There’s more to just manufacturing in a company. Opening your eyes through showcasing diverse ethnicities and backgrounds can be achieved through developing creativity, which makes a difference in your company. As the Creative Director at Europa Eyewear, Nico Roseillier is responsible for the creative direction and frame design for State Optical and American Optical. In this episode, Nico shares his creative process and ways that he can maintain his creativity. Tune in to this episode as Nico draws his expertise from the frame!
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Europa Eyewear Creative Director Nico Roseillier On Manufacturing And Developing Creativity
Thank you so much for taking the time to join me here to learn and grow. As you know, if you've been following along with the show for a while, I like to bring on guests from different industries or even the optical industry, and different areas within the industry to help us learn about the different aspects of the industry and get different insights. I hope we'll be getting some creative insights from my amazing guest, Nico Roseillier. He is the Creative Director for Europa Eyewear, which includes STATE Optical and American Optical. Thank you so much for joining me on the show, Nico.
Thank you so much for having me. This is great.
I'm super excited because I've been out there to visit you in Chicago. I've seen the manufacturing facility and your workspace. I've talked to you in person. I'm excited for us to share that and try to bring that into life here, but also because you're a super energetic and entertaining guy to talk to. It's going to be a fun conversation.
You came here and saw the behind the scene. You know everything now.
I was trying to take pictures, but other people wouldn't let me.
There's still some secret stuff that's cooking here.
That's good to know. For too many people, frames and eyewear are too commoditized. We think it's just a piece of plastic and there are so many frame companies that all must be the same. It's cool to hear that there is still a secret sauce or secret recipe happening that's making high-quality designer stuff that's not the same as everybody else's.
We always talk about storytelling and the way we design the product. When you came here, you saw the factory and you saw it's real. We make products from scratch here. We're open for anybody to come and visit. We do tours twice a week of the factory. It's important to understand where the product comes from, the way it's made, and the way it starts. There is a secret sauce in terms of the way we treat products that is probably different from some other companies out there, and the way we design this process and thought off. You came and it was great. You came in and saw the behind-the-scenes and the way my brain works a little bit.
I assume there's a method to the madness there because to me it looks like a bunch of pictures. We'll get into that in a little bit. We'll also talk a little bit about manufacturing because there are some things that I would like to share my thoughts on what I saw and the impression that it left, but not the secrets about the manufacturing process. Let's rewind the clock a little bit. How did you get to this position as a Creative Director and what does that exactly entail?
I will try to make a long story short because it has been twenty-plus years now since I moved to this country. Some people may still need subtitles on the bottom of the screen for some stuff I'm going to say. I'm from France. I studied Micro-mechanics and Engineering. I went to an Art school in Paris. I studied different types of art. I then went to study Architecture and Industrial Design. I moved here with a friend with two suitcases and $600. That is what we had when we moved here. I worked a lot on different projects and met a lot of people.
I moved to New York first. I was in New York for ten years. We did art installations for some advertisements and designed booths for trade shows. That's how I started to meet people from the eyewear industry. I worked a little bit with Bevel or Spectacle. I worked with a company that doesn't exist anymore. At the time, it was called Dada from Los Angeles and SCOJO Vision.
I worked with a lot of different things and then they decided to close the company. I got a phone call from my friends who became my dear friends and family at MODO. I went to work with those guys for four years designing and creative direction over there. I then moved to Los Angeles for another ten years. I worked there for REM. Now, I'm on the sunny side of Chicago.
You've moved around a lot. I don't think I knew the two suitcases and $600 thing. That kind of stuff is always so intriguing to me. Being also the child of immigrants, my parents moved out of India. They moved to the UK at first with a similar story, with not a lot of money in their pocket and some hope that they'll be able to make it. I find that story so inspiring.
If you work too hard on something, it won't feel natural.
I'm used to hearing it from the previous generation. Somebody who moved in the '60s or the '70s or something like that. For someone like yourself who moved in the early 2000s, that's still so inspiring to hear that there's still that motivation and hunger for someone to leave their country where they're comfortable and come somewhere new. If you don't mind sharing a little bit more about that. What did it feel like? Were you scared or excited? How did you even go about the first couple of things like finding a place to live?
