Week 4: Around the Office

This Week’s Activities:

My week consisted of doing a lot of the same things I have talked about previously. Every morning I came into the office and checked my emails and sent responses. I also responded to any written messages or notes I may have had on my desk. As an interior design firm, we are constantly updating our materials library, I receive/un-package/store samples from different product representatives daily as well. 

I spent a lot of time this week updating our company website (linked below). I went through our gallery and added a project description slide to all of our project albums.I did this using photoshop. I also added a new residential project album. We are hoping to gain more residential clients in the future. 

Corporate office space planning drafts. I also spent a big chunk of time this week working in our fabric library. For our open house, yellow and black fabrics were placed in the front of each of our clear plastic bins. I took those pieces out and refiled them into their proper spot. The way our fabric library works is effective and simple. We have clear plastic containers that are labeled by product manufacturer. For instance- Knoll Textiles, Carnegie, Momentum. I just created a new box to hold all of our HBF Textiles. The boxes are in alphabetical order so I had to adjust all the boxes after the letter H to make room for the new one. Each manufacturer box is in color order and some manufacturers have multiple boxes in our library. 

I spent some more time this week creating digital files to house our most recent distillery project. I made a folder that housed pictures of the existing building. I also took the existing plans that were given to Joy and scaled them. It had been at least 2 years since I used a scale! I was so happy I was able to pick up on it again no problem. 

Joy also had me help her out on one of our corporate projects this week. I did a lot of work in autocad to make the plans more clear. I put the names of all the people who would be seated at a workstation into their correct spot. I also helped with some space planning by putting their existing file cabinets/bookcases/safes/storage cabinets into our furniture plan. This was a hard task because we were asked to put a lot of additional furniture into spaces that were already laid out without them in mind. But that’s where I got to do some critical thinking and I was able to make everything fit cohesively. 

Discussing professional photographs taken of Synergy.One of the most fun things I got to do this week was sit in on the photograph selection meeting. We got the proofs back from our wonderful photographer, Denise Retallack. We laid all the Synergy shoot photos out and decided which photos we would like to keep and which shows the design best. This took some time because everyone had differing opinions, but in the end everyone landed on the same favorite photos. I really loved the photos and was impressed with them. The photos will be entered into an IIDA design competition. They will be great to have on our company website and for marketing purposes! 

Lastly, I worked to create a project book for the newest residential design LDG completed. I did this using indesign and a pre existing template that has been used for many different project books LDG has. These books are used to show potential clients our work physically instead of digitally. 

This Week’s Focus:

This week I focused on learning about Lauderdale Design Group’s marketing strategy and accounting procedures. 

Creating a residential book to print for marketing.LDG markets itself in so many ways. They have a company website and also use social media such as facebook. Another great thing LDG participates in is First Friday, which allows them to market themselves as well as connect with architects in town. Architects are a huge part of LDG’s marketing strategy and they often have lunch meetings with architects in town to discuss Knoxville’s design community and potential project opportunities. They also participate in US Green Building Council lunch and learns. The LDG office was just remodeled as a marketing strategy. The office now represents the interior design LDG is capable of producing. This way when architects, potential clients, and contractors come into the office they are seeing LDG’s work first hand.

LDG also participates in UT events, as well as sponsoring their own events. They were involved in the AIA golf tournament and have recently entered in an IIDA competition. They do most their marketing through networking and talking around town. They love face to face interaction and Joy is a great face for the company. Also- like I talked about last week, LDG just recently put an ad out in the UT 2013-2014 Academic Planner. Their target markets are education, hospitality, corporate, retail, and commercial design. To view their website, click here. To view a gallery with pictures of their work, click here.  

LDG does strategic planning two times a year during their company days. These are usually held during the spring and fall. Company days consist of an all day office meeting. During these days the employees go over core values, the mission statement, visions for the future of the company, internal and external goals for not only the company, but each employee, and many more aspirations. The accounting is handled both within the company and externally. Joy and Cathy work within the office to help keep the books but they also have an external account who helps handle the more complicated matters like tax returns, etc. 

