GS Partner Highlight: Station Design
“We put ourselves into boxes or set up false dichotomies of ‘this or that’. Are you left-brained or right? Are you an artist or a scientist? The truth is we're a collection of ‘ands.’”
Amanda Rock
At Giant Shoulders, we partner with a network of designers, strategists, writers, and web developers to build the right team for every project. We’d like to introduce you to some of the incredible talent behind our work in our Partner Highlight interview series.
Nick and Amanda Rock from Station Design are a cohesive team in work and in life, bringing extensive design experience and thoughtful strategy together for a thriving business. We’ve been proud to collaborate with them on multiple projects.
You can learn more about them at their website.
The three words that best describes Station:
What led you to start a strategy and design company?
Amanda: Nick worked for different design studios in Boston and ultimately took a teaching position at Boston University in the Graphic Design Department. This role sparked the creation of Station, which began as a traditional graphic design studio. Around this same time, our second child was born, and I decided to leave my position as a molecular biologist and stay home with our kids.
Nick: As Station's business grew, so did the complexity and the range of projects. Amanda began leaning in to help me manage the workload at first. Then the projects began to involve a lot more strategy alongside the design, which aligns with the way she thinks as a scientist. We began to see how well it worked to navigate ideas together, balancing design and strategy.
Amanda, I’m especially curious about your science background! How does your history of a scientist inform the way you work as a strategist?
Amanda: Questioning is really at the heart of being a scientist. There is a constant drive to learn more, to experiment and prototype. When I initially left the lab, I thought I would miss that process, but it turns out that process is what design is all about. What is especially exciting to me is that inquiry and iteration methods apply across disciplines, allowing us to constantly learn and gain insights into how our social systems are deeply interconnected.
I think we often put ourselves into boxes or set up false dichotomies of "this or that". Are you left-brained or right? Are you an artist or a scientist? The truth is we're a collection of "ands". Of course, I'll always be a scientist; it's just that now I'm also a cultural strategist. I'll always be passionate about science, and I'm also passionate about understanding and shaping the human experience.
“We bring as much fiction and imagination into our creative work as possible.”
Nick Rock
Nick, how about your work as an educator? How does that influence the way you work as a designer outside the classroom?
Nick: Being in the classroom is incredibly inspiring. It is a safe experimental place to talk about and explore ideas with students at all levels. It allows me to constantly evaluate my process, methods, and ideas while teaching students how to understand their own. With client work, it's more about answers or solutions, but the priority when working with students can be about questions and exploration, so it's a nice balance. Constantly practicing this with students has also enabled me to actively bring more of this frame of mind — questioning and exploration — into our client work.
Where do you find inspiration?
Nick: We tend to learn about as many new and different things as possible, so we look everywhere, and mostly outside of design. We both always have multiple books, audiobooks, and podcasts going at any given time, and not just non-fiction. We bring as much fiction and imagination into our creative work as possible. Additionally, we pile on too many hobbies that make us feel active and human such as cooking, building, gardening, and of course, taking care of too many animals.
“Sometimes you don't know exactly where a path is leading you or how different experiences add up to something bigger. Other times you can see exactly where you want to go and it feels like absolutely meant to be. Both are ok.”
Amanda Rock
I understand you have a really unique studio space in the works. Could you tell us more about that?
Amanda: Amanda: Yes! We've always dreamed of building a creative space and home where people feel welcome. Recently, we moved into a mid-century modern home (pretty unheard of in RI) that needed a lot of love. To our delight, it had a barn (that needed even more love).
While spending a few years renovating, the barn has become our studio, our three children's off and on classroom, and our filming studio for all things Zoom. (Sometimes our Zoom meetings feel like we’re hosting “This Old House” episodes.) We haven't been able to invite people to work in our space yet, but we have had a few great conversations with the chickens that live in the other half of the barn. We look forward to the day we can welcome humans to share our space as well.
What do you do for fun?
Nick: We love exploring together. Learning about new places, figuring out how to play new games, having conversations about topics we want or need to learn more about. Figuring out who we are together.
We also love making. It's unlikely you could find a space in our house that doesn't have a spot of paint, some dried glue, a weird half-finished creature, or some in-progress embroidery project laying around.
What advice would you give to someone starting out in this field?
Amanda: Sometimes you don't know exactly where a path is leading you or how different experiences you've had or random projects you've done all add up to something bigger. Other times you can see exactly where you want to go in the moment, and it feels like it is absolutely meant to be. Both are ok. We've found those moments of uncertainty or being uncomfortable lead to growth and pave the way to those moments of clarity. We like to pick up and store experiences, moments, and knowledge we have acquired along this path and lean on them when needed. This thinking has served us well in our growth and is the advice we most often give. Experiences shape who you are. You get to decide how, embrace some and push off others, but that's how you make your work (and your life) your own.
Nick and Amanda are currently collaborating with us on some new client projects and our own upcoming rebrand! We look forward to sharing case studies of our work together soon.