I was young so I was naïve. I think that does help a lot. I didn't speak a word of English. My friend who became my business partner was French. We met at the architecture school and design in Paris. She lived in the US for a bit. She worked for an eyewear company doing sales. She lived in New York for a few years. She was not going to move back. She and her wife were living in Brooklyn. She wanted to go back to school. That's why she moved back to Paris for a short amount of time. That's where we met and started to work in design together.
When I came the first time was during Thanksgiving, which is why I love Thanksgiving and the idea of sitting around the table, eating and drinking all day. That's from my French side probably. We came here because at the time I designed new concepts for lamps. It was a lighting design. I got the opportunity to show it in the gallery in Soho. During that week we spent here, we met so many people. It was inspiring to meet people, the energy in New York, and the way everything was moving so fast compared to what I was used to.
When we went back to Paris, I was in school and also designing for a company doing lighting design for different hotels and stuff around the world. It was so inspiring and she wanted to move back to New York. I was like, "I'll go. Let's do it." We were roommates too in Paris. We sold everything we had. It was two suitcases and $600, and we moved to New York. I could not even go to the deli by myself because I didn't speak a word of English. It was crazy.
We slept on a few of our friend's couches for a few weeks, then we found a loft that we could afford the first month off in Brooklyn in Bed-Stuy. We lived there, and then I learned how to be a bartender. I was babysitting. That's the way I learn English. It’s through babysitting kids because they're very patient and they talk slower. Bartending was a great job to meet people and learn the language. Some people know me for making cocktails. That's where I got the love of that, but it was humbling.
That's what it was. You’re moving somewhere. You have no idea about the culture and do not speak the language. It took a lot of work and patience. Would I do it all over again at my age now? Probably not. It was the perfect time to do it. I do remember my dad being like, "Why are you going there? You have job opportunities in Paris which were great.” I decided, "It was the right time and the right moment." I followed my guts.
It is also interesting to hear you talking about it from the aspect of your parents. We came back from a trip to France and I brought my kids to let them see where I grew up, the school, and everything. It occurred to me that's interesting to see it from their perspective too. They know I have an accent. They got used to it. It's a great experience. I do believe that things happen for a reason in life. Good or bad, it's always a learning experience from everything. That's the way I see it.
Not a lot of people would be open to that dramatic change. It's scary and intimidating. I didn't realize you didn't speak any English to come to New York and make it happen. Of any place for you to go, New York would be the place where you're thrown into the fire and you get to figure it out. It's the melting pot for North America. If you moved to Montreal or something, it might have been a little more cushy and easy for you.
It's so funny you say that because that was my plan before I met my friend. My plan was to move to Montreal. I was like, "It’s easy. I don't have to learn English," but life decided otherwise.
The word I keep saying there is inspiration. That's inspiring in one way, but for your actual work, when you're trying to come up with new designs and trying to keep things fresh, where does that inspiration come from? Where do you find that inspiration to come up with new designs and colors and all these different things every year and every season?
Over the years, they have changed. It's interesting. Due to social media, the internet, and everything, things have changed very differently. It's still based on travel and people I meet and the places I go. I never look into our own industry for inspiration because I'm always afraid that if I look too much into it then there's a lot of repetition. I feel like everybody in my job does that. We're all going to do the same thing all the time and it's going to get boring.
I always look a lot at architecture because it's still one of my passions. I do look a lot into textiles and patterns. In all the trend boards I do, It’s always based on that kind of thing. There are ways colors and textures are mixed together. I'm a very visual person. The way I do it is it's basically a segment of six months where I grab pictures. It's a constant saving of pictures mainly on my phone now these days. At some point, things started to develop. It's almost like developing a picture back in the dark room where layers start to make sense, and a bigger picture or feelings start to appear a little bit more.
Developing Creativity: It's important to understand where the product comes from and how it was created.
That's the way I work. From there, that's where the direction goes to storytelling. It's a different process now that I'm with Europa versus my life before. At least the ten years in LA were a little bit different because I've done fifteen years of licensing. When you work for a license and you design for a brand that is a bigger brand, I worked for Converse and John Varvatos, it's going to be different because you take your aesthetic or design and then try to apply it to what the brand's direction is going.