This Week’s Introduction:

Cathy, Office Manager, LDGThis week I am introducing you to our office manager and go to girl, Cathy! Cathy is absolutely a joy to work with and I am so lucky to have her as one of my mentors. Cathy went to school for merchandising. She went into retail and decided it wasn’t for her, however, it opened the doors for sales. Cathy spent 2 years selling shipping and postage systems-computerized options, and decided she really liked sales but wanted to sell something fun. She went to work for Commercial Interiors and worked there for 10 years. This is how she met Joy- who was then right out of school working for Commercial Interiors. After 10 years Cathy had become a sales manager and had went as far as she could within the company. From there she interviewed and got a position at Knoll. She was an office furniture rep for Knoll for 10 years before retiring. But not for long! When Joy started up LDG she contacted Cathy to come be part of the team as the Lauderdale Design Group office manager. Cathy does everything but design at LDG.

Cathy and her husband have 2 grandsons who are moving to Ethiopia for 2 years while their father is in the foreign service. Cathy’s husband in an engineer and they hope to be retired in the next 7 years. They have 6 acres in Karns where they garden and produce fresh vegetables. They just welcomed a new doggy into their home 2 weeks ago. Cathy loves to create sun catchers using driftwood, copper wire, and beads. She also makes her own greeting cards. 

Week 3: Gaining Responsibility

This Week’s Activities: 

Packages I received Thursday with Residence Hall samples. This week was jam packed for Lauderdale Design Group. Now that my company email address is up and running and all the product samples have been ordered for the Residence Hall material boards, I have a lot of emails to read and respond to in the mornings when I come into the office. This has become a daily task for me. I also receive up to 15 packages a day with those materials. When they come in I try to un-package and store them quickly so the office is not cluttered. I keep a running list of what I have ordered, what reps have sent the items, and what has arrived. I also sometimes have messages that I need to return via phone. Cathy, our office manager, and I have started to share the task of answering the phones. 

Advertisement I designed for UT 2013-2014 PlannerAlong with handling all the materials for the Residence Hall, I also have the running task of downloading furniture symbol libraries for easy access during design phases involving autocad. So far, I have downloaded the FSL for Knoll, Steelcase, Coalesse, and Herman Miller. One of my favorite tasks I got to do this week involved designing a LDG advertisement to go into the 2013-2014 UT Academic Planner in Indesign. We have a 1/16 page ad that with be in the planner and will hopefully bring Lauderdale Design Group more business. We were honored to be given the opportunity to be in the planner and love that our company has a made an impact on the UT campus. The ad I designed features one of our new photographs shot of our office. 

This week we met with many different product reps. We met with Jill Hafeli of the Klem group. She sells a multitude of different hospitality brands. I love viewing her products and Dani was excited to get some hospitality resources because LDG is leaning toward a lot more of that business. We also met with Mary Holt, a fabric rep, as well as Mitzi Rouse, a carpet rep. These meetings are always informative for me to attend. I learn about new products daily. 

Draft of potential finish schedule for Salon project.Dani and Deborah decided that it was time for me to start working on the Salon project. Dani briefed me on the space, the different materials they had thought about using, and what their concept was. Then she let me do a draft using a blank floor plan and prisma color pencils to show where the different materials should go. I came up with several different schemes before presenting them to Deborah and Dani. From there I made the changes they gave me and came up with a final finish schedule draft. Next week I will enter everything into autocad and create the final finish schedule and key. I also did some other things for the Salon project like ordering samples, color matching wall covering, and finding different floor options. 

On site photo shoot at Synergy.Deborah and I were on site at Synergy, one of LDG’s most recent projects, all day Thursday. We had a shoot with the lovely photographer, Denise Retallack, who also shot our office. Deborah and I spent a lot of the day staging different areas of Synergy and directing Denise. I also ran errands to get lunch as well as some items to stage the kitchen with. Overall, I think we had a really successful shoot and look forward to seeing the photos next week. 

This Week’s Focus:

This week the focus is on legal recognition for the profession; professional design organizations, licensing, registration, continuing education, community service, and professional ethics. Dani was nice enough to go over these things with me.

Downloading Steelcase furniture symbol library. Lauderdale Design group values many professional organizations in town. LDG’s most valued are AIA (American Institute of Architects) and USGBC (United States Green Building Council) because they meet and connect with designers through these organizations the most and are actively involved with both. Lauderdale Design Group’s business model is through the acquisition of work from architects. AIA is the best source for LDG to do this. Lauderdale coordinates with many allied professions such as architecture, engineering, furniture dealerships, and the construction industry. As registered Interior Designers, the staff of LDG must actively pursue knowledge and advancement in the industry. To do that, the designers attend CEU (Continuing Education Unit) courses and green building courses to keep their licenses as NCIDQ and LEED certified professionals. And the designers are NCIDQ and LEED AP ID+C certified. 

