A Career Grows in Brooklyn | Ingrid Carozzi | AAS GD 2007 |

We are proudly announcing the launch of Ingrid Carozzi’s new book “Brooklyn Flowers”. It was released on May 5th and was produced by one of largest publishers in Sweden, Massolit Förlag. It is a beautiful and highly informative instructional book containing simple flower arrangements made with methods used at Tin Can Studios. There are also lots of images from the Tin Can Studios as well as street scenes from the Brooklyn neighborhoods around the Studio such as Red Hook and Williamsburg. The gorgeous photographs were all shot by the critically acclaimed photographer Paul Brissman who used a Hasselblad, the professional photographers’ favorite tool. Eva Nyqvist was the co-author, who writes for a wide variety of publications such as Elle Decor and Gourmet. Sadly for us New Yorkers it is only available in Sweden for now but is being currently translated into German. There is already talk about books two and three…

Conversation with Ingrid Carozzi

Ingrid Carozzi has been gaining momentum since she graduated from Parsons and shows no signs of slowing down. Her successful flower design studio based in Brooklyn, with a second location coming on line in her native Stockholm, has orders through next year. She is currently booked through 2016 with TV appearances, an executive women’s conference, and an event for the largest auction house in Sweden. Some of the country’s highest profile companies are among her clients.

Ingrid credits Parsons for a great deal of her success. “Without Parsons, I would be nowhere,” she says. “I learned how to communicate well and how to critique work without offending others. This helps me with business because talented freelancers are very happy to work for me.” Her Parsons training also fortified her color strength, an essential talent in working with flowers. “I understand the properties of color — hue, value and intensity — after taking a great color theory course with Kelli Glancey.”

She also was able to improve her sales and marketing efforts as a result of becoming a solid photographer at Parsons in my Process and Skills class. “You can create the most beautiful floral arrangement in the world, but if you cannot capture it, it won’t matter how good you are.” 

 “You need to know how to brand yourself,” explains Ingrid. “My experience in graphic design was essential for my success. I am able to design, build and update my website as my business blossoms. As a former PR person I know how to market myself, too.  These are all things that Parsons helped me to understand. It really is one of the best design schools in the world”.

After graduating from Parsons, Ingrid was presented with a slew of freelancing opportunities. It was a request from a former colleague from the Swedish Chamber of Commerce (SACC) that led to her watershed moment. “SACC asked me to come up with some ideas for floral arrangements for the Royal Green Award Gala Dinner at the Mandarin Hotel which was attended by the King and Queen of Sweden.” At the time, she had been designing business cards and branding for a salvage wood company called Recycled Brooklyn. Since she had access to a plethora of farm crates she had the idea to use them as the vessels for her flowers. When Ingrid brought in her arrangements, fate intervened: the executive chef had, unbeknownst to Ingrid, created a menu that matched her arrangement, even using some of the same ingredients such as crown dill and rosemary.

“I was hesitant, because at the time I wasn’t a florist. I was a designer, but I never say no to a challenge. After that I realized this was something I really love 100%,” says Ingrid. “Once I got started, I knew this was something I should have been doing all along. I launched Tin Can Studios a year later.”

Press

Ingrid Carozzi, who sources her dahlias and anemones from tristate farms, leans wild and loose, using “blender” flowers like ranunculus to unify her high-contrast bouquets. To contain them, she forages vintage measuring cups, test tubes, and wine bottles—often from Dead Horse Bay. While Carozzi focuses primarily on weddings and corporate events (Cointreau and the Pierre Hotel are clients), she’s more than happy to accent your desk or dinner table. All South Brooklyn orders are delivered by bicycle.

Upcycling is the M.O. of Tin Can Studio’s Ingrid Carozzi, based in Red Hook, who recently published Brooklyn Flowers in her native Sweden. Some of her most collaborative wedding projects have been with clients who have provided vessels from their personal collections for her to work with. “There’s more character, and history [that way],” says the florist who regularly transforms everyday objects like wine bottle or tin cans into vases, and who’s been known to handcraft wooden crates from repurposed wood and dig up old bottles from landfills. These choices are responsible as well as aesthetic. “I love the contrast of the patina of something old with new, fresh flowers that are so alive,” says Carozzi whose services include arriving at the end of a wedding to disassemble arrangements and “turn them into mini bouquets to be passed out when guests leave. It is so lovely when people can bring a little piece of the wedding with them.” Here, from Tin Can Studios, wedding flower inspiration for brides-to-be with a feeling for history.

TV

TV4 Sweden

Interview and edit: Katarzyna Gruda
Guest Editor: Certainly Studio
Photography: Paul Brissman, Ingrid Carozzi & Katarzyna Gruda