In some way, it's a little bit easier to develop the film because you have more guidance. The reason why I moved here to Chicago was not for the weather. It was for the fact that Europa is an independent brand that has no license and I was able to get that freedom of creating the story as we go. In terms of designing, it's the main thing. To give you a little bit of an idea as much as trends are everywhere, this is what it looks like. There are a lot of textures and patterns, depending on the season and things change. That's the way it goes.
If you got a sec, go to YouTube and watch this because you want to see Nico's background with all the pictures and stuff, but also these trend boards.
It’s a storyboard. It helped me guide where the collection is going.
Can you walk me through that a little bit? Are you trying to find things that are similar in some aspect? There's some consistency or throughline or something you're seeing in each of these. The colors on one trend board look like it's blue-gray. One of them looked like it was more of a different color. How does that become a frame?
This, for example, is one of the latest. This is 2022 for STATE. It’s a lot about the textures, but it’s a lot about the color association and the way things go together. There is a genial feel to it or the genial finish to it. That helps tell what the story is going to be.
That in itself looks like a piece of art or a work of art. That was so cool.
I'll do that first. We have a system and then a business to fulfill. We look at how many styles we want, what material, what's doing well for us, what we need, what's missing, etc. We do a roadmap of where we want the collection to be in terms of purely physical frames. From there, I go and I'll start designing products. I do all the designs by hand. The two tools I use are a pencil and a whiteout. I do the drawing by hand and then from there, I will put it into a computer then I send it to the factory. That's the nice thing about being here. The factory is two doors down.
I have a rule of three which I don't know why, but I became like this over the years. After three modifications, if it still doesn't feel right. It goes out and I keep moving. If you work too hard on something, at some point, it doesn't feel natural. That's the way it works. From there, I'll get the final drawing, then we'll go and make a 3D print.
For example, we're making a 3D print of what the frames are going to look like. It's pretty straightforward. There's no InDesign I think. This is more for us to put it on to see if the proportion is right, then we'll do modifications on that if needed. We're going to make one final frame. Meanwhile, I go back to that board and I go to the color room where we keep all the acetate, metal swatches, etc. From there, I go back and then I work out the big boards where there's the model and then start applying colors.
I designed a year ahead. The idea is on that board. you're able to see the underlying story of how the colors are mixed together, how the material is utilized from one model to another, and how things flow together. It helps on not repeating things and a lot of different things. From there, we do full-color samples. In general, I will design double of what we need. I always sample more colors than we need. We then have a meeting and we're down exactly where we want the line to be. That's when there's some passionate argument about what people like. Those are fun meetings to have.
You guys do get together and say, "I like this one. I don't like that one." There's some debate about which ones to keep. That's good to hear. For a lot of people, it feels like perhaps, "Draw this one. Next one." It's more like a production line type of situation. For you guys, there are a lot more passion and creativity involved. I liked the rule of three.
Things happen for a reason in life, both good and bad, and it's always a learning experience.
That's what makes it different from some companies out there. We love the product. We love the process. There are two main ways to do products these days. There are more complicated lens-wise, development, and the time-consuming of doing it from scratch, and then there are some companies that pick from existing stuff.
We believe in the quality of our product, but we also believe in bringing something different and trading and creating those stories. I see my job at MODO as a storyteller at this point more than anything else. I used to go to trade shows and then come back from trade shows and be like, "Why?" There are so many companies out there that do amazing jobs and then you're like, "How many more frames do you need?"
There are a lot. When you think you've seen them, you realize you've only seen a tiny fraction.
The one that you’ll remember is the one that had a point of view that has a story to tell. It does not necessarily mean it's good for your consumers in your practice, but that story to tell is very important. You got to create those stories that fit with wherever your practice or stores are. I still go to shows and I look at stuff around. After a week or two after the show, I'm like, "Those guys are so good."
What I came away from Europa when we visited there is it made me realize that there is a big difference between certain brands, the way the product is manufactured and the story they tell. I was already on the trajectory but since then, when I came back to my office, I was like, "I need more brands that tell stories. I need my team to be able to tell a story." Not just say, "This is XYZ brand” or that mainstream that you've heard of before. We need a few of those, but we need some of those that are like, "Let me tell you about how this one is made, what the shape means, what the color is," and so on.
