We’re part design lab, part engineering studio, and part fabrication shop. Using our deep knowledge and curiosity, collective creative skillset, expert design + fabrication services, and seasoned project management, we partner with our clients to create and build inspirational custom environments and experiences, from ideation to installation.
Like many aspirational brands, Figure Plant started in a garage. 25 years ago, I had the notion for a multi-disciplinary, creative fabrication workshop that fulfills a variety of design visions and creative ideas in a safe, supportive, and inclusive environment. From that one-man shop in a 400 sq. ft. garage to today’s 20,000 sq. ft. facility, much has evolved. But no matter the source, the projects are alike: three-dimensional, physical objects and environments that inspire, inform, and motivate.
– David Fredrickson/Founder
Collaborate with Curiosity
Solve with Creativity
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Alexandra credits her mother with passing on her love of “how all things work.” Mom was never happier than when something around the house would break, because it meant she got to learn--in the pre-YouTube-video days, mind you--how to fix it. Thanks to this nurturing, Alexandra found metal shop and wood shop classes in high school riveting (yup, fabrication humor). After growing up in southern California she moved to the Bay Area where she spent time working in property management, as a make-up artist, and as a behavioral therapist working with autistic children. Eventually she began studying product design, but ultimately jettisoned that for the life-learning her cousin’s custom motorcycle shop in Concord offered. Soon she was teaching welding and availing herself of the free shop time that came as a perk of her job. When the time came to leave SF she knew one thing--she was headed somewhere in the Pacific Northwest. After a couple months camping around Oregon and Washington, Alexandra called Figure Plant, we called her back, and we’ve been together ever since!
Andrew is a fly-fishing, art-school graduating, eco-tourism working, Caribbean boat captain from New England. He grew up working in his family’s offset printing business in the shadow of the Green Monster of Fenway Park (“Everything in the shop was big and noisy, dirty and dangerous, and it smelled of ink. I loved it.”). He left Boston for the Pacific NW College of Art straight from high school and found a home among their voluminous print archives. Remembering a life-changing vacation of fishing and swimming with sea creatures in the leeward islands as a boy of 10, after college Andrew answered an invitation from a friend to come sous-chef in Puerto Rico (“There’ll be sea turtles? I’m in!”). His time in PR became a 10-year stint working on the water in a variety of roles. The Pacific Northwest was never far from his mind, however, and ultimately Andrew decided to drop his anchor back in Portland near the mountains that he loves. Honing his welding skills dovetailed with he and FP finding each other, and soon he was putting his varied skills to use building all the odd things we get to make. But don’t worry--he still sneaks off to drop his fly in the water whenever he can.
Anna has always gravitated toward art and drawing. She knew early on that she wanted to work in animation, so when the time came she traded the humidity of Houston for the humidity of Georgia and the Savannah College of Art and Design. Her BFA led to her MFA, which led her inevitably to the stop-motion animation shops of Los Angeles. Anna found her way to Portland when a stop-motion feature film beckoned, and she instantly fell in love with our weather (it’s not for everyone, but it’s for her!) and our trees. When that project ended and it was time to head back south she realized Portland had her heart, so after bouncing back and forth for awhile she relocated permanently. Since then she’s stayed busy painting and making models and sets for tv and film, and of course helping FP put out the cool stuff we get to do. “I just make stuff!” says Anna. And that of course applies to her free time as well: jewelry, wood furniture, vintage clothes. Another thing she makes--she loves making her crazy-big garden grow!
What began as a fascination with lawn mower engines and model rockets has turned into a full-time passion for building and making. No project too complicated, no request too daunting, David believes in Figure Plant’s ability to take on any creative assignment and make it amazing. As Figure Plant’s chief creator with more than 35 years in design and production, David sums up his management philosophy this way: “Artists and artisans are at their best when they’re supported, encouraged, and treated with respect and dignity. To me, this ecology is the best possible environment for a company dedicated to supporting the visions of other creative professionals.”
With a woodworker grandfather and a contractor dad, Deven obviously did not roll far from the tree when he landed. Throughout his life he’s been drawn to the quirky/edgy/offbeat/unique. He may have played sax in his high school’s marching band, but he’s still always marched to the beat of his own drum. After finishing high school Deven quickly traded bonfires with friends in the desert near Palm Springs for the politics, music scene, and “independent art and thought” of college in northern California. He earned his degree in Environmental Studies and then bombed up I-5 to join Portland’s vibrant art and music world and burgeoning counterculture. “Everywhere I’ve gone in my life I’ve always been part of a creative collective” says Deven. And he’s not kidding: a silk-screening co-op with friends and local musicians; a collaborative woodshop with friends and fellow contractors; living with 10 roommates in a collective artist warehouse; showing stencil art with the group Vinyl Killers. He even built and co-owned an all-ages vegan club. Fortunately for us, the collective that is Figure Plant is now where Deven chooses to scratch his creative itch.
The moment high school was over, Portland’s Pacific NW College of Art lured Erica from her nomadic Midwest youth to an Amtrak train heading for the left coast. Art school (particularly sculpture and printmaking) was everything she hoped it would be, and she quickly enrolled at Portland State University to study chemistry and history as a foundation for art conservation. Soon she was making her way through the ranks of custom ceramics production for a local tile behemoth. She followed that up as Operations Manager for a custom woodshop in town. At long last, FP’s good fortune brought her to our door, where she oversees our production department with her calm and caring hand. An artist with a strong science/research bent, Erica regularly reminds us that two seemingly opposing things can exist at the same time: one can relish variety, but with consistency; one can hold a second-degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do and also have 10 years of classical flute training; one can find maximum joy from both being a parent and traveling solo; and one can even love the “nurturing arts” of reading, gardening, and cooking for loved ones, while also occasionally needing to belt out a (maybe-off-key) karaoke version of an Oingo Boingo classic.
