Meet Casey Lombardo | Cofounder of Root & Reason

We had the good fortune of connecting with Casey Lombardo and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Casey, we’d love for you to start things off by telling us something about your industry that we and others not in the industry might be unaware of?
One facet of our business is window display design, fabrication, and installation. In the retail visual production world, I believe a lot of businesses do not realize the value and benefits of investing in visual merchandising and window display presentation. A strong window presentation can draw customers in and compelling visual merchandising can keep customers shopping throughout the store to eventually make a purchase. Business owners wear a lot of hats when running their companies, I can see why it would be “easy” to compromise how the product looks in the space because of their workload or unfamiliarity with visual merchandising.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
Sets us apart: Root & Reason blossomed out of my husband and I’s passion for quality craftsmanship and the desire to transform retail propping to be more sustainable + less wasteful. Our name Root & Reason means exactly that, Root: foundational, strong, lasting and Reason: creating with an intentional purpose.

Excited about:
Building our business into what we want it to be and being able to adapt and change as needed while staying true to why we started the company.

Journey professionally: Was it easy? What were the challenges?
I always crafted as a child. I took art classes throughout school, and went on to graduated with a degree in Visual Communications from FIDM in Los Angeles. I had not yet found my niche when I graduated, but fell into visual merchandising and loved it. I stayed in my role as a visual merchandiser for a decade before I decided to pursue freelancing full time. I would say the hardest part of transitioning from a regular “9-5” to freelance would be structuring my day to day schedule because it can be so easy to get caught up creating or doing projects around the house.

Life lessons along the way?
Trust when it’s time to move on, keep good people around you, pray for guidance & wisdom.

What do do you want the world to know about your brand/story?
While Root & Reason is still being reshaped into what we want it to become, I think it’s important to try new things, pursue what is important to you, and never settle. A big life lesson takeaway from a favorite show of mine, “The Movies That Made Us,” is the production crew always says they had no idea what they were doing, but somehow they got the opportunity and made it happen!

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
We are very low-key. I would definitely show anyone visiting around to what is left historically in Miami i.e. Viscaya, Venetian Pool, etc. spend time enjoying our glorious beach, and most definitely take them on an airboat ride tour in the Everglades at Mack’s Fish Camp. Grabbing a colada and a pastelito or two at our corner bakery spot Latin America on 57th Ave, eating some Thai food at Lung Yai and then enjoying some ice cream for Azucar. You better believe if Joe’s Stone Crab was open during the season we’d stop there for some stone crabs & lobster reuben’s.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Big shoutout to my husband who cofounded Root & Reason & to each friend who continues to root for our success.

Instagram: @rootandreason

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/root-reason/

Facebook: @rootandreason

Other: Other IG for handmade wearables: @made.rootandreason