Same Tree
Sculptural lighting and furniture built from idea to market.
Founder · Creative Direction · Product Design · Brand Identity · Art Direction
Wichita, Kansas · 2012–2022
THE BEGINNING >
Turning the overlooked into something worth noticing.
Same Tree started with a question: could I take something familiar and completely change how people saw it?
In Kansas, tumbleweeds and reclaimed wood were everywhere, but they came with a very specific visual language—rustic, Western, expected. I saw something different. I wanted to take those same materials and make them feel modern, sculptural and unexpected.
So I built the products and the brand at the same time. I designed lighting, furniture and jewelry, then shaped the imagery, identity and story around them. The goal wasn't to hide where the materials came from. It was to show what they could become when they were seen differently.
THE PRODUCT >
Designing backward from the opportunity.
I saw a growing appetite in luxury interiors for pieces that felt organic, sculptural and one-of-a-kind. Tumbleweeds had the form and movement for that world, but not yet the product.
I started with a clear vision for what I wanted the finished pieces to become, then worked backward to make them viable. That meant developing a way to preserve and enamel a fragile natural material, engineering structures that could support increasingly ambitious forms, and designing the lighting to meet applicable safety requirements without compromising the sculpture.
The chandeliers ultimately became Same Tree's signature product—each one balancing the unpredictability of a natural material with the precision required of a functional piece of lighting.
01_ THE OPPORTUNITY >
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I saw a growing appetite in luxury interiors for organic, sculptural statement pieces—and recognized that an unexpected regional material could belong in that world. All I had to do was create something workable and beautiful and then add the branding story behind it.
02_ THE ENGINEERING >
The vision had to function in the real world. I developed ways to preserve and strengthen the material, integrate functional lighting, and build within established electrical and safety practices without losing the sculpture.
Everything had to be custom made, so therefore the constraint of small scale production became the value proposition. These pieces were one of a kind art sculptures. No two were identical, and all created by hand.
03_ DEVELOP A SIGNATURE >
As the collection grew, the chandeliers became Same Tree's signature—each piece unique in form and scale, but recognizable through the same sculptural language of natural material, structure and light.
THE BRAND >
Changing the context changed the value.
Designing the objects was only half of the idea. If Same Tree was going to live in the world of high-end design, every place people encountered it needed to reinforce that position.
I built the brand around the same tension as the products themselves: natural but refined, unconventional but sophisticated. From the identity and website to photography, styling and art direction, the goal was to create a world where a tumbleweed chandelier or reclaimed-wood table didn't feel rustic—it felt collectible.
That visual language extended across lighting, furniture and smaller objects, allowing Same Tree to feel like a design brand rather than a single unusual product.
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THE REACH
The market saw it differently, too.
What began with an unconventional material found a market well beyond Kansas. Same Tree grew through custom commissions, direct-to-consumer sales and retail partnerships, placing the work in private homes and commercial spaces across the U.S. and Canada.
The brand also began attracting attention beyond its customers. Same Tree was selected to pitch the collection at STORY in New York City, bringing the work in front of retail and industry decision-makers, while recognition from design and lifestyle publications expanded its reach even further.
$15K
Highest-value piece sold
LOCAL
+ ONLINE
Retail Partners
RESIDENTIAL
+ COMMERCIAL
New business generated through referrals
NYC
RECOGNIZED BY
THE IMPACT >
What we see depends on how we see it.
Same Tree began with the belief that something familiar could become something entirely different when it was seen through a new lens.
I took that idea from market opportunity to product development, then built the identity, imagery and experience around it—creating a brand that changed how people encountered the materials and what they believed those materials could become.
That experience shaped the way I still approach creative direction today: see the possibility others might overlook, then build the world that helps other people see it too.
