The story behind the founding of Watersedge Design Company is as unique as the company itself. Founder Brandon Jones celebrates the company’s commitment to establishing itself as a fixture in the Bulloch County business community, and a resource for the discerning consumer seeking a bespoke and creative approach to the imagining of new construction, remodels, space planning and interior design.
Jones said the driving force behind Watersedge is “to create homes and spaces that tell our client’s story.”
Prior to founding WatersEdge, Jones was teaching architectural design at Screven County High School in the Career Tech Program. One of his former students, Ross Crews, has been with Jones’ company for four years, having joined it upon graduation in 2018. He has played an instrumental role in its growth ever since.
“He graduated on Friday, and started Monday,” Jones said of Crews.
Crews, who earned a degree in Construction Management, serves as project manager and lead draftsman.
The focus of Watersedge is “mainly residential design and interior design priding themselves on a high level of authenticity that is designed for each client specifically” as shared with great pride by Jones, and rightfully so. Architecture and design in their hands is elevated to art that reflects the lives of each client.
While no longer teaching per se, Jones continues to bring elements of teaching into the company in offering internships when the right opportunities present themselves.
Former intern Angela Smith was brought on board as office manager immediately upon graduation from Georgia Southern University. She received a bachelor’s degree in Interior Design.
By offering such opportunities, Jones continues to honor his roots as a teacher while pursuing his passion-fueled purpose as a designer. He refers to his venture as his former “side hustle” while teaching, which has now become a growing part of the local business community. Currently this teaching tradition continues in the internship in Interior Design that Watersedge is providing Madison Lewis.
Jones says that the pandemic afforded him “strangely enough the opportunity to give attention to the fledging business from home and build upon the portfolio Ross and interior designer Pressley Terry had assembled prior to its official inception.”
He is the first to credit the entire team for the ability he has to live his dream. He gives a nod to Georgia Southern University’s Business Innovation Group for their assistance in moving from a home-based setting “to an office space, somewhere to meet clients, sit down, and have company meetings.”
The entire journey from side hustle to inception could best be described as stepping outside of one’s comfort zone and is reflected in a statement made by Jones describing Watersedge, saying that it “opens avenues for our clients that many times are out of their comfort zone. If not, we are not doing a very good job at what we do.”
“If we are not challenging the design world a little bit, challenging each client’s comfort zone; you can buy house plans online. We are designing specifically for them, not designing the same house as your neighbor has, I think testing their comfort zone and introducing them to something new and a little bit different than their normal is what our job is in reflecting their story,” he said.
This philosophy has certainly found resonance within the community as word-of-mouth referrals have been their primary marketing tools. The company’s extraordinary creative efforts and designs have been recognized and awarded by Discovering Bulloch Readers Choice Awards as the Best Residential Designer in 2021, 2022 and 2023, Statesboro Herald’s Best of the Boro in 2021 and 2022 for Best Residential Design, and Statesboro Magazine Fabulist Winner 2022 for Best Interior Designer 2021.
Jones calls his company’s entire process, from consultation to design, a journey of self-awakening and understanding that is reflective of each client’s personal story.
“The joy can be found in the journey,” he said. “Not just arrival at the destination.”
Everything about Watersedge is evocative of fluidity, from the name, the warm, welcoming flow through the physical office space, to the entire process of the collaboration between designers and client in the confluence of ideas from conception to a completed design proposal.
Jones and his employees pride themselves on being adaptive to the challenges faced along the way as Watersedge continues to grow. He says he’s excited about the opportunities ahead of them in the future, and they are looking to being more involved in the community, and contributing to the development of a downtown that continues to grow in vibrancy.