Jared Blake, furniture rabbit holes and Brazilian dance fighting

Interview No. 4 from the Firebird Upfront archives.

A Firebird Upfront Interview originally published in October 2023. Words and photos by Sophie Abeles.

When I reached out to Jared Blake, I was interested in his journey leading up to co-founding Lichen, a furniture and design incubator and studio started by Blake and his business partner Ed Be in 2017. Sitting outside Sky Coffee and later, inside the Lichen showroom itself, we delved into this and other fascinating topics like the inexplicable origins of certain organisms and the best place to get matcha in Brooklyn. Welcome to the curious and intelligent mind of Jared T. Blake.

Jared taking a photo of me taking a photo of him at the Lichen showroom in Ridgewood, Queens.

When did you start in the interior design world? You don’t have a formal background in the field, right?

No. The company I worked for a while back was going out of business, and I lost my job there. They asked me if I wanted to have some of the stuff from the store, so I took anything that wasn’t bolted down. Just starte…