Contract Magazine - June 2017 - 40

Designers
You
Should
Know
OFFICIAL

Amy and Mark Leveno are, together, the firm
OFFICIAL. They met in 2004 while in architecture
school at the University of Texas at Austin,
married in 2012, and began their own practice that
same year in Dallas. OFFICIAL has designed a
range of commercial, hospitality, and residential
interiors that often encompass custom furniture
or lighting, which they craft themselves or have
fabricated. Recently, OFFICIAL designed the
Jettison cocktail lounge and a Houndstooth
Coffee location (below), both in Dallas.

and context of a project down to the smallest details
of trim and cabinetry. We design every project, big
or small, with a singular, holistic concept, which allows
everything else to fall in line with that original idea.
You have designed custom furniture for many of
your interiors. Is that your preference-to be able
to design bespoke furniture? Does it depend
on the client?
We are always looking for opportunities to incorporate
our furniture designs into our architectural projects.
Some clients are enthusiastic about having custom
pieces that we make ourselves, and for others we will
design pieces for the contractor to produce. Our goal
is to have our workshop be a creative, model-making,
and prototyping space while utilizing craftspeople
to do larger quantity fabrication. As an example of our
furniture, we designed the Peanut Rocker (below)
with walnut and steel.
In your opinion, what is important in design today?
We believe that our job is to improve people's lives
on a daily basis. We can achieve that through simple
moves-like natural lighting via solar orientation
and smart planning-and through intricate moves
like a radiused edge on a wooden bench. We know that
a well-designed space makes people feel good.
What's next for OFFICIAL?
We are going into construction on a 22,000-squarefoot corporate interior, wrapping up an artisanal ice
cream shop, and doing a series of residential remodels
and additions. We are installing a pair of eight-footlong linear aluminum LED lights that we designed
and fabricated in-house for a ground-up custom home
we just completed in Austin. Long term, we are
working with local investors to develop a creative,
multi-studio concept for the design and construction
industry. Our goal as a studio is to keep our portfolio
diverse in both scope and scale. c

Why the name OFFICIAL?
We feel that the name OFFICIAL is open and
representative to the many scales of our design
work. We wanted our name to reflect the
collaborative nature of a design studio in which
every member of the team's effort is equally
important to a project's success.
Why did you decide to start the practice?
We started our studio because we felt like we both
have strong design voices that should be shared.
While working for other firms, we independently
entered a number of competitions and won
many of them, so it was really about finding
the right time to jump out on our own.
Working together, what is unique about your
overall design approach?
It is important to us to take on each project as
a new adventure. As both architects and furniture
designers, our approach is to work at varying
scales, from understanding the overall site
40

contractdesign.com

JUNE 2017

PHOTOGRAPHY: COURTESY OFFICIAL

PROFILE

http://www.contractdesign.com

Contract Magazine - June 2017

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