A series to get your creative juices flowing for your interior design firm’s blog.  Read the introduction here.

1. Choosing towel colors.  How to use a spa-like approach or to accent with your bath towels.
2. 5 favorite pedestal sinks.
   

   Photo: Better Homes & Gardens

3. How to tell good upholstery from bad.  Possibly show pictures that will educate your reader on what they can look for when selecting a piece of upholstery.
4. Effects of glazing cabinetry.  How different glazes change the natural colors of woods.
5. Choosing the right area rug.  Size, style, and more.  Do you put the sofa legs on it?

Photo: Apartment Therapy

Be sure to check back next Monday for five more blog post ideas!

Whenever I ask people what their main concern and block is for social media, a majority of them say producing content.  This is true.  All of a sudden, businesses that never had to write before are now tasked with being editors and journalists for their online diaries.  Blogging offers great opportunities to establish yourself as an expert, show your company’s personality, and be more searchable, but it can be overwhelming to think about coming up with a new idea 2-5 times per week.

In 30 minutes, I developed 35 ideas for blog posts for your interior design firm.  I realize I am leaving this to you to do the hard part—the writing!  Most of them are residentially-inclined, but I know that they will spur ideas for the commercial folks too.  You are more than welcome to use these blog post ideas verbatim.  However, you will also be thinking about your own spin so don’t let these limit your creativity.  Hopefully this list will help you think of even another 35 things that you want to write about.  If it does make you think of some posts, will you share them in the comments?  Remember that posts don’t have to be long, but they have to be interesting.  What is interesting to your reader?  They’ll tell you by what they retweet on Twitter, link to from their own blog, or comment on your blog.  It’s a learning experience and you’ll probably end up being surprised at what they most want to hear about.

I’ve divided this list into groups of 5.  It will give you enough to think about for the week and we will post them every Monday for the next 7 weeks.

1. Pantone color of the year and its uses.  Show ways that it can be used as a base color or as a subtle accent.

2.  Outdoor living rooms.  The change in fabric technology and options are amazing.  Highlight this or something similar for your reader.

Photo: Martha Stewart

3.  Window treatments and appropriate uses.  Educate your reader on the different window treatment designs and when each might be used.

4.  Ceiling fans– not from your first apartment.  Choosing a fan with style.

5.  Painting floors.  What to consider with color and sheen.

Photo: Design Sponge

Stay tuned for five more blog post ideas for interior designers, every Monday!

For those of you who have iPhones and frequently want to take pictures to post on your blog, Facebook page, Flickr, or other platforms, you may have previously been disappointed in the quality of the photos. In many cases, the contrast and color of the iPhone photos do not do the design justice. There are two iPhone apps—AutoStitch and Touch FX—that I recently started using that have significantly changed the quality of the photos that I can take with my phone.

AutoStitch:

AutoStitch allows you to take multiple overlapping photos that you can then “stitch” together for a panoramic view.  This is great for getting more of a room into the pictures.

One part of the image, before AutoStitch

And again, after AutoStitch

I am typically very stingy with spending money on apps, but I found the $2.99 for this app to be a well-spent business expense.  Now, when I take photos of any of our design projects in process or when I want to photograph the entire vignette at High Point Furniture Market, I am not limited.

Touch FX

For 99 cents, this photo editing app for your iPhone is also business money well spent.  I find most of my iPhone photos to lack contrast in color.  With Touch FX, you use your finger as a brush to touch up your photos.  You can also use your “brush” to make your photo sepia, black-and-white, posterized and more.  I particularly think that the “Contrast” tool is the most important for taking design photos and really punching up your colors and textures.  In the photo below, I used the contrast tool to doctor the left-hand side of the photo and the right hand side is untouched.  You can see the brightness and difference.

Left side– Touch FX contrast tool used; Right side– untouched

Todd Whiting, one of our GDM advisory board members, is the creator of Touch FX so that is how I found out about it.  I must say that I went kicking and screaming to actually spend money for an app (even an app made by someone I know- sorry Todd).  However, I can honestly say that these two apps, often combined, have made a huge difference in the caliber of photos that I can take and post with just my iPhone.

Happy picture taking!

