Week 6: Learning Experiences

This Week’s Activities:

Working on the IIDA Composing Great Design competition slide showsIt was great to get back into the swing of things at Lauderdale Design Group after the long 4th of July weekend! This week I was happy to continue with some of my on-going projects. As usual I kept up with my email, opening and storing packages, and keeping the materials library updated.  I also kept up with the phones, scheduled rep meetings, and did some internal laundry room cad work. This week was also a great one for me because I started my first ever file cabinet that hold my information and work that I have been doing on projects! It is so nice to stop using a folder and actually start filing things into my desk by project names. I should have organized myself better from the beginning, but now I know!

I have been working on putting together a materials board for one of LDG’s higher education/hospitality projects for quite some time now. As I stated previously I ordered all the materials being used in preparation to actually make the boards...3 weeks later, all the samples have all finally arrived! I have organized all the samples by the space that they will be used in. This will make it easier when I go to make the boards, which we are doing a board for all major spaces. For example, we will have a typical corridor board, lobby board, typical room, etc. We decided we would really like the boards to have some type of frame so I spent a bit of time researching where to purchase them and how to make them yourself. I also researched different board layout and different ways to title block the boards and label the items. We also went ahead and configured a list of the items we will need to make the boards, like double sided tape, foam core, sticky back, etc. and got those items purchased. Of course, now everything is prepared, but it is protocol that the previous phase is finished and approved before the next phase that includes the material boards can be started. So I am waiting for the okay to begin the boards. 

Company meeting with Joy, Deborah, Dani, and CathyJust like last week, creating the IIDA Competition Slide Shows has been a big priority for me this week. I have spent countless hours editing plans in photoshop and creating graphics, etc to go in our submissions. Like I previously mentioned, LDG has entered to compete in both the corporate and residential categories of the competition and have two projects going into the corporate section. We really would like our submissions to stand out and the projects to speak for themselves. It has been tricky to work with the template they gave us but keep our LDG aesthetic in tact. Overall, I think they powerpoint presentations have turned out really well and I think everyone will be happy with the end product. Keep your fingers cross we win something!

Thursday was a huge day for Lauderdale Design Group, and for me personally as a intern. I got to participate in my first quarterly company meeting! It was so much fun and a great learning experiment for me! The first thing we did was go over our mission statement and elevator statement. We made little changes as well as coming up with a design slogan to go on our email signatures, notepads, proposals, etc. We also spoke about different marketing things the company could do. We spoke about their previous first friday and how often they would like to participate, how to find local artists to showcase for first friday, and how long to keep the artist work showcased in our office. It was a great way for us to brainstorm ideas. We also talked about our personal and professional goals, companies we admire, and social media marketing. We are looking forward to the upcoming website and facebook renovations and can’t wait to showcase the amazing photographs Denise has shot for us. Thats about it for this week!

This Week’s Focus: 

Lauderdale Design Group Materials Library This week the focus is on furnishings, fixtures, and equipment resources. It is very important at LDG that we keep our resource library up-to-date and very well stocked. Since I first started working with LDG it has been one of my job descriptions to keep the library in order. LDG keeps it’s material library up-to-date in a multitude of different ways. We are constantly getting emails from reps who want to come over and present their newest products. I am in charge of scheduling those rep meeting and then filing the product samples after the meetings are over. We also have reps sending us new product samples on a regular basis that I also file away. Some reps choose to do a drop in, which does not take any time away from the designers. Instead, they will look through our library and determine what samples we need to be given and then update our library by themselves. Whenever I receive samples from reps I always let Dani and Deborah know so that they can view for future projects. 

Our materials library is organized with Tall, large black bookcases that line the right interior wall of the office. They are categorized as follows, wall coverings, flooring, paint, furniture, lighting, textiles, surfaces, etc. The loose items that do not come in a book, such as textiles and surfaces, are stored in clear plastic bins for easy access. Those bins are labeled by manufacturer name, or sample type for surfaces. This makes it extremely easy for the designers to go to the section they are looking for, pull the manufacturer, and find the product. The way our materials library is organized is very clear and concise and it took me only a couple days to get a handle on where to find what I was looking for, as I am constantly filing samples away. 

This Week’s Introduction:

Mary Holt and her 2 beautiful daughter's.This week I am introducing you to Main Solutions product rep, Mary Holt. Mary has lived in Atlanta, GA since 1985. She grew up in Greensboro, NC and graduated from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill before deciding to move to Atlanta and attend Interior Design school. Upon graduation, Mary worked in Atlanta as a designer for several years at Quantrell Mullins & Associates. She started as a junior designer but soon found that she had way too much energy to sit behind a desk all day. So she joined a multi-line rep team in 1989 and began selling both furniture and textiles. Four years later, in 1993, the owners of the rep firm scaled back, giving Mary the opportunity to continue on her own with her career. She partnered with Rick Proffitt and found Main Source in 1993. Their business was very successful and they sold primarily furniture and textiles. In 2004, they merged to create a bigger group of partners and manufacturers. Mary and the team at Main Solutions love the products they represent and watching them evolve, bringing out products that are relevant to the changing needs or designers and spaces. Mary has two children, age 10 and 8. She loves traveling to the beach to relax away from the hustle and bustle of Atlanta. She also has a wonderful white lab who is both kind and loving. While at the beach they enjoy shelling, riding waves, antiquing, and much more! 

