When Chris Jessee first interviewed Luis Rodrigalvarez to come on board his fledgling laser-cutting business building model kits for model train enthusiasts, Spanish-born Luis could barely speak English. Chris was dubious.
But then Luis showed Chris his portfolio, which was enormous and full of amazing things. Luis and Chris have been working together ever since.
cardboard safari – bucky
Chris was always a drawer and maker from a young age, and credits his brother with urging him to draw and pushing him to work at making his drawings better and better. He continued drawing, making models and handmade gifts for friends and family, and before he’d even hit the teenage years, knew that he wanted to make a living by building things.
He studied architecture and spent several years working for architecture firms. It was while working as an architect that he realised the power of CAD and added a degree in computing to his repertoire. Then in 2003 he pulled it all together and took the big leap to starting his own business making the model kits.
carboard safari – bucky jr – modern art print
It was few years later later that an architect approached him to make a topography model, and so Chris in turn went to his cousin who worked for a cardboard manufacturer. The cousin was a keen deer hunter, and so the conversation pretty quickly turned to trophies… and Cardboard Safari was born.
‘Bucky’ was the first of the product line in 2006, and Cardboard Safari started on Etsy on 2009. Since then, they have developed a whole menagerie – moose, deer, lion, unicorn… “Safari is equal parts adventure and animal observation.”
carboard safari – juliette
ardboard safari – eyan jr – pop art
Based in Charlottesville, Virginia and surrounded by the natural beauty of the Blue Ridge Mountains, they now have stockists around the world from London to Sydney. Getting Cardboard Safari to this point has been a big journey, and Chris is immensely grateful to Amy Gardner of Scarpa in Charlottesville. “She was the first retail shop to carry our products in 2007 and urged me to exhibit at gift shows, which greatly expanded our presence in retail stores such as Urban Outfitters.”
cardboard safari – jack
carboard safari – micro vince
Each new design takes months of process. “We brainstorm about new ideas and listen to customer feedback about what new products they would like to see. Our ideas and customer suggestions become a list and we sort and reshuffle, weighing the merits of each product to determine what we do next. Then we research through web searches of photographs and then build the model in the computer. Lastly there are many cycles or iterations to refine the design so it is visually pleasing and easy to assemble.”
Visually pleasing they are! Most designs are available in various sizes, and now they’ve added the extra option of having them cut from printed card – Pop, Mondrian-style, or pixelated camouflage – the variations are almost endless. Pink with that? Sure!
cardboard safari – rocket table
After all these years and hundreds of new designs, does Chris have a favourite? Yes; he is pretty definite on this – Bucky always holds a special place for him as the genesis of his product line.
cardboard safari – merlin jr – stars and snowflakes unicorn
His best piece of advice? “Life is a thinking man’s game.”
You can find more of Cardboard Safari in their Etsy shop CardboardSafari, and on their own website, www.cardboardsafari.com {which also includes links to their stockists around the world).