Courtney Marse has a keen eye for understanding the relationship between a concept and the engineering of an object – whether textiles, books, or buildings.
Early forays into traditional graphic design taught Marse about branding and full-service design, but (what she calls) her “weird path” emerged while pursuing an MFA. There, Marse tapped into skills learned in childhood, sewing with her grandmother. “It was just kind of a hobby,” she said, “but it informed a lot of the ways I was thinking about design.” For example, a bookmaking class reminded her of sewing a garment: “If I can design the wrap on a book, then I can design the print on a garment. I know how it’s all constructed.”
Marse learned about engineering print for apparel, and ultimately parlayed that knowledge into home goods, working for a startup that gave her experience in the production and marketing sides of digital textile printing. She then applied these skills to her own venture, a textile line she created under the MARSE label.
Marse’s inspirations include organic forms like plants and the movement of light as well as French-related Louisiana history (she hails from southwest Louisiana and a French-speaking family). These influences appear in her artwork and textiles. “Everything is hand illustrated,” said Marse. “While I haven’t created another collection, I have been working on a lot of oil paintings and charcoal drawings, which are usually what feed into another collection.”
In addition, Marse spent the last three years building a design consulting business and has teamed with Anna Thomas to create design consulting partnership And Co. Offerings are structured in 10-hour packages, with the scope dependent on a client’s needs, from concept to furnishings and beyond (including MARSE textiles where appropriate). Marse especially enjoys rediscovering the original stories of historic structures that “have kind of been mishmashed over the years,” with projects including homes and small commercial spaces like a hair salon and a private Pilates studio.
As Marse said, “Digging into the bones of a [building] – there are a lot of parallels… A home is the same as a book and a garment. The thinking is very similar.”
