nº 4- February 5, 2026

In our next conversation, we highlight Felicia Hung and Nick Ozemba, who started their friendship during their college years, long before their names became synonymous with one of today’s most thoughtful lighting and furniture studios, and long before you probably saved one of their interiors to your dream house moodboard (don’t worry, we have too).

What began as a shared way of seeing has grown into In Common With, and more recently, Quarters, a space that blurs the line between showroom, living room, and gathering place.

Their work resists urgency. It favors material, atmosphere, and the slow accumulation of meaning, objects designed not to announce themselves, but to be lived with. In conversation, they speak with the same clarity and care that defines their practice, about friendship as foundation, collaboration as method, and community as the architecture behind everything they build.

CL: Let’s start at the beginning. You met at RISD and, years later, launched In Common With together, a partnership that has become one of the most distinct voices in lighting and furniture design. Was the idea something that came slowly over time, or was there a moment, maybe at a party, in a studio, or over a late-night conversation, when you both realized you wanted to build something together?

Felicia: We met studying furniture design at RISD. After school, we both moved to New York and worked for different studios — me in product design, Nick in interiors. We were constantly talking about design, trading ideas, and learning from each other’s worlds. The question was never if we would build something together but when.

Nick: We’ve always shared a curiosity about how things are made and how they’re experienced. Lighting became the right place to explore that. You can design it once, but live with it a thousand different ways. That way of thinking naturally became In Common With. And when we opened Quarters about a year and a half ago, it felt like the next step—giving physical form to everything we’d been building together, where people can gather, linger, and actually experience the work.

CL: They say never go into business with a friend, yet you’ve built two thriving brands side by side and clearly found your groove together. In many ways, it’s a creative partnership that spans a lifetime. How do you navigate friendship and business through the inevitable stress and creative differences, and still make space to simply enjoy each other’s company?

Felicia: We’ve known each other and worked together long enough to know where each other shine and our individual quirks. We try to support each other, come together when needed and trust the other when focusing on our own side. It is a lifetime partnership and it’s not always easy but our mutual respect and trust is the most important part of keeping things smooth.

Nick: We try to take care of each other first. Even when we disagree, we’re ultimately working toward the same thing, and that makes it easier to find common ground. Because the studio looks to us, we’re conscious of modeling the kind of partnership we want the whole team to have, one built on trust, respect, and shared responsibility.

CL: How do you keep it sexy, step away, go out for a cocktail or dinner, and not talk about work?

Nick: You have to know when to call it. We put real holds on the calendar for personal time. We work out, get facials, and plan dinners. We remember that martinis exist. And when the day’s done, we try to let it actually be done.

CL: From the beginning, In Common With has been about working with others, artists, craftspeople, friends, and letting those collaborations shape what you create. How do you decide who to work with, and how have those creative relationships influenced how you see the brand today?

Nick: The relationships we build are really the bedrock of the studio. We’re drawn to people who see making as both craft and conversation. Over time, we’ve built a circle of collaborators we trust—people like Danny Kaplan, Shane Gabier, Sophie Lou Jacobsen—each bringing a perspective that pushes our thinking and keeps the work evolving.

Felicia: And now, with Quarters, we have a space where these collaborations can live in real time and new types of collaborations can form at a different pace than our collections.

CL: Let’s talk Quarters. You’ve created something that feels deeply personal, a space that’s part gallery, part social gathering point, and saved in everyone’s “interior design” folder on IG! What inspired you to bring your design universe into a physical setting, and how do the two brands inform and complement one another?

Nick: Quarters came from a desire to let people step inside the world behind In Common With. Lighting is one of those things you feel immediately, even if you can’t quite name it—and that’s hard to understand through a screen. Being in space, seeing how light moves, how materials age, how objects live together—that’s where it all clicks.

Felicia: We wanted to create a living physical space — everything is for sale, which means Quarters is always in motion. Things leave for their new homes, new things arrive, and the whole atmosphere evolves with it. It keeps us curious, keeps us on our toes, and keeps Quarters feeling alive.

CL: Your work invites a kind of subtle attention, you can feel it in how each piece holds space. As everything around you scales and speeds up, what helps you stay close to the process, to that slower way of seeing and making?

Felicia: We take our time with all designs; pace is almost as important as the design itself. We go through many rounds of material and form studies, physical prototypes, and detail explorations. Each stage can pivot the design or bring us to a pause to be picked back up later.

CL: Your work with Quarters seems to extend beyond objects into creating moments: dinners, installations, conversations. Carrie Lindsey has always been rooted in community; it’s the people around us who shape and sustain the space. How does that sense of community show up for you, in the people you collaborate with, the gatherings you host, or the way you imagine the spaces you create?

Nick: Community is really the heartbeat of Quarters. From the beginning, we wanted it to feel welcoming and intuitive—more like a hotel than a showroom. A place that’s alive and shaped by the people moving through it. That energy gives purpose to the products we design and the pieces we curate. The gatherings, dinners, and installations help us understand how people actually use and connect with what we make—and that, in turn, makes us better designers.

Felicia: Our collaborators — the chefs, makers, artists, and friends who join us — are what bring the space to life. When we host a dinner or an installation, whether for ourselves or with a partner, it’s a chance to welcome guests into our world. These moments help us understand how people interact with our work and bring a different type of audience to our space.

CL: We consider you part of the Carrie Lindsey community. How did you first discover the studio, and what keeps you connected to its atmosphere and approach? What do you look forward to most when you visit?

Nick: I first discovered the studio through my friend Leah, and it immediately felt like a place I wanted to return to. Rachel brings such warmth and care. Every visit feels grounding, indulgent in the best way, and restorative. It’s the kind of place you leave feeling more like yourself than when you arrived.

Felicia: The way you are building a community and honing in on your craft really resonates with us. Rachel is constantly switching up things we try during my visits depending on how my body and skin is that day and building upon the work we have been doing together. It is very much aligned with how we have built In Common With and Quarters.

You can explore their work at In Common With, and visit Quarters, their space for design and gathering.