Lauderdale Design Group loves being involved in community service. Their biggest endeavor is to support Knoxville’s design and art scene. LDG hosts First Fridays at their office and is involved with Knoxville’s Pechakucha. They also planned 2012’s USGBC Green Light Awards Banquet which recognized sustainable work and practitioners in Knoxville.  

An example of conflicts that occur during a project is scope! Lauderdale Design Group often gets asked to perform work that is not in their scope (their original contract agreement). They are willing to do the work, but only if the client agrees to this as an additional service. For LDG, professional ethics ensures that the environment created for a client is one that is made through honest endeavor and intent from the designer. For instance, LDG does not sell furniture because they want their client to know they have an unbiased approach to what they specify. 

This Week’s Introduction:

Deborah Presson, Design DirectorThis week I am introducing the Lauderdale Design Group Design Director and my supervisor, Deborah Presson. Deborah graduated from UT in 2001. She had done her school internship with Gresham Smith and Partners and secured a permanent job working for their Nashville office after graduation. She worked there for 3 years before moving to their Charlotte office and continuing working with them for 2 years before being recruited by Gensler. She took their offer and went on to work for Gensler for the next 6.5 years. Her husband decided to take his dream job here in Knoxville so she started her job search. She met Joy at Neocon and was offered a job when she made the move to Knoxville. Deb has been working for Lauderdale for 2 years. She has a 4 year old son named Bryson. Luckily she has family in town who helps take care of him when he is not in daycare 2 days a week, or she is not at home. Deborah works Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday so she loves to spend her free time painting, boating, playing with Bryson, swimming, hanging out with friends, jogging, and biking.  just built a house featured in creative homes, biking. Deb and her husband just completed building their home in October and have been featured in Creative Homes. Deborah is such an inspiration to work with and I look forward to continuing to gain knowledge through her. 

Week 2: Communication is Key

This Weeks Activities: 

This week Lauderdale Design Group returned from Neocon. When everyone got back to the office on Wednesday they were buzzing with excitement, but also exhausted from their long weekend. It was really fun for me to listen to Joy, Deborah, and Dani talk about all the new products they saw, all the people they met, the designers they reconnected with, and the overall craziness that is Neocon. I loved hearing about it and hope to go in the future! Dani and Deborah were downloading all the pictures of the new products they received onto their computers and talking about how they could apply them to their current and future projects.

Working in autocad corporate project.When I came into work on Wednesday I had to set my computer back up. Last week a professional photographer came to the office and photographed our workstations, so my computer had to be taken down. Once my computer was up in running I had quite a few emails to respond to. I also needed to call back the Gerflor (cushion back flooring) representative about some samples being sent for the Salon project. I also ordered some more wall covering samples that could possibly be used for the salon. Deborah had me work in autocad to fix all the conference rooms on the corporate project. This was great because autocad is one of my favorite programs to use, and one I know well. 

The rest of my day was filled with ordering samples for the ResidenceList of materials used in Residence Hall. Hall project. I ordered 2 more of each of the samples used in the residence hall so that I could make material boards. It came to be a total of 79 different materials used in the project, and I had to order them from 42 different representatives. I had little experience in ordering samples before that day, and let me tell you, it is HARD. Many of the times I would talk to two or three different people before I would talk to the person that actually could order the samples for us. Also- I learned that you have to be aggressive with ordering samples or else you will end up on the phone for twice as long as you need to be. Some of the manufacturers will ask you a million questions about why you need the product and about the project your using it for. Deborah told me I don’t have to answer all their questions and that I just need to firmly ask for them.

Working in photoshop on diagrams for the athletic offices.Coming back from the break, exhausted or not, LDG had a deadline to meet. On Thursday they had a meeting to do the athletic office presentation. Dani worked to put the presentation together all morning while I helped by doing all the photoshop work. I took the plans and created multiple different diagrams that could clearly show which furniture was new and what was existing, as well as four different scheme’s that could be used successfully. I really enjoyed working in photoshop and hope to do some more in the future, I was able to quickly and efficiently work on what Dani gave me and get it back to her ASAP, since we were running on a deadline. 

