Behind the Design: A Chat with RudeWood

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Do you ever sit in your favorite restaurant or bar and wonder who created it? Do you notice the design details—counters, stools, light fixtures?

We first came across RudeWood Design while checking out a coworking space in Lancaster, and then fell in love on Instagram. Our interest piqued, we sat down with Alex Rudegeair and Jeremiah Linton of RudeWood Design to chat about their origins, process and favorite projects.

rudewood-owners Alex Rudegeair and Jeremiah Linton

The two specialize in designing and building what they call “rude spaces,” which they define as “offices, living rooms, restaurant interiors, backyards or bedrooms with an edgy, offbeat, gritty, eye-catching aesthetic attitude.”

Jeremiah and Alex met while attending Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology and stayed in touch post-graduation. They started working together in a joint shop about two years ago and officially started RudeWood Design in January 2015.

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Being based in Lancaster has been a boon for the business. The duo talked about starting their business in Philadelphia, but acknowledged that would have resulted in being a tiny fish in a big pond, without the level of community in Lancaster. “Lancaster is just so self-feeding. Everybody wants to hire each other and promote each other and become friends. It’s a great community. So here you have a chance to be, I wouldn’t even say a big fish in a small pond, just a fish in a pond, and everybody gets fed,” said Alex.

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Alex and Jeremiah particularly love learning about the ins and outs of the businesses and clients they work with. Alex described it as “just living [the customer’s] dream for a little bit and helping them be successful.” They use what they learn in this process to inform the design of the project as well as help them consult on potential revenue-generating options and designing to optimize for the social goals of the establishment. “We would like to be known for our full experience. … That’s where we’re most valuable, helping with full-concept design, throughout the full business,” Alex said. “Our whole business philosophy is wanting to make partnerships and long-term relationships with our clients and get really involved in what they do. They’re our asset, too, and we want to invest in them.” They particularly like to be able to advise clients on how the design of a space can influence and create the culture that the client wants to promote.

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Looking to the future, the pair is hoping to get the ball rolling with some commercial product lines, such as tables, table bases and light fixtures for restaurants and bars that they can sell while also focusing on designing and creating very custom commercial and residential spaces.

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Jeremiah and Alex do talk every once in awhile about starting a TV show. They filmed the process of designing a backyard in Lancaster, one of Jeremiah’s favorite projects, as a test run, but the video turned out to be more about the result than the process. For the next big project, they said they want to film the entire process and give a peek into their decision making and design process, end-to-end.

Follow RudeWood Design on Instagram, visit the company website, or check out RudeWood’s work in person at The Pressroom, Moira and, soon, Taproom Spring House Brewing in downtown Lancaster.

  • Alex Rudegeair and Jeremiah Linton photo: Lisa Yoder