From the Team Room to Team Room Design: An Operator’s Creative Journey
Military service can leave behind a lasting collection of memories, relationships, traditions, and places that continue to influence people long after they have left active duty. For one former Special Forces team sergeant, the team room represented far more than a physical workspace. It was a familiar environment where teammates could prepare for missions, share difficult moments, relax between responsibilities, and maintain the relationships that made military service meaningful. That experience eventually became the foundation for Team Room Design, a family-operated creative business focused on craftsmanship, military-inspired artwork, personalized products, and community.
Within a Special Operations unit, the team room can become an important center of daily life. Team members may use the space to rest, sleep, prepare equipment, review plans, complete administrative responsibilities, discuss upcoming operations, or simply spend time together. Because so many aspects of military life can take place there, the room often becomes closely connected with the identity of the team itself. The memories created in that environment can remain significant even when service members move to another assignment, separate from the military, or begin a new chapter of their lives.
The origins of Team Room Design can be traced to Benny’s experience while serving in Germany with a Crisis Response Force. During that period, he was involved in producing plaques for members of his unit. These pieces were intended to recognize service and mark important transitions, but Benny became increasingly dissatisfied with the generic nature of many traditional farewell plaques. After years of dedication, sacrifice, training, and shared experiences, he felt that departing service members deserved something that reflected their individual contributions rather than receiving a standard item that could have been created for anyone.
Rather than accepting that tradition, Benny began applying his own artistic abilities to the process. He started creating personalized plaques that could better represent the individual, their accomplishments, their military background, and the team with which they had served. Each piece became an opportunity to preserve a particular story and create a physical reminder of a meaningful period in someone’s life. The work combined recognition with creativity, giving the recipient something that could carry personal significance long after leaving the unit.
After relocating to Fort Carson, Benny continued developing his custom work while expanding his skills as an artist and craftsman. What had initially been a personal effort gradually became a more developed creative practice. In 2020, his wife, Arrycca, encouraged him to transform the work into an established business. She eventually assumed ownership and chief executive responsibilities, taking charge of business management and daily operations, while Benny continued concentrating heavily on design and creative production. Their different responsibilities allowed each of them to contribute according to their individual strengths.
The partnership between Benny and Arrycca became an important part of the company’s development. Their vision was not limited to selling customized products. They wanted the business to become a place where people could work together, maintain friendships, share skills, and create opportunities for members of their community. Their concept drew directly from the social environment of a military team room, where professional responsibilities and personal relationships often existed side by side.
For Benny, recreating that atmosphere in civilian life became an important part of the company’s long-term idea. Leaving military service can involve a major adjustment because veterans may suddenly find themselves separated from the people, routines, and shared mission that once structured their daily lives. A civilian workplace does not automatically replace those connections. Team Room Design seeks to create an environment where veterans, friends, and creative individuals can continue interacting, collaborating, completing projects, and spending time together. The emphasis is on creating a sense of belonging rather than simply providing a place to manufacture products.
As the business expanded, access to new equipment opened additional creative possibilities. Tools for woodworking and metalworking allowed Benny to move beyond the techniques he had originally used overseas. Polyresin customization provided another medium for developing detailed designs and personalized pieces. Working with different materials gave the company greater freedom to experiment with dimensions, textures, shapes, finishes, and visual themes. The expanded capabilities helped transform the business from a plaque-focused operation into a broader creative workshop.
The company eventually developed products in several categories, including apparel and accessories. Benny’s interest in clothing design began partly as a personal pursuit. He wanted shirts that reflected his own interests and aesthetic preferences rather than relying solely on designs already available elsewhere. His understanding of military culture provided a source of inspiration, while his creative approach allowed him to develop graphics with a more personal connection to the communities he knew.
Stickers and other small-format artwork became additional ways for Benny to express his ideas. These projects helped demonstrate how the company could use visual design to communicate experiences, humor, identity, and military culture. Over time, this creative work also created an opportunity for Benny to connect with Black Rifle Coffee Company and participate in collaborative projects.
Benny first met Black Rifle Coffee Company founder Evan Hafer at the 2019 SHOT Show. The two maintained contact through social media, and their professional relationship eventually developed into opportunities for Benny to contribute artwork. His initial involvement included designs associated with the company’s sticker club, followed by work connected with its apparel program. The collaboration provided a larger platform for Benny’s artistic work while allowing him to incorporate themes that were familiar from his own military experience.
One limited-edition shirt concept brought together imagery associated with Special Forces, coffee, and military culture. The design depicted a Special Forces operator alongside a coffee cup and skull imagery, capturing a recognizable sequence of military life: completing demanding work, removing equipment, settling back into a more relaxed state, and enjoying coffee afterward. The concept connected the intensity of operational responsibilities with the ordinary moments of relaxation that take place between them.
The design also reflected a broader idea associated with Special Forces: a relatively small group can produce an influence that extends far beyond its size. Small teams may operate across different regions and contribute to objectives with consequences reaching well beyond the immediate group. That idea of creating substantial impact through a compact team also has a connection to Benny’s approach to his own business. What began as an individual effort to create better farewell plaques gradually became a company with a wider creative and community-oriented purpose.
At the heart of Team Room Design is the belief that physical objects can preserve experiences and relationships. A customized plaque can commemorate years of service, a significant assignment, or the bond shared by members of a particular unit. Clothing and artwork can provide another form of expression, allowing people to display aspects of their identity and experiences through designs that have personal or cultural meaning. The value of these products therefore extends beyond their physical materials because they can serve as reminders of people, places, accomplishments, and shared memories.
The company’s development also reflects a broader transition experienced by many veterans after leaving military service. Separation from the military can mean more than changing careers. It can involve losing familiar routines, daily interactions, shared responsibilities, and the unique sense of belonging created within a team. The relationships formed during service can remain deeply important, but maintaining them in civilian life may require new spaces and new forms of connection.
Team Room Design was created in part as a response to that challenge. By drawing inspiration from the environment of a military team room, the company seeks to create a civilian setting where people can continue building relationships through shared work and creative activity. The goal is to provide more than employment or commercial products. Benny and Arrycca envision a community in which veterans, friends, artists, and other creative individuals can contribute their abilities, collaborate on projects, and support one another.
This approach gives the business an identity that combines craftsmanship with personal connection. Every custom project can become an opportunity to tell a story, recognize an accomplishment, or preserve a memory. At the same time, the workshop environment provides a place where people can gather around shared interests and maintain relationships that might otherwise become difficult to sustain after military service.
The journey from handmade farewell plaques to a family-operated creative company demonstrates how a personal frustration can become the starting point for something much larger. Benny’s desire to create more meaningful recognition pieces encouraged him to develop his artistic skills, while Arrycca’s encouragement helped turn that creative effort into a formal enterprise. Together, they developed a business model that combines design, craftsmanship, military culture, and community.
Ultimately, Team Room Design represents an effort to carry the spirit of military teamwork into civilian life. Its products provide tangible ways to remember service and express identity, while its broader vision focuses on preserving the relationships and camaraderie that make teams meaningful. Through custom craftsmanship, collaborative projects, and a commitment to community, Benny and Arrycca continue working toward a business environment where people can create, connect, and support one another. The company’s story is therefore not simply about plaques, apparel, or artwork. It is about transforming memories of service into something that can continue bringing people together long after their time in uniform has ended.