It's been about a month since the tri-state area, as well as the greater United States, has been informally quarantined because of COVID-19. This is affecting all of us, yes, especially as small business owners.
Founder Djivan Schapira sat down with Co-Founder Andrew James over FaceTime, and shared his thoughts on how he's staying creative while social distancing at ABDB Studios.
Snippets from the interview:
Andrew: What is your typical routine on any given day?
Djivan: I've always been a big proponent of setting goals the night before. I'll do that usually before going home and tackle the list as soon as I get here...it's been a great way to stay on top of the tasks that need to get completed...and then setting time aside to focus on things that I normally wouldn't have the time to.
A: For those who don't know, some of our commercial projects and installations have been postponed...this has not only been a stress on the company but a stress on our mental wellness as well. In what types of ways do you remedy potential anxious thoughts?
D: I wouldn't necessarily call them anxious, I've kind of already made my peace with what's going on and how we're going to have to rebound from this and adjust to the current climate. I'd say one of the main things is I've allocated way more time to trying new things and prototyping new products. That's something that when you're stuck with a very strict deadline - it's hard to fit in - and personally my favorite thing to do is prototype. Try something, then try it again, then try it a third time, and so being able to allocate more time to prototyping has made time go much faster.
A: Is there anything that people can look forward to from ABDB in the coming months, or rather when this whole thing settles down?
D: The plan is to release our second collection, it's gonna feature some never before seen types of products from us. Something that I can say is that there's gonna be a little more light involved...that's something I've been wanting to experiment with for a while and hopefully we'll be able to show you guys this in the next couple weeks.