Things like that resonate with some people. Some patients come and say, "Show me the brand name," but there are some people who want something different so they can go tell their friends the story. They can be the interesting person in that circle, and it keeps trickling down. There's a lot of value to that. It's incredible that you guys are doing that from the ground up like from scratch. You're drawing on your piece of paper and making that come to reality. That to me was all super cool.
I want to quickly go back to the rule of three because that's a valuable thing to have in life, in general, because you don't want to get bogged down. I'm one of those people who believe in that phrase, "Perfection is the enemy of getting things done," or whatever. I'm one of those people who is like, "Let's keep moving forward. If this is not going to work, let's put that aside. Let's go to the next thing."
I would rather keep making progress than be sitting here over and over trying to perfect something and then it never gets done. That's a good way to put a tangible structure to it like the rule of three, "I've tried this thing three times or I've given it a good effort a few times. Maybe this is not happening now. Maybe we'll put that aside. Let's go work on the next thing." That can be helpful in business. It can be helpful in creative endeavors. However, you came up with it, I find that super valuable so thanks for sharing it.
I used to work with somebody in one of the brands I used to design. She was the one that brought up that rule of three. I remember the first day she brought it, I was like, "That's interesting." I realized that it's a natural thing to do. It doesn't take much discipline, but it helps on not getting cut off with sometimes the things we do.
For me, it's looking for shape and redesigning, then it never comes out right. The frame comes out in a sample and it's not right. Do you want to keep on spending more time? Doing that rule helps simplify the process and then keep moving forward. There's always the next shape, product or project. Even now, when I go back and look at old stuff that I designed several years ago, I'm like, "I would change this and that." You can keep going on forever, but it's not good because it's not productive. I also don't think it's healthy.
The saying is, "Perfection is the enemy of the good," or "Perfection is the enemy of progress." I could go back to the first couple of episodes that I did and be like, "It's not very well produced. The interview was not very good," or whatever. I was stuttering constantly. I still do that anyway. It's funny because we talked about this before the start of this interview. I'm comfortable with stumbling on my words and stuttering a little bit. I'm good with that and keep moving forward because if I had to go back and edit every time I slipped up or if I had to make sure that I never slipped up in an interview, I would never get it done. It's super valuable to have some limitations on that, and then you can keep moving forward.
You can apply this in life and in everything you do. We can all thrive for the better but sometimes we have to accept that it is what it is and keep moving forward. That's the way it is.
Developing Creativity: Showing what's happening in the industry is not about the brands but putting everybody together.
We touched on it a few times already but talked about some of your processes at STATE. When I was there, it was amazing like soldering on the nose piece or the bridge, or the way the hinge is assembled, and all the crazy amounts of machines you use to acetate the fronts and all of that stuff. It’s incredible that it's all done on-site. Why do you think it’s important that these frames are manufactured there where you are in Chicago in the US?
It has surprised me over the years doing this job that the amount of people that do what I do in some different perspectives have never been to a factory or have no idea the way the product is made. When Europa started the factory, it was the same thing for our customers. We've been dispensing eyewear for many years and have never seen the way the product is made.
It's not the reason why the factory was made. The factory was made to bring back the manufacturing of eyewear in America when it was gone for decades. It’s the idea of the craft, doing a beautiful product, and bringing that knowledge and know-how back here. It has been interesting to hear the different stories of people who have come and visited and be like, "I had no idea that's the way you make a frame."
I visited factories all around the world. I went to a lot of different countries to see how the product is made. I was amazed when the first time I came here. Scott Shapiro and I knew each other from the industry. He called me one day and he's like, "Do you want to come over?" I was like, "Sure." A dear friend, James, from 2020 was like, "You got to go and see the factory. Even if nothing happened, at least go check out the factory." That was the deal.
I remember the first time I came in to see the factory. It was half the size of what it is now that you saw. I was blown away not just by the idea that they're making products here, but the fact of making the product right, and caring about every single step. All those little steps in between that do make a difference when you hold the product.
There are beautiful factories all around the world. I want to believe that is not so much about the country of origin. It is about the craft and who is able to do that. We're lucky to have this beautiful factory here. I was lucky because I was not here at the beginning. I came here in the middle of the road and it's already amazing. It's only getting better every day. This has been getting way bigger over the last four years.
