Founder - Lyn Falk
Registered Interior Designer – State of Wisconsin
Author, award winning designer, business owner, and educational speaker, Lyn Falk, has earned national praise for her holistic, innovative, results driven design philosophy. Ms. Falk has devoted the past 25 years to teaching and helping retailers and business professionals build healthy, purposeful and productive spaces that move hearts, minds & merchandise. Her expertise in retail design, business, science, and consumer psychology has helped her develop designs that not only meet but often exceed her client’s projected goals/sales. Falk’s clientele represents over 35 different retail industries, including heavy hitters such as Aveda, Breadsmith, Covenant Healthcare (now Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare), the Kohler Company, Mercury Marine, Miller Brewing Company, S.C. Johnson, and Sears, although hundreds of independent retailers have benefited from her expertise as well. Her work demonstrates the positive influence a well–designed environment has on a business’s bottom line.
Business Owner
Ms. Falk started Retailworks, Inc in 1995 and quickly built it into an award winning, nationally recognized boutique design firm which achieved over a million in sales within the first five years.
Seven years after starting Retailworks, Inc., Ms. Falk began Solterra Studios – a division dedicated to helping raise public awareness to the importance and benefits of creating, living and working in beautiful, healthy, sustainable environments.
In 2006, she created, wrote and produced Healthy Style, a one hour special for public television on healthy, eco-friendly design & living. It aired on Milwaukee Public Television in the fall of 2006 and has aired on over 90 stations nationwide via American Public Television. In 2008, Ms. Falk co-produced "Nature in the City", a documentary on Urban Ecology Center, which was nominated for a Midwest Emmy. It aired initially on Milwaukee Public Television in May 2009, and has aired repeatedly since.
Speaker/Author/Consultant
Ms Falk has taught at the University of Wisconsin – Madison in the Retail Department, and has developed course curriculums for senior level university students, manufacturers, and retailers. She has spoken to thousands of professionals, citizens and students, and her work has been acknowledged over 140 times in over 80 different publications.
Falk serves as a speaker and consultant for the National Main Street Network. She has worked with over 40 communities, helping them define and strengthen their mission, identity, and retail/business districts in an effort to curb unnecessary urban sprawl.
Falk spent 2 years co-developing and co-teaching a program that addressed the American with Disabilities Act, helping retailers and shopping center personnel cost-effectively accommodate customers with physical and mental challenges.
Falk authors trend setting and “how to” articles for numerous trade publications. She wrote a comprehensive store design workbook, entitled, “Designs that Move Minds & Merchandise”, and recently finished a 7 year column called “Conscious Spaces" in the Outpost Exchange magazine, a popular publication on holistic living. Copies of her columns are for sale via the Solterra Studios' website.
Her message challenges existing perceptions and strives to inspire new ideas that work in harmony with our rapidly changing world.
Education
She earned a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Wisconsin in 1983, with a double major in interior design and art. She has completed the coursework for a master’s degree in business and design from the same university.
Licenses and Affiliations
Registered Interior Designer in the State of Wisconsin, 1997 – Present. Associate member of International Interior Design Association, 1995 – Present.
Ms. Falk serves on numerous business, educational and civic boards.
Available Upon Request
- list of published works and notable acknowledgements
- list of speaking engagements
- list of elected and honorary positions
- design portfolio
- list of design awards
- list of clients and client references
