Scarsdale Small Business Spotlight: Formative Designs

Every local business has a story worth sharing with the community. And that’s the belief behind this exciting series — to shine the spotlight on all our favorite local businesses, and to learn a little about the ones we may not know that well.

• Business: Formative Designs LLC.
• Owners: Sigal Hurvitz Bin
• Website: www.formativedesigns.com
• Address: P.O. Box 24H Scarsdale, NY 10583

How did you come up with the name?

After years of architecture school the concepts of form, fit, function, and artistry become engrained into your mind. I wanted a name that would reflect that architectural abstraction and deal both with how spaces and objects are formed and how they form the experience of using them. I find a lot of designers start companies under their own name, but I wanted to create a company that was going to represent something bigger than just myself. I wanted a brand that would stand for excellence and care, but most of all I didn’t want my design company to be about me. It’s my job to lend my perspective and expertise, but the client is the person that is going to have to live in that space day in and day out, so theirs is the most important opinion. The name Formative Designs embodies the goal of using design to help people transform their daily experiences into something thoroughly enjoyable to them, and that’s our motto: design for a transformative experience.

Why start a business in this town?

I’ve worked all over. I’ve had projects as close as Manhattan and as far as Israel, and I’ve called a number of those places home, but this is where I have chosen to put down my roots and raise my children. In so many places people seem to simply coexist, but in Scarsdale I feel a genuine sense of community. The people in this town are dedicated to one another in a way that resonates with me, and I’m constantly pleasantly surprised at the way people who live here are invested in citizenry and making the community better. In the past couple of years, this business has given me the opportunity to work in the community more frequently, and there’s something very gratifying in knowing that I’ve helped my neighbors and friends.

What business are you in?

Formative Designs is a full service design house, which means we do pretty much any and all design work, whether it’s a logo or a house. I have a Bachelors in architecture and over 15 years of experience as an interior designer, and this business brings together all the aspects of my experience in the design world. We still do a lot of interior design, but we also work with product design, brand identity, and retail. We just launched an online store through our website, which showcases a curated selection of designer goods. In terms of the store, however, we make it a goal to have close and involved relationships with our designers in order to avoid being a simple middleman. We deeply value designers and the design process, and we want to bring that process to the forefront of the customers’ minds. For Father’s Day, we interviewed a slew of designers on the influences their father figures or dads had on their work. We are doing something similar currently and working with several designers on collaborative and exclusive lines.

What’s the most difficult challenge you’ve faced as a business owner?

I’m terrible at saying no, and I tend to discount my own needs because of it. I’ve discovered that the down side of working in a community that you love is striking a balance between your old relationship and your new professional one, because most of the time you’re working with friends. The same goes for taking a break or spending time with my family. I’m trying to take some time off now but, for someone who works 7 days a week, it’s a challenge. Ask my kids how I’m doing!

What’s been your proudest achievement since opening?

I’m very proud of launching the online store. It’s an enormous endeavor that requires a lot of coordination and work, but we’re picking up speed and there’s something really special about having strangers write you thank you notes. I think there’s more than that, though, since I’m proud of the individual renovations we’ve done. There’s a satisfaction in seeing the vision that you’ve created with a client become a reality, and there’s greater satisfaction in seeing the client’s happiness as a project is completed. Renovations are extraordinarily stressful, and knowing that people rely on us to help them through it is a dream come true.

How does your business give back to the community?

We’ve always donated funds to charities such as cancer research, which is something I think many people do, but we also make a point to give back to our immediate community by utilizing the particular talents we have. We donate design time for auctions for the schools as well as local personal charities. Most recently, we designed the new logo for Scarsdale’s upcoming STEAM Day (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math) in November. Particularly, The opening of the online store has provided us with new opportunities to assist where we can. We were recently invited to set up a table in a local country club benefiting Play For Pink, which is the kind of thing we would love to do more of. We’ve also begun to offer our customers a new kind of promotion by giving them the option of donating their savings instead of receiving a discount, which is something we started for Memorial Day and continued for PLAYFORPINK until the end of the year.

Would you like to see your small business showcased in this series? Email wendy.mitchell@patch.com.