design can and should be. No matter how hard we try, the visual and emotional depth of Raven Vanguard House cannot be captured aesthetically by photography, film, or narrative. Because Raven Vanguard House is such a kaleidoscopically visceral experience, it demands that you give of yourself entirely, in person, by actively immersing your entire being into the beauty that permeates and saturates every corner of our space. Until then, like the unexplored tarot deck, we are content to be cloaked in talismanic mystery waiting to be unveiled. 2020 promises to be magical.