While waiting for a pretty significant writer’s block to clear up, I thought a dip into my Twitter stream might help refresh me a bit. Even though it is against the general “how-to’s” of Twitter, I have focused my following to design, marketing and artistic tweeps— so that the noise doesn’t become too overwhelming. Well, lo and behold: when I really focused, some great new, inventive and interesting ideas and products revealed themselves. And, miraculously, the writer’s block vanished.

Below is a selection of some “twinspirational” Twitter finds.

@LadyFabrics (visit their website): Gorgeous, 100% natural, sustainable, biodegradable fabrics.

A wide array of colors from Lady Fabrics

@Alluminare (visit their website): Fully customizable fabric, wallcovering, pendants, lamps, pillows and so much more! Wonderfully interactive.

Fully customizable lampshades and more on Alluminare's website

@tracyhiner (visit the website) This is NOT your average wallpaper, it’s Art, and yes, with a capital A!

Two examples of Black Crow Studios' artful designs

@modernica (visit the website): Uber-cool furnishings that would make the Jetsons’ swoon.

Ultra modern chairs from modernica.

@HomeDecorNews (visit the website): A lot of something about a lot of everything for the design industry, from the DIY-ers to professionals.

@myperfectcolor (visit the website): Anything and everything you would ever want to know about Benjamin Moore paint.

The moral of the story: inspiration comes from many sources, Twitter being only one of many!

How can you make Twitter work for your business? Contact @gibsondm, @mandaleebee or @ProjectSupport (aka Alexandra, Amanda or Martha at Gibson Design Management).

A guest blog post by Gail Doby, ASID, Design Success University

I’ve been an interior designer for over 20 years, so I’ve had plenty of time to make these mistakes.  Here’s a startling statistic (and I’ll bet it is higher during this recession) – 62.8% of all new businesses fail within 6 years according to the U.S. Census Bureau, and 96% fail within 10 years.  That means you’re lucky to be one of 4 out of 100 to make it past 10 years…or is it luck?

What if you could avoid the mistakes that these business owners made?

I’d like to see you avoid them, and if you’ve already done a few of them, now you can learn what not to do so you don’t waste your valuable time and money:

1. Not having a written “ideal client” profile – If you don’t know who your ideal client is, how can you tell other people who they can refer to you?  If you’ve ever had the client from &%$&, (or more than once) the key is to know what you don’t want in a client as much as what you do want.
2. Not knowing the lifetime value of your client – If you’ve been in the business even a few years, you can add up your billings and divide by the number of clients to get your current lifetime value.  You should also look at how long they stay as a client.  These two metrics are critical in your business planning and if you have this data as part of your Business Dashboard, it will help you grow your business. (more…)

We work with many design firms that utilize 3D photorealistic renderings to show clients their design vision.  This is a great way to communicate and sell your vision through imagery instead of words, but why not use renderings in your business for other purposes as well?

Design by Gibson Design Group | Rendering for Upcoming Charity House Show

Here are 3 ideas for using 3D renderings that you might not have thought about previously:

1. Work backwards. If you have a great project in your portfolio that you have already completed and photographed, why not render that project as well.  This will beef up your portfolio by showing potential clients what they can expect as a “before” (the rendering) and “after” (the photograph).  The similarities will be astounding to the potential client.
2. Project never built, but design done. Unfortunately, given the economy over the past two years, many large projects never got off the ground.  However, you may have done great design work for these spaces.  If you have a project that was not ever completed, or the client pulled the plug for budgetary reasons, why not render your vision and add that to your portfolio?
3. Substitute for traditional photography. While professionally photographing your best work is extremely important for your portfolio, there are some projects that might not be quite worth the thousands of dollars to photograph.  As a less expensive alternative, you can take photos of the spaces with a point and click camera and then have photorealistic renderings done to mimic them.  This is also an opportunity to add the window treatments, art, accessories, or additional pieces that were part of the design, but not purchased by the client.

Conventional or non-conventional uses aside, utilizing photorealistic 3D renderings in your portfolio is a great way to win that next client, and set yourself apart from your competitors.

Success comes in many sizes and forms, sometimes when you least expect it; and those successes are particularly sweet.  Recently, I was explaining the benefits of project sourcing to a potential client, a very talented, well known and respected designer, how we could assist by pulling fabrics or supplying tear sheets within the parameters that she would specify for us, staying true to her design vision.  She didn’t feel she would ever use that service, as she wanted to make those design decisions, she loved that process, and didn’t want to let that go.

