“It was definitely love at first sight,” Cristina Casañas-Judd says of meeting her husband and design partner General Judd. They were both working at Blue Man Group; Cristina in the marketing department and General on stage as one of the titular members. “I was getting ready for a show and she walked down the stairs, and I was like, ‘Who is that?’” recalls General. Cristina went on to be a set decorator for the first iteration of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, as well as some feature films. General had spent the previous two decades in the film industry as well, working in the art department. But “film is very taxing,” says Cristina, so the couple decided to embark on a new venture: design.
They started with small jobs for developers, often working out of their living room. After completing their first big project, a residential building in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, they founded Brooklyn-based Me and General Design in 2012. “Coming from the TV and film world, your mindset is different: It’s about a script,” Cristina points out. “We make a story out of it and create around that,” adds General.
With almost a decade of interiors work under their belts, the couple is now exploring product design. “You always have to reinvent [yourself]; it’s the nature of being creative,” Cristina says. Recently, they teamed up with Wolf-Gordon for the So Good wallcovering collection (named for their reaction to seeing the first proofs), which features geometric designs that reference Art Deco motifs and New York architecture. “The inspiration comes from what we see every day. We live in a city that’s thriving, moving, pumping, and you see lines of architecture, but then you see nature and movement,” she says.
Next, the duo is collaborating with RQ Floors on an innovative concept that incorporates graphic patterns onto wood flooring, which required the company to create a specialty plank. “We saw a problem, so instead of looking for another product, we created a brand new thing,” General says. When it comes to products, “the sky is the limit,” Cristina muses.
As for how the sought-after duo stays grounded, “You don’t know the future, you don’t worry about the past; you’re right here,” says Cristina. “This is where I am—the present.” Adds General: “It’s a good place to be.”
Vista from Me and General Design’s So Good collection from Wolf-Gordon