Something I love here at Europa and all the other brands is the idea of transparency. We are not hiding anything. This is why we're giving tours to our customers and to the consumer who bought a pair of STATES or American Optical. If they want to come, they can schedule a visit to see how other frames are made. There is this idea of transparency. We will show you how things are made. We're not hiding anything. We start with sheets of acetate and from there, we draw all the way through the process.
Now, we're doing metals with the acquisition of American Optical. In the last few years, we've been adding metal factories here as well. That's how we doubled up the size. It's really cool. To be honest, I forget sometimes. I'm here in my office or I’m on my way and doing stuff. I go two doors down and I'm like, "I forgot there's a factory here." It's not what the format has been over the last decade.
That's funny that you could still forget that there are tens of thousands of whatever square foot factory in the back. We touched on this briefly when we were talking before. It’s about you being in your flow state. When you're in the zone, you probably forget that anything else exists. I imagine that's probably pretty important for a creative person to get into that flow. Do you find yourself getting into those zones where everything else disappears?
Yes. I work on a lot of brands. I dedicated days for different brands and then some days, it's not flowing. It's that rule of three. Don't force it if it doesn't come out. I find myself in some days or weeks where it's not working. I'll go work on something else. That's fine. You got to change the scenery and go for a walk or whatever it is to get inspired. It's part of the process. I've learned how to not try to force it because if I forced it, I'm never happy with the end result. I rather have to work more hours at some point versus trying to push it and it's not working.
It's good having that flexibility in your overall schedule and your productivity is important too. Some days may not be as productive. Some days you'll be super productive and you get to work longer hours to maximize that productivity. Having that flexibility is important. Let's talk about Vision Expo. You do a lot of stuff at Vision Expo. There are some pretty cool installations that you're responsible for. The next one coming up in a couple of weeks here is Vision Expo West in Vegas. Do you have anything specifically going on that you are part of that you’re doing?
There are a lot of things at Vision Expo. I'm always looking forward to seeing all my friends. We've created a museum with the Heritage Optical Museum in Southbridge in Massachusetts where the American Optical factory used to be. I worked with those guys. They're amazing people over there. They've been a tremendous amount of help on my side to do research and be able to understand and learn the brand and re-educate myself on American Optical when we did the acquisition.
If your work doesn't come out, don't force it.
For the last few years, we've done the museum that you saw that is now in our office here. It's retracing the story of the brand from 1833 to today. It has been a great success. People enjoyed it. I don't know if we're going to be able to tap that. I've been working on the new exhibit for our booth that will be shown for the first time in a few weeks. The idea is to represent our factory. As we're talking about manufacturing, that's the idea. We're all bringing small vignettes of our process and showing the process of manufacturing into a more art installation kind of set-up.
I can't tell you too much about it. There's not so much secret sauce here more than I'm working on it every day to get this thing together. It's pretty exciting. It would be great. For people who cannot come and see us or the people who are still doubting that we're making products here, we'll be showing what we are so proud of, our craft, and our men and women doing what they do best. We'll be showing that in terms of the acetates factory and the metal factory. We'll have that.
That's going to be at the STATE or Europa booth at Vision Expo.
I've been working on a project for years. I'm super proud and happy that we were able to do the first edition, the last show in New York. For the people that haven't been there, it's a trend that’s showing what's happening in the eye industry in a very democratic way. It's not about the brands or how big or small your company is. It's putting everybody together for what we do which is making and designing eyewear.
We have a committee that we change every year. That includes people from the press, tailors, freelancers, and different people. For New York, we came up with four different themes that presented the direction of the eye industry. We're able to show that there. That was the first edition and the second one would be New York. It's a couple of months from now.
It's crazy to think because it's like, "It's next year," but it's not that far away. It must be nuts for you because we have Vision Expo West coming up in a few weeks. As soon as that's done, you're going to be like, "Let's get ready for East."
It’s pretty much right away, but I'm very happy. It's going to be a new committee. We are also going to be growing. We're looking at doing some new programs and competitions. Those are the parts of the Vision Expo that are going to be growing. I'm very happy with it. It's what the industry needed to bring everybody together on one platform and show up.
You mentioned four categories or whatever of that now. Can you tell me what those were again?
There was something about diversity and inclusion. One was about environmentally friendly, and then fashion and technology. It was interesting as we went through it. We got 160 frames submitted which were fantastic. Going through all of that and understanding the product or what categories. We're able to identify some categories that were going across some others. There are categories that are great to see that is growing. The fashion side is the obvious side.
