Mosaic Shingle – Creativity and Design for the New Age

Mosaic Shingle – Creativity and Design for the New Age

by Michell Spoden

My interviewee today is Damien Palanza, from Cape Cod, Massachusetts, who is the president of Mosaic Shingle Company.

Michell: Please tell a bit about the background of your company.mosaic 2

Damien Palanza: Mosaic Shingle Company was established in 2010 by my partner Robert K. Fox Jr. Bobby is a principal partner in a residential construction firm on Cape Cod. Having graduated from college with a degree in graphic design he was inspired to offer custom shingle designs as a creative outlet while utilizing his design skills. Matt Mann is our art director. He is also the owner of Mann Mosaic Tile, and specializes in bringing Bobby’s designs to life and giving them a human artistic touch.

After quite a bit of interest and positive response to his designs Bobby decided to launch a separate business specializing in shingle design. In August of 2012 Bobby brought me in to run the day to day operations of Mosaic Shingle Company. We leased an office and shop space and built it out specifically for design and production of mosaic shingle designs. At this time we developed patterns and created our line of do it yourself kits for new construction or retro fit applications, and we now have a click and buy ecommerce website.

Michell: How long does it take to install your designs?

Damien Palanza: With our production capabilities, warehousing and fully automated shipping integration, we can now have a ready to install kit complete with illustrated instructions and everything needed to install the design shipped to anywhere in the U.S. in about a week. Most of the kits can be installed within an hour.

Michell: So do you also continue to create custom designs?

Damien Palanza: Yes, we also continue to do custom designs and installations that range from smaller sized images to large scale murals and corporate logos. All of our designs are fully functional weaved cedar shingles, every element of our designs uses traditional authentic shingle course structure.

Michell: Are you associated with any other group or company in the same business?

Damien Palanza: We are not currently associated with any Mosaic art groups. This is only because we have been extremely busy from the start and have not had time to research groups; it is certainly something that we would like to get involved with in the future.

Michell: What materials do you use in creating your designs?

Damien Palanza: As of now we are focused on using traditional wood shingles, but we are currently developing techniques for “Green” products such as fiber cement and engineered lumber. We continue to research and buy material from companies that focus on “Green” practices.

Michell: Does weather place any limitations on your work?

Damien Palanza: There are no weather limitations in our designs that do not exist in traditional wood siding. We only use course heights that retain functionality and weather proofing in every design.

Michell: And what is the variety like in your designs?

Damien Palanza: Mosaic Shingle Designs do come in many different mediums and colors. We frequently use many different types of woods to achieve color and depth contrast in our designs. We use white cedar, red cedar (which has many different shades itself), and Alaskan yellow cypress among others. We also offer pre-finished shingles such as enviro bleaching oil, which is an environmentally friendly stain.

We do not currently have concrete plans to display our work at Home Design Shows but this is something we plan on doing in the future. As we grow we are establishing working relationships with manufacturers, distributors, retailers and installers of siding products and will be displaying both our custom designs and production kits at Home Shows across the country.

Michell: Where can customers buy your designs?

Damien Palanza: As far as finding shingle designs, our production kits can be purchased directly on our website and shipped all over the country. We can also create custom designs and ship them as one off kits.

Michell: What are your future goals?

Damien Palanza: Mosaic Shingle Company’s goals for the future are to continue to expand our product line and develop a national client base by spreading the word about how easy our kits make it for a homeowner to add artistic or architectural shingle designs to the exterior of their homes, garages, sheds etc. Also continuing to establish ourselves as the premier designers and installers of large-scale custom artistic shingle images, logos and murals.

Follow Mosaic Shingle on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Mosaic-Shingle-Company/261478240636039

About the Interviewer

Michell Spoden is the author of Stricken Yet Crowned and is also pursuing a transitional housing project for woman with an agricultural aspect. She has a degree in Business Science Administration and is finishing her bachelor’s in Project Management.

 

 

 

 

 

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