Interior Design is like Hollywood minus the money. It's glamourous, it's glitzy and ultimately it's egoistic. The phrase "I am a Designer" convey a sense of arrogance, an impression that we make a shit load of money, and we have a large appetite for expensive clothing that we can't really afford, and an attitude like nobody else knows design better than we do. Although some established designers do live by that mantra, 99% of us didn't think we design for money when we all started. Perhaps it was our job which exposed us to the luxury and the exquisite, that slowly our head get so big to think that, we, also belong to the high society.
Have you been to any Design Award Gala? It's like going to the Oscars. It's more about how many people you get to say hi to, rather than really looking at designs. It's about name dropping, the prestigious firm you are working for, and the VIP lounges you can access. It's ridiculous. It's pretentious. It's sickening, yet we do it, it's part of it. They say you need to look expensive to get expensive in our industry. It's becoming survival of the finest, but it's also very vicious.
We are not really a "professional", like Lawyers, Engineers, Doctors who actually had real governing accreditations that mean something (sorry despite we DO have associations, they don’t really do anything). We don't save lives. We don't fight crime, we don't build shelters for homeless. There is a funny tag line in our industry - "We save the world from ugliness." (lol). We are always struggling to get recognition from the general public, that we are not just some frou-frou that picks paint colors. The past few years, I had to use the term "I am a Commercial Designer" just so people don't think I am just another HGTV bedroom makeover personality. I hate the fact that we have to defend ourselves like we are ashamed of what we do.
Our work is no joke. We pull 70, 80 hours week just like any other prominent industry. Picking colors is not even 1% of our scope. Everything we do is calculated, not just by "feel" or instinct. We deal with exact measurements of the space down to 1/8 inch because when the cabinet comes and it won't fit, we are fucked. If we don’t specify non-slip surface on stairs and someone slipped, we are fucked. We study mechanical ductwork and sprinklers layout to make sure they don't appear in the middle of the room. We draw up hundreds of pages of technical drawings so everything from lighting layout to how to build a 15 feet long reception desks are thought of. We specify the angle of dining chair back in a restaurant to ensure comfort. We are not just someone who are good at picking cushions and hanging pictures on the wall. When we tell people we design a restaurant, we are sick and tired of listening to response like "you mean you picked the fabric for the chairs?". It's even worse when these responses are innocent and genuinely coming from people you like. Our work are ill-recognized, but it doesn't help the situation when the industry is also so pretentious. “Well you gonna charge me thousands of dollars because I need you to pick a lamp?” No we don’t charge that, but people assume we do.
This year marks my 14th year anniversary of being a designer after quitting my engineering life. My career soared ever since I received a few student design awards in back 2004. I climbed up the ladder fast, 8 years, I became Creative Director of a prominent firm. I had opportunities to travel a lot for work. To places which I'd never been able to see, stayed in luxury hotels and resorts which I'd never be able to afford, and dined at Michelin-Stared restaurants like a boss. My first business class flight was a work trip. I have tasted the high-life, and I admit that I loved it. After a while, I started to feel entitled to things like this just because.
At the same time the design world has evolved so much so that things are happening 10 times faster. Concepts are needed in a week, drawings done in 3 and store opening in 4. The market is so vicious and greedy, all the client wants is to pay you the least and getting the most at the most ridiculous amount of time. Design firms retaliate by spending less time designing, cranking out cookie-cutter shit real quick and get paid. At the end, the design itself suffers, there is no context to the design and there is zero time spent trying to figure out all the details.
Hindsight is a real bitch, sometimes. Sure I have a glorified resume and portfolio, to some, I have achieved a lot. But to me, I lost track of why.
As I had time to slow down now to think about the why, these are the 4 things that I feel strongly moving forward.
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Remember Why You Started
If you ask 99% of designers why they wanted to be a designer, they will all tell you because they like to create beautiful things. None will say they want to make money or to hang out with celebrities when they first started. The value of all creative individuals is the ability to transfer our crazy ideas in our heads onto paper or other medium.
At the beginning of our career, we'll grab anything we can to get our hands onto and design the shit out of it. We don't pick and choose, why? Because all we want is an opportunity to express our ideas, someone to listen. That urge for expression was what fueled the sleepless nights when we needed to make sure corners were perfectly aligned and the reds had the correct CMYK values.
We are obsessed, so much so that we'd do it for free if you'd let us have it our way. After all, deeply inside we are just a bunch of kids who love to doddle during class!
We love to design unconditionally. It means the world to us if you love our design too.
Honesty
I was traveling in Portugal a few years back and Portuguese are downright honest people. Their food is simple, fresh, and honest. People help you unconditionally, they are honest. They are probably the most honest nation in Europe. There is nothing better than being honest to everything. To people, to design, to client, to colleagues.
Design needs to be true to itself. It must have a story and context. Designers need to be true to their instinct. If we don't know something, we don't pretend we do. If we mess up, we man up. If we kill it, we high five. If we can't do it, we ask for help. If we can do more, we lend a hand.
Say it like it is, and not be offended. Keeping in mind that everyone has one goal, is to do the same cool shit. So kill each other during a heated debate, but when it's done, go do yoga together and have a beer.
Design should also be honest. We show all we have, not hiding things. Not selfish. When we have a cool idea, we shouldn't guard it as trade secret. Because if we do that, eventually we will not have room for other ideas. Only if we share and "empty " out the bucket, we will have room for new ones. Honest designs evoke emotions, when a design can do that, it's raw beauty.
There will be challenges and sometimes people do not see eye-to-eye, but one thing is guaranteed, our intentions are pure and we will be 100% honest.
Blurring the Disciplines and Combining Super Powers
The notion of specializing and doing just one thing is obsoleting. Especially in design. Design has an extremely broad spectrum and whether things look great are purely subjective. However, creative people has an eye for all pretty things. These days, you find famous designers are doing things across boundaries.
Coming from my previous firm, there were lot of times when client asked us to do things like graphics design or branding, we would often say no. It's not because we couldn't do it, just we don't do it. Every time I heard that, I would ask "Why not?". The answer was always "we don't want to be liable." Or “That’s not our discipline.” This bothered me because even if we don't do it ourselves, we would still be liable directing some 3rd party consultant how to do it. I was a little sick and tired of not willing to try.
When we combine our super creative powers, we will have a full circle design, and not just "what if's". There is complete synchronization between designs. Products being used in interior, graphics being used in products, interior designed to highlight art installation, and branding to wrap everything together in one package. The process is fluid, agile, iterative, and complete. There is no ONE discipline that would take the crown, everyone owns a piece, and the end results are celebrated together.
Do cool shit
At the end of the day, we are a bunch of really passionate, driven, aspiring creatives, who wants to do some cool shit together. Be it a fancy retail store, or a beautiful light fixture, or a public art installation. It does not have to be a high paying project, but it should be something that we all think is cool. It could even be things we do for free. As long as it's cool, and make an impact.
We want the general public to be inspired to do cool things like us and not afraid of boundaries.
We want to do cool things that is different and make a statement and unique to our own style.
We want people to be aspired and feel privileged to join our team.
We want to attract elite creative, who has the same wavelength as us, and believe in the same cause.
We want client to hire us because they also are not conservative and who is not afraid to do cool shit, and will collaborate with us to make that happen.
At the end of the day, when people ask what have we done lately, we will be proud to tell them we have done some really really cool shit.
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Favorite Quote
“Contrary to popular belief, designers are not artists. We employ artistic methods to visualize thinking and process, but, unlike artists, we work to solve a client’s problem, not present our own view of the world. We thrive on constraints, but we hate compromise.” - Erik Spiekermann