I like the diversity one. I liked that there were designers from different backgrounds and ethnicities. I have never thought of it that way. I always think of frame manufacturers as a company, not the fact that there's somebody from this heritage or background who is the designer or the owner, and the inspiration or their story that they've brought into that design or frame. I thought that part was super cool. That part of the exhibit was great.
It's about business but also purely design. The frames are designed differently depending on the facial structure. We're all different which is what's beautiful about it. How do you adjust your design to fit different people? I was happy to see that there are more in that category. I was afraid that category would be too small in our industry. Thank God that diversity and inclusion as part of the industry have been changing, finally, over the last few years. I'm very happy about that. I was happy to get so many submissions and see that becoming bigger. It's time to think about it differently and reopening people's eyes to it.
I've been doing a lot of work on that. A friend, Tarrence, and I worked together very closely a few years back. We started this auction a few years ago. He and I talked one night and say, "As designers, we all want to have one piece of one-of-a-kind thing that means differently." I was like, "How about we put an auction together and raise some money?" We raised quite a bit of money in the first auction. We did a second one a few months ago.
Developing Creativity: The designed frames are in different ways, depending on facial structure, and they're all different, which is what's beautiful about them.
Tarrence pushed the whole idea and put it together to create the scholarship, Opening Your Eyes. It's being a part of a lot of things of what we do. The collaboration I did with Maxwell was a part of that as well in supporting the scholarship. Diversity and inclusion were a big theme and it's still remained very important. I'm so happy to see that we are making tremendous progress.
It's important to see these different ethnicities and diverse backgrounds get to be showcased. They're making their way in an industry that for a long time seemed a bit bland or dominated by a couple of big players or however you want to phrase it. It's cool to see that's where it's going these days. As I was saying, we like to be able to tell a story of, "This is where the frame comes from. Here's what the designer was thinking or the owner is doing." The more of that, the better. The more we can share those different stories, the better. That's cool that you're helping to highlight that. Nico, anything else you want to tell me or tell us about yourself or about STATE or Vision Expo before we wrap up?
There is so much we can talk about. We can talk all day. For the show, I'm very excited. We're bringing some new products. We're going to be showing a lot of new stuff. American Optical is growing very well. It's part of the new secret. We are going to be launching soon a part of the collection. That's exciting. We're bringing some new products to show at the exhibit. We want to see all of our friends. It's a great time after being in a pandemic. We have the opportunity of seeing each other and then being able to share stories and experiences. We're joking about the secret sauce and the design, but the bottom line is we're all one big family. That's the way I look at it. We all have our stories and that's what makes it interesting.
Where can people find you or learn more about yourself, STATE or Europa?
It's STATEOpticalCo.com. For American Optical, it's AOEyewear.com. For Europa, EuropaEye.com. If you want to see more behind-the-scenes stuff, it's usually my Instagram which is my name, Nico Roseillier. That's pretty much where you'll see a little bit of everything.
You'll catch Nico hustling around during the expo. He's always going here and there.
If it's your first show, wear good shoes.
That's a good call. Thank you so much, Nico. I appreciate it. It's always fun talking to you. I always learn something new every time I talk to you. That's always great. Thank you, everybody. I look forward to seeing you guys again very soon.
Important Links
Nico Roseillier - Instagram
About Nico Roseillier
Born and raised in Normandie France, Nico studied architecture and industrial design in Paris before moving to NYC. While in New York, he started his optical career designing eyewear for Modo. After ten years in NYC and four at Modo, Roseillier switched coasts to Los Angeles, where he became Creative Director for REM eyewear which then became Derigo. In that decade of inspiration, he spearheaded brands as diverse as Lucky Brand, Converse, Tumi and John Varvatos.
4 years ago Nico reestablished himself in Chicago, where he now delivers full design expertise and creative direction on the powerful and independent entities of State Optical, American Optical and Europa Eyewear.
Among his accolades, Nico has won the Vision Expo awards for best booth design and best brand activation as well as an Accessory Council Design Excellence award for his collaboration with 3 time Grammy award winner Maxwell. Nico Roseillier is also responsible for the vision and conceptualization of the new NOW trend pavilion debuting at the VEE 2022 in NYC.