We’re sitting down with some amazing Canadians who are dishing on all things datenight. From their own first date stories, to dating pet peeves, a look into their businesses, advice, and more!
Who they are
Meet Amanda and Jp, the creative minds behind the ultra-Instagrammable Post Creative Studio with set-ups and installations that will have you falling in love. Post Creative Studio also makes the perfect date idea in the city; you can rent the studio and add-on a picnic to hang out among the art.
How it started
Jp: We met in our undergrad program at Ryerson, studying architecture as we both loved design. Our first actual interaction is when I watched a crit of Amanda’s art the end of first year, and later spoke to her at a party – I brought the chips.
Fast forward 3-4 years, and we both found a love for minimalist vintage furniture + design after Amanda had moved into a new place downtown, and needed to furnish it. We found out quickly that there was a huge blank in the market for vintage pieces that we could afford at the time, and decided to make an instagram for Post Design Collective to see where it would take us. We eventually left the architecture firms we worked at to further pursue this studio full time, along with our Masters at Ryerson.
While we loved sourcing and curating pieces for our furniture studio, we also had so many enquiries for renting our loft space that we lived in/worked out of, for photoshoots – and decided to give it a try. From that point, we knew that we wanted to have an additional rental studio, staged with our pieces for a more sustainable, long term business to build and grow.
Post Creative really was a reflection of what we wanted to do with a blank canvas for the studio, and was designed to be flexible for so many uses, out of one studio. We also made sure to have a specific space in the studio where Amanda could design and build temporary art installations, again keeping in mind how photographers and creators would use the space.
Love languages found!
We ask everybody we interview about their love languages. If you don’t know what yours is, take the quiz with or without your partner to learn how you best give and receive love!
Amanda and Jp took the quiz for this article and these are their results:
Amanda and Jp: We honestly had to take the quiz – and found out we were very similar (almost to the percentage of each category)! Our main love language turned out to be Words of Affirmation, Quality Time and Acts of Service about equally balanced.
In thinking about it – this makes a lot of sense, especially with us being partners in more ways than one, both in business and in our personal lives. We’d say that that may be one of the reasons we’ve been able to build what we have to this point, as we are on the same level in a lot of ways. Running a business together needs a lot of trust, patience, and also the ability to rely on the other when something goes wrong.
Let’s talk first dates
Amanda and Jp: Our first date with each other was more or less unofficial, and took place at a Swiss Chalet ahaha! However fast forward to now, both of us always enjoy going out for new food spots in the city, or adventuring anywhere else!
First dates should really be a chance to get to know each other, whether it be a day trip to a sweet spot, going on a hike, or a 1-on-1 dinner/lunch where you have the time to talk and learn about each other.
Where are your favourite date spots right now?
Amanda and Jp: One of our favourite places we recently tried together was Bar Sybanne on Ossington Ave. The shareable plates and moody atmosphere was a perfect combination. Some other great spots we love were Black Lab Brewery and Lob Toronto! We also love grabbing ice cream and going to Riverdale Hill with our dog, Gatsby.
What’s your favourite thing about being part of such a creative business in the community?
Amanda and Jp: We’d say just the ability to provide spaces for other creative people, and additionally to continuously be creative ourselves with the spaces we design, and the furniture we curate. Things like this help us to love what we do, and to keep pushing towards other milestones and goals we hope to achieve.
Dishing on dating pet peeves
Amanda and Jp: [No particular bad experience – however] pet peeve would definitely be when someone is on their phone on a date. As we do run our own business we typically don’t have an end time when it comes to work, so we just have to remind ourselves to sometimes put everything away and spend quality time together.
A piece of advice
Amanda and Jp: We are nowhere near perfect, but have learned throughout our relationship, to be patient, listen, kind and encourage one another! Having this mindset will go a long way.
Getting you in your datenight feels? Click here to book the studio and check out Post Creative, and here for even more date ideas and stories!