Week 6: July 4th!

Marketing

Knox Heritage markets to the entire community. However, they especially target those who are potential donors such as historic home owners and historic building owners. They also especially target those who would likely have an interest in historic preservation like realtors, architectural firms, and Interior designers.

Knox Heritage has many strategic planning activities . They have summer suppers for those who donate money. They also have photography contests and tours to raise awareness of Knoxville’s history.  Knox Heritage has several physical advertisements like a cookbook for the summer suppers, a pamphlet for noteworthy historic places, and others about various aspects of Knox Heritage.

I am not sure who does the accounting for Knox Heritage. I was not able to speak to many people this week because of the holiday. I will find out the accounting information for next week’s blog.  For the Salvage Room specifically Beth handles and logs the financial records.

Working on Autocad at the farmThis Week

This week I inventoried new items donated to the Salvage Room. Windows, chairs, an architectural concrete statue, and other items were among these inventoried items.  I also worked on moving items from Westwood to the Salvage Room because renovation is about to start soon. I believe it is supposed to be completed in the spring.

My focus this week was working on the as-built drawings of the Fowler’s mill.  I believe they are going pretty well. Our studio class with Jeff this past semester helped greatly. We went to a mill with Jeff and measured it to create as-built drawings together as a studio. I remembered what I forgot about measuring last time and was able to measure everything I needed in one trip this time.

This week during the holiday break I started farm sitting! I also had dinner with my grandparents for the holiday.

Sketch of measurements for millNew Person

This week I did not get to speak to anyone I have not introduced already because of the holiday. I will introduce two new people next week to make up for it. I did find out something interesting about people though! I was talking to Ethiel who I introduced earlier in the blog and his wife is Michelle Garlington who we met at Workspace Interiors! I always find it interesting when I meet people who have connections with people I didn’t even realize.

Week 6: Tackling Obstacles

This week has been a slow one but an exciting one because I am now working on Revit! I spent the beginning of this week watching Revit tutorials and learning the ins and outs in the program. I was able to spend time doing this because a lot of designers were out of town to present for current jobs they are working on and some were just out on vacation. Revit has been very exciting because I am conquering the obstacles of the program and have been able to see little by little that it is actually easy to use. I'm very grateful to get to use Revit as I feel it is a very important program to use in this industry and is only become more important as time passes by. I really enjoy researching so getting to do that has been really exciting, and I've done some sketches of ideas which I frequently love to do so that has been nice as well. Anna is particularly obsessed with materials so she got to pick out vinyls, cryptons, carpet, and LVT which is her niche and it's fun to work together on a project. 

All of our sample options

This week's questions were based around the FF&E of the company. ESa is kept up-to-date on FF&E through representations and lunches. ESa used to just have reps drop in and they'd spend time introducing themselves to all the designers and meeting with them individually, well as ESa grew and the time they had to spend on projects was incredibly valuable they had to figure out a better system to be kept up-to-date. So there are two different ways this happens, we have informals and luncheons. At the informals, a rep comes up sets up a presentation (usually on new products or if it's their first time who their company is) this is done in the mornings and the afternoons. One designer signs up to host the informal and they go around and announce to all the other designers the company that has come to present. That way if a designer is busy at work and can't go then they don't have to, or if it's a certain company that only works with Healthcare design the hospitality designers do not have to go. This also works well, so that if a specific designer wants to meet with a rep they can set up a separate time with them to come in and go over more in depth over a product they want to use on a project. The luncheons is a more formal presentation and usually goes over the scope of all their products and what they have to offer. This is usually for bigger companies or companies that offer more than just one certain type of product. ESa is very lucky and also gets lunch brought into them at these luncheons. It has been very beneficial to get to know these reps and get to see all the different kinds of products that are out there. At the informals and luncheons reps usually have binders or samples to then file away in our library. We have a certain way things are organized in the library and ESa is known for having one of the largest libraries in Nashville. Samples are filed in certain areas that are located on a floor plan (fabrics, LVT, 3 form, stone, etc). Everyone is in charge for keeping the library as clean as possible. We interns are  in charge of filing away products from the to be filed pile and sending back samples like carpet that is to big to store in our library. The designers also will periodically go through the library and give us a list of things to recycle and make more room for new things. We keep all of our reps and their information filed in a Rolodex on the computer, that way when ordering sampling we just have to search for it and call them from their information. FF&E is a very important part of design so it is critical for ESa to be organized and on top of what they can be using to design with.

This week I want to introduce you to Emmy.

Emmy graduated from The University of Tennessee in 2011 and has now spent a year working with ESa. She also interned with ESa as a student to go on with the list of the many other designer who have done the same. Emmy also is the one who is incharge of setting up informals and luncheons, the reps have to call her and then she sets up times to have them come in. Emmy also is working on a project with the Cancer Center that she is letting us help her research new ways to design a conference room/lunch area, she said it is one of her favorite projects because the lady is so inspiring and really sees the benefit that a space catered to cancer patient can have on their recovery. Emmy is really involved with the Healthcare aspect of design and is working towards NCIDQ accreditation as well as EDAC accreditation. Emmy has been really wonderful to be around because she is so welcoming to us and always wiling to help us when we have really simple questions.

Sometimes, you cut a cupcake with an with an x acto knife. This is normal.