We both grew up in sunny South Florida – Coral Springs to be exact – just bordering the swamplands of the majestic Everglades (really hot and humid). Where we were raised, one would believe that they were trying to sink the peninsula with all the development of strip malls and cookie-cutter houses. But with a closer look you’d see that there really is something magical about Florida. It’s like nature would reclaim the whole state within in just a few months if landscaping and building just stopped. The Everglades truly is a wild place and we are lucky to have been able to spend our childhoods swamp-tromping and exploring. Oh, and we did get a little surf time in, too (we were sandwiched between the Everglades and the Atlantic).

We both graduated from the same high school, but no, we’re not high school sweethearts. We actually met years later (many years later for Michael) by chance. There’s a great love story here, but we’re really more interested in what we’re doing now, so that’ll have to wait for another time (or website).

So anyway, we have lived in Brighton, MA for the past few years; Michael working hard to build two successful companies – Prank Design (prankdesign.com) and Birdhead (birdheaddesign.com), and Lauren working for Aveda. We are both vegan environmentalists, we love the outdoors and we really believe that two people can make a difference in saving the world. We try to live simply and keep in mind that our choices impact more than just us – you know, we share this planet with millions of other living beings. At first glance we may seem like liberal leftists, but we like to think we put the “hip” in hippy!