“You either get it, or you don’t. You have to love this business.”
-- Ruel Joyner
Joyner,
37, is the founder and owner of 24e, a boutique furniture and design
concept on Broughton Street, Savannah’s most popular design, fashion and
shopping promenade.
He’s also a man on a mission to redefine the notion of what a furnishings boutique is, and can be.
Since
taking over his family’s furniture business, Joyner has evolved the
concept from its traditional roots to its distinctive, contemporary
feel. The result is a modern yet accessible store that has won numerous
awards and earned a reputation as one of the country’s preeminent design
and furniture boutiques.
Joyner’s reach in the furniture and
design industry extends internationally, including a productive
relationship with the Italian government. That relationship grew from a
mentorship with Professor Antonio Larosa, the former chair of the
furniture design department at the Savannah College of Art & Design,
who introduced Joyner to some of his contacts in Italy. Larosa
introduced Ruel to the leadership at the Venice/Veneto Chamber of
Commerce, whom have invited him to several furniture junkets and design
summits. Most recently in November 2011, Joyner, in collaboration with
the Italian government, hosted the Accenti d’Italia (“Accents of Italy”)
at 24e in Savannah, a coming-together of some of the finest furniture
minds in the world and an opportunity for clients to view Italian
furniture that had never been seen before domestically.
“You get
to see the cutting edge of all furniture and design products,” says
Joyner, who also travels to Italy regularly for furniture junkets and to
meet with manufacturers. “Italy is the birthplace of design. To be able
to work with Italian companies, designers and government, it’s truly an
honor.”
Milan, the capital of Lombardy in northern Italy, is
universally recognized as the cradle of furniture design. The city’s
annual Salone Internazionale del Mobile di Milano (Milan Furniture Fair)
is the largest furniture trade fair in the world, featuring over 2,500
compnies and 700 designers. Joyner often attends this event, keeping
up-to-date on the latest products and trends to bring back to his
clients in Savannah and beyond. He has also spent time meeting with
furniture designers and manufacturers in Venice and the Villa Contarini,
a spawling patrician estate in the province of Padova.
“We give
our clients a worldly eye, a scope on new technologies and ‘Old World’
forms of building furniture,” says Joyner. “Form is just as important as
function in taste and scale, and that’s what our discerning clients
want.”
Joyner’s unique cosmopolitan sensibilities have drawn considerable notice stateside as well.
In,
2006 Home Accents Today magazine recognized Joyner and 24e among its
prestigious Top 50 Retail Stars. One year later, Joyner began staging
Inc. 500, an annual conference hosted by Inc. Magazine which annually
recognizes some of the fastest-growing private businesses, with former
President Bill Clinton in attendance. The relationship with Inc. has
continued to grow, as Joyner has done recent stagings for the
publication in both Chicago and San Francisco.
In 2009, at the
20th-annual Dallas Total Home and Gift Market, an
internationally-recognized design event -- 24e won its Arts Awards for
the East/Atlantic region. The awards honor excellence from retailers,
manufacturers, sales reps and designers in the decorative accessories
industry, and are nominated by manufacturers and sales reps.
Joyner
has also forged a unique relationship with the Savannah College of Art
& Design, working with its rich palette of talented students and
professors on several furniture, industrial and interior design
projects. A 21st-century networker, he is a patron of Savannah’s
burgeoning art and fashion scene, and frequently hosts industry events
at his 10,000 square-foot store.
Yet for all the industry
accolades, it’s the hands-on, uniquely personal experience of working
directly with clients -- large and small -- that fuels Joyner’s passion.
“Any
designer can go in and design a space for their own liking, but it
takes a special company or individual to be able to listen to what a
client is saying, and bring their vision to reality,” says Joyner. “I
can go into a space and make it for me, but it takes that extra step,
that extra experience to help the client bring their vision to reality.
After all, it is all about them.”
