By Vicki Prichard
NKyTribune Reporter
Sometimes a seemingly simple gift is more than it appears; sometimes it’s actually your future.
Take, for instance, the ‘thank-you’ gift that Marlane Vaicius’s friends gave her for house-sitting for them while they were on their honeymoon.
“They brought me back a set of coasters from Aspen and I thought they were the coolest things I’d ever seen,” says Vaicius. “I didn’t know anything about Studio Vertu at all, I had no idea. I turned over the coaster and it said, ‘Made in Cincinnati.’”
A longtime professional in the manufacturing industry, Vaicius wanted to find out more about “the coolest product” she’d ever seen.
So she called Mark Schmidt, co-founder and owner of Studio Vertu, and told him she worked in manufacturing, loved the product and she wanted to see his factory.
Ten years later, she bought ownership in the company and is now president.
“From one set of coasters,” says Vaicius. “That’s the cool part.”
In January 2015, Studio Vertu moved from its Cincinnati location to 1032 Saratoga Street in Newport, where they’ve set up an aesthetically appealing production house and offices.
Vaicius says she’s delighted with her new neighbors, and looks forward to seeing more creative businesses move to Saratoga Street.
“I want to see an art corridor up and down Saratoga,” she says.
A story set in stone
Since 1995, when Studio Vertu was founded by Mark Schmidt, of Covington, the company has sold more than 17 million handmade marble tiles around the globe.
Schmidt started the company after he patented a process to print on urethane tiles, transferring images that included everything from medieval art to 19th century botanical prints. He promoted his Lightweight Fresco Tile as an alternative to permanently mounted marble tiles or hand-painted murals.
His work caught the eye of the NFL headquarters in New York City where Studio Vertu created its largest installation.
The original workshop was located in Cincinnati’s Over-the-Rhine, in the Exchange Building, at 1208 Central Parkway, where it remained for 20 years. The building was built in 1923 for Paramount Film Studios, and was set up with movie screens which local theatre owners would rent and screen new releases.
During its first year, Studio Vertu introduced 10 sets of Italian Botticino marble coasters with hand-printed images, using proprietary inks and finishing process; they were a hit.
Because the stone is naturally porous, the image is grabbed, or absorbed, by the surface of the stone so it doesn’t peel or flake. In its earliest days, the coasters they designed for the gift shop at Niebaum-Coppola Estate Winery (direct Francis Ford Coppola owns it) became collectibles and, at one time, outsold the wine.
Imagine an image
With more than two decades of design and production, Vaicius says Studio Vertu likely has an image to fit any theme, and if they don’t they can create them.
“It’s just really fun to produce our own collections and to watch the trends and listen to our customers, and kind of create our own destiny, listen to our retailers and respond to that,’” says Vaicius. “There’s no inventory out there, everything is going to a customer. So we can say, ‘you know what, yeah, alright, I guess I can figure out how to make mermaids.’”
Mermaids, horses, university logos, dogs and cats – you name it, quite literally – and odds are it can wind up on a Studio Vertu coaster. There’s even something for the sports aficionado.
Bringing business acumen to a team of creatives, acquiring the Major Baseball League as a client was Vaicius’s first contract for Studio Vertu.
Taking note that the crux of Studio Vertu’s revenue was for holiday retail, Vaicius knew there was a void to fill during slow months.
“The cycle was like a tsunami,” says Vaicius. “We needed a compelling reason for customers to buy earlier in the year, and Major League Baseball just happens to be in the spring.”
For MLB, the coasters, featuring logos from all 30 teams, provide an upscale gift alternative to foam finger gloves and ball caps.
“It filled a void for them to take a chance on a small company like us, and we’ve delivered, so it’s been a big deal,” says Vaicius. “It’s an excellent deal for them and an excellent deal for us. And that we have all thirty teams is pretty amazing story.”
Locally, Studio Vertu products are found at Nest in Hyde Park, Joseph Beth Booksellers, and the Cincinnati Library. It’s sold online as well as through top retailers around the country.
“We’ve got the who’s who of retail and we intend to stay that way,” says Vicious.
Bringing their art to Newport
The decision to cross the river and come to Kentucky was spurred by change. As the trajectory of progress climbed in OTR, so too did the cost of running the business in their longtime location.
“It’s the nicest thing in the world that the area out-priced for us,” says Vicious.
Vaicius says they really couldn’t afford to stay there long term with the parking lot. They’re a small business with roughly 17 employees.
Plus, she says, it really was the right time to move an art industrial company out of where they’re really looking for retailers and restaurants and galleries.
“They don’t really want big trucks blocking that street anymore. The park got redone and it was really the right time for everything. Again, the yin and the yang. It was time for us to go and for the building to be sold and it worked out great for everybody,” she says.
But they didn’t have a new location in mind, so Vaicius began searching.
She says she looked at tons of buildings before finding Studio Vertu’s new home in Newport.
“I walked in here and I remember going back to the studio and saying to Mark, “I’ve found it.” I knew that this is where we needed to be,”” says Vicious.
In February, Studio Vertu received a Northern Kentucky Thoroughbred Award from Northern Kentucky Tri-Ed.
Now, she says, is a “wonderful new chapter” for Studio Vertu.
“I would never have been able to have the life I have without the blessing of the studio,” says Vaicius. “I know this is what I’m supposed to do. I think it’s nice for the employees, I think it’s nice for our customers to believe in the brand. And, it’s nice to work hard and have fulfillment.”