Sucker for potential

The loft above Ivan Bulling's right now is in disarray. But beneath the chaos of paint tins and tools, and beyond the overwhelming feeling of “Shit, I bit off too much,” is the beginning of an organised mess. Much like my brain at this time of the year, it’s drowning in to do lists and nonsense ideas.

So I’m ostriching and writing a blog. I’ll paint a bit later.

Back to the beginning.

I’m Lou. Director of Lemon Creative – a fresh ad agency in Invercargill; owner of that lamb wandering around Tay Street; and creator (almost) of a coworking space. An entirely selfish endeavour, this space will mean I no longer have to work from cafes or my bedroom, and will give me a place to credibly invite clients.

I floated the idea around a year ago. And for some reason, it stuck, unlike many others – odes to parking meters, mobility scooter gang, free-range bee farm. So chip-chip-chipping away, I finally created a website (you’re on that now I think), gathered a group on Facebook, and yelled my intention to the world.

The plan wasn’t just to create a rent-a-desk space, but a community of creative folk around Invercargill that wanted to share happy hour drinks at the end of the week, fight over power plugs and bounce ideas. I wanted a real-life agency. And it turns out many of you did too.

Buildings all over Invercargill are vacant, and many ready to move into right about now, I didn’t like any of them. Until one day, sitting sipping a long black at Zoos, I saw the Ivan Bulling place. And it was love.

It’s ramshackle, and unloved, and full of those dark dusty cobwebs of nightmares. But it is perfect.

Huge south windows, beautiful light, and those radiators.

Potential. It get’s me every time.

What do you think of the before photos? Tell me you love it too!

Now I'm on a roll, I'll be updating this blog as I go. I promise you it won't be polished, perfect or even that interesting to read. Follow along anyway. 

Lou.