Fred has been figuring out how to build things since he was knee high to a grasshopper. Every Christmas his parents would give him a big Lego Technic Expert Builder set, hoping it would keep him busy all day. And every time, he’d have it built in an hour. There were also a few experiments with high-voltage electricity, the results of which convinced him to stick to batteries and low-voltage electricity for a while (while we’re grateful, he may be scarred). Fred has an MFA in Technical Direction, and over 20 years of experience building and engineering scenery for theater. He still loves working with his hands–welding and butchering wood–but even more, he loves solving the puzzles of how to build awesome things well.
The story of John’s life has had WAY more chapters than he ever imagined it would. Lots of theater in high school and college–where he met owner David Fredrickson in 1985–and then off to the film business for 10 years (including the likes of Forrest Gump, A River Runs Through It, The Rock, and Armageddon). Then massage school, and a few years as a massage therapist. Then another decade as part owner and project manager of a small design/build remodeling company. And now somehow he has found a home among the spreadsheets and ping pong parties that come with helping guide the good ship Figure Plant. The burning question is how he found himself on a path involving making things in the first place. As his father once acknowledged, his upbringing did not exactly offer a ton of that experience. “Watching me run a new gas line at his house, my dad once asked me, ‘Did you have another father somewhere that I didn’t know about?’”
“Art and music developed my life and my trajectory” says Megan. Musically, at age 14 she was introduced to the punk rock scene in Mankato, MN and from then on “it was mostly all punk all the time.” In high school she even built a stage in her basement where she hosted house-party punk shows. As for art, “There was a lot of art in my family” she says, in what we would call a fairly dramatic understatement. If you could heat-map her life, it would show art everywhere. Mom was an illustrator, and now owns an art gallery on the coast of Maine; Dad oversaw magazine layouts at a graphic arts company; her stepfather was an art teacher. College in Mankato saw Megan take “all the art classes” and love them all (despite never quite conquering that darned ceramics wheel). The West Coast beckoned, however--she’d fallen in love with San Francisco’s vibe and art scene when she visited at age 15--so graduation from college meant it was time to save money and relocate westward. After a lengthy stint running a couple high-end SF beauty salons she headed north for the brunches and happy hours and pinot noirs of Portland.
For Rob, the process of making things--the brainstorming, the questioning and problem-solving, the collaboration--has always been where he feels most at home. The Lego and erector sets and RC cars of his Ohio childhood led him to art classes in high school, where his early ceramics maxed out the school’s kiln with the biggest sculptures it could hold. Once in college, art eventually elbowed all other interests out of the way, and he ended up mounting not one but two large-scale thesis projects. After a summer residency at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture and a winter on a glacier in Patagonia Rob was off to Los Angeles for his MA from UCLA. Eventually, an actual dart thrown at an actual map fortuitously landed Rob in Portland, where he quickly ensconced himself in the city’s abundant BoHo community. A seven-year stint back in the Midwest as Associate Director of the School of Fine Arts Gallery at Indiana U and sculpture professor convinced him that he belonged in Portland, and soon he was back for good. Everything he’s done since has existed at the nexus of design and creation, including designing and building his own house. At FP, Rob loves being part of a place he feels “is truly interested in being supportive and growing in the right way.”
Blending art and technology is what gives Ryan juice. After getting into computers in junior high he had an inkling that this internet thing might really take off, so he taught himself how to make websites as a way to be on top of that wave. As high school ended Ryan realized he wanted to bring art back to technology, and off he headed to the Art Institute of Portland to focus on graphic design and interactive media design. A Burning Man trip more than a decade ago inspired Ryan to want to make big cool stuff, so he resolved to learn about all things fabrication as a way to combine the artistic with the technical. He’s always loved “exploring niche topics deeply,” and this gave him the opportunity to study the different physical properties of various materials while learning welding, carpentry, machining, metallurgy, electronics, etc. Soon Ryan was fabricating cool stuff like flamethrowers of all sorts, fire tornadoes, and fairy rings of glowing, singing, touch-sensitive mushrooms. A lifetime musician, Ryan manages to keep music active in his life by regularly climbing onto his drum stool and hitting the skins.
Zakk is happiest in wide-open spaces where he can stretch out and explore the edges of creativity and self-expression. Musically, he appreciates all types. As a child in California, whenever they moved Dad always made sure to soundproof the garage right away so he and his older brothers had a place to play. Initially pointed toward guitar and other things with strings, when Zakk discovered his uncle’s drum kit he knew he was home. And when he gets to mix and produce in addition to playing, so much the better. Then there’s skating: pre-planned concrete skate parks are fine, but give Zakk random public spaces that he can turn into his playground. Growing up, he always “skated like crazy,” and was even sponsored by a skate shop and a skate shoe company. As for painting, by the age of ten Zakk had learned from his father and uncle how to mask off interiors and roller paint walls. (He even once got to help paint Roy Roger’s house!) From the get-go he absolutely loved it, and he has never looked back. Artistically, it’s paint, as you’d imagine, but you never know what kind, or what his canvas will be. And if it can be combined with some sort of multimedia presentation (hopefully involving music!) then all is right in his world. Recently a new parent, Zakk and his partner are determined to give their son the same support to cultivate his creative side!
8411 N Denver Ave
Portland, OR 97217
OR CCB# 250929