To my delighted surprise, I was given the opportunity to pull supporting fabrics for one of her projects!  She had a presentation in several days, and could not fit the 5 hour round trip to the design center into her schedule.  She supplied me with the vendor and pattern numbers for the driving fabrics, and a few details about durability needs and budget.  The design center is 15 minutes from my office, and within 90 minutes, I had pulled approximately 60 fabrics from numerous vendors and showrooms, stopped at the FedEx store, and sent them off to be delivered to her doorstep the next day.

(more…)

The design industry is no stranger to the acronym heavy list of professional organizations available to the trade. Professional organizations serve a vital purpose to those well established within the industry, help to foster connections with those that are new to their chosen field, and act as a resource and a mentor to those seeking an education or degree within the trade.

Let’s spell out a few of them for you!

AKBD – Associate Kitchen & Bath Designer. A certification examination for students provided by the National Kitchen & Bath Association.
ASID – American Society of Interior Designers. The leading organization for interior designers. Founded in 1975, with 40,000 members, there are also student chapters that are very active throughout the country.
IDS – Interior Design Society. Founded in 1973, dedicated to serving the residential interior design industry through its 3,000 members.
IIDA – International Interior Design Association. Founded in 1994, this organization has a global reach with 13,000 members in 29 chapters around the world.
NCIDQ – National Council of Interior Design Qualification. A competency based examination for interior designers, and serves as a qualifier for many of the professional organizations.
NKBA – National Kitchen & Bath Association. Founded in 1963 with over 40,000 members serving 11 industry segments in chapters throughout the US and Canada.

These organizations provide an excellent opportunity to network with your industry partners, celebrate at their many festive events and laud the achievements of fellow designers.

I love showrooms! Everything about them appeals to me, from the beautifully lit and displayed product, to the wings of fabrics waiting to be discovered, it all presents infinite possibilities available to designers.

Holly Hunt - New York

The perfectly sharpened pencils nestled in bins with memo sample request pads handily located next to them, the colorful and imaginative shopping bags full of gorgeous fabrics and funky trims, yours for the taking.

Fadini Borghi Fabrics & Trimmings

Graciously offered space to spread out and work, with water, coffee and snacks readily available. A sales associate ready to offer assistance; pricing and tear sheets swiftly and efficiently proffered.

But showrooms are more than that, they are a designer’s life blood, and designers are theirs’.  A perfect example of a symbiotic relationship.  Showrooms and their well-trained staff should be considered allies, a first line of defense. They are problem solvers, who will go to bat for a customer to help in getting to the bottom of a freight issue, or working with a vendor to push a lead time, or getting a difficult question or problem resolved.

The showrooms I have been fortunate to work both for and with have been much more than the selling, they have been about the relationship and the connection.

Gibson Design Management recently launched a Review Center.  This is a place for the design industry to review showrooms on the customer service that it receives.  We hope for it to be a place for showrooms that are providing great service to be lauded, and for those who are not serving the industry well, to improve from.  The way for this review center to be successful is for you to be candid about your experiences and to share those experiences.  We would love to have you contribute to our review center, and spread the word to your industry partners.

Currently, you can review showrooms in the Denver Design District and the Washington DC Design Center.  Please add your stars and reviews.  Posts can be anonymous if you do not feel comfortable adding your name, and of course, your email address will be kept strictly confidential.

A recent article by TechCrunch.com outlines the foundation and principle behind the interior design and product web site, Decorati.  As someone in the design industry, I was particularly troubled by the last paragraph in the article:

“While the prices for furniture on Decorati aren’t cheap, the site definitely lowers the costs by letting consumers access high-end furniture and design ideas without the help of a costly decorator. And if you do want to hire a professional, the site makes it fairly easy to find one that matches your needs.” -TechCrunch, October 2, 2009

It seems to be a conundrum as Decorati focuses much of their attention, like Ava Living, on bringing interior designers and consumers together.  Based on this article, however, it appears that Decorati will allow consumers to purchase trade-only merchandise directly.  Is this the case?  Decorati, if you’re listening, please chime in.  All other readers, what do you think?

Click here to read full TechCrunch article.