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Doing More with Mortarr

Mortarr is a self-proclaimed “motley crew of marketing, service, and tech-oriented people”. We recently sat down with an integral part of that crew, Communications Director Jen Levisen, to discuss how their innovative platform has taken the design world by storm through shaking up the system and challenging the status quo!

Contract Industries
OCL Architectural Lighting
D.LAB
JEN LEVISEN
D.LAB

Give us the elevator pitch for Mortarr, who are you all, and what do you do?

JEN LEVISEN

We’re a motley crew of marketing, service, and tech-oriented people made nice in Minnesota – which we lovingly refer to as the middle of everywhere. Our co-founders knew there had to be a more inclusive way to find and showcase the commercial construction and design industry’s beautiful work, and when they couldn’t find it, they created it. Mortarr brings commercial project inspiration, products, and pros to a single platform making it easier to be inspired, find commercial-grade products, network with professionals, and get work done. We truly believe incredible spaces start here.

D.LAB

Out of all it’s awesome features, what excites you most about the platform?

JEN LEVISEN

Well first, thank you for that! I’d have to say what excites me most is all of the info behind the inspo. The depth of information you can access within our subscribers’ gorgeous imagery blows my mind, day after day. On one site, and within just a few clicks you can identify products used within a space, download specifications, order samples, message the manufacturer, and identify the professionals responsible for bringing the space to life — from the architect and designer to the engineer and precast provider, even the photographer who shot the space. Our site tells the full story of a project in a way no other platform is doing right now.

D.LAB

What makes a company like Durasein the right fit for a platform like Mortarr?

JEN LEVISEN

Well first, have you seen your work? But, and more importantly, you guys just get it. You understand the importance of marketing and branding, and of telling your story on a variety of platforms, in a variety of ways, so that it resonates across generations and sectors. Traditional marketing efforts, relationships because you’ve always had them, the status quo, that stuff doesn’t cut it for you guys — and that’s Mortarr’s love language.

D.LAB

Mortarr recently forged a partnership with Material Bank, what does this mean for the design community?

JEN LEVISEN

Access and efficiency. From one single site, and within just a few clicks, you can not only gain inspiration and source products but now you can order samples through direct Product Tag links to Material Bank. Our goal is to help the space makers spend less time searching and more time creating.

D.LAB

Inspiration is the backbone of Mortarr’s success, what’s something the team does internally to keep that creativity flowing?

JEN LEVISEN

I think it’s a constant openness to new ideas, learning, conversation, etc. Always taking in what innovative work others are doing in our respective fields, and sharing it with the team. Our Creative Director, Cole Thompson, has done that from day one and has gotten the rest of us doing it too – whether it be a Super Bowl ad, T-shirt design, TV series, podcast, book, coaster – you name it. Some of the marketing team’s favorites include Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine’s The Defiant Ones, Apple’s The Whole Working from Home Thing by Smuggler Director Mark Molloy, Emily Heyward’s Obsessed, and TWBA’s Disrupt Manifesto — that one gives me goosebumps.

D.LAB

Anything new and exciting coming our way?

JEN LEVISEN

Always, but one in particular that I’m incredibly proud of is our partnership with the International Living Future Institute. We’ve been working with a team there to add sustainability certification and disclosure fields to multiple aspects of our platform, with a goal of making sourcing sustainable products and materials, and identifying certified professionals a more informed and efficient process. Fingers crossed, but this all should be live on our site by late fall. Stay tuned for more on this one.

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