This week I did some more filing away of samples. We have more fabric samples than we have room in our

Scaled office plans we revised on each of the UT Music Building project doors. materials library for and are receiving even more daily. I also had 2 site visits with Dani to the UT Music Building. This week all of the systems furniture was being delivered and staged. The first site visit Dani and I met with one of the Knoll representatives responsible for our install and did some measuring to insure that every workstation would have the proper outlets. The second site visit Dani and I went through all the rooms we didn’t get to the day before and did more measuring. There had been tape on the walls to show how the workstation were to be placed, but because it was falling off, and some of the outlets were not where they should be, we had to recalculate their location. Each door had a cad drawing showing how the workstation would look in each room and we went through and edited them. Dani said that it is not usually so complicated, but because the workstation are not floating, and our secured to the walls, a lot more thought must go into it. 

This Week’s Focus:

This week I focused on learning about the design phases LDG uses and how they organize their projects. Dani helped me learn about this.

LDG Design Phases

1. Schematic Design- this first phase consists of coming up with an overall concept for the project, finding precedents that can be used, coming up with the game plan on how to tackle the project, and overall rough development of the project. 
2. Design Development- during the design development phase the conceptual and rough developments are materialized into autocad drawings, material selections, finish selections, and furniture selections. The design of the project is completed and awaits approval.
3. Construction Documents- During this phase, the design has been approved and now detailed construction documents are prepared, bid packages are put together, and procurement of FF&E is completed. 
4. Contract Administration- At this phase you continue to monitor the project and make sure that everything is running smoothly. You go on site visits and prepare for installation. You also have your additional services at this point, which means that the things that pop up that were unexpected, become you job. This is basically when the design is outside your scope.  

LDG knows that communication is key in a successful project. Throughout the entire process they are communicating via phone, email, and text with the clients, architects, engineers, project managers, etc. During every design phase a meeting is held with the client for approval. Also, throughout the process meetings are held with the architects and project managers. LDG coordinates with the project manager to create a schedule that gives a timeline for deadlines to be completed. 

LDG organizes all their projects digitally in their computer database. An example of how they organize their folders is like this: storage>projects>ut> within that folder are a list of all LDG’s projects for UT. And then within a certain project folder there will be folders for archives, bid docs, correspondence, issued, working, ff&e, cad, photos, proposals, etc. 

This Week’s Introduction:

Dani Collins, Designer, LDGThis week I am introducing you to Dani Collins. She graduated from UT’s interior design program two years ago and has been working at Lauderdale Design group ever since! She started out as a design intern and was then offered a job upon her graduation. Dani had quite a few different internships throughout school. She worked with HBA, UTK, HGTV, and also had a graphic design internship. She is very good at graphic design and designed all of LDG’s graphics. Dani is so fun to work with and it never ceases to amaze me how much knowledge she has so fresh out of college. She is very funny, always keeps things positive, and loves the Knoxville design community. Her favorite past times are running, hanging out with friends, and experiencing fun new eateries. She is at Bonnaroo this weekend and I can’t wait to hear some stories when she returns!

Week 1: Design Immersion

This week I started as a interior design intern at Lauderdale Design Group. My first week went really well and I am excited to further get to know the team and learn from them. It is a small firm and I immediately felt like I was a part of the team and given tasks. Lauderdale Design Group does an array of different commercial design projects ranging from higher education, corporate, financial, healthcare, hospitality, and more. The design services LDG offers consist of conceptual design, programming, space planning, interior detailing, lighting design, as built documentation, and ff&e specifications.   

UT Music Building pre walk-through meeting.My first day was a very exciting and quite a learning experience. When I first got there the team had a office meeting discussing projects and progress. Dani, a former UTK grad and designer at LDG, gave me my first assignment. I used my indesign and graphic skills to create a thank-you card and envelopes based on the graphics Lauderdale Design Group has already established on their business cards. I also spent a great deal of time filing samples in their material library. This will be a on going task I will perform as samples need to be put back. I got the great opportunity to tag along with Dani and Joy (LDG owner) on a site visit to the UT Music Building Project and do a walk through with UT’s architect and interior design team. We went through all the offices that would house desks to make sure their location was outlined correctly.

UT Music Building walk-through.

 The following day I went through the working documents for the UT Music Building and documented how many layers of gyp were on the walls that desks were against to send to Knoll so that when they install, they know what screws to use. I continued filing materials in the library as well. Because their was a client presentation with 2 different options given for the Salon Project, I put away the materials not chosen. Then I worked on the Salon Project and ordered different laminate samples. I also pulled paint colors that match the multiple vinyl wall coverings for the same project as well as pulled precedent photos.

This week I also did some work in autocad space blocking lateral files for the UT Music Building Project’s basement library. These were sent to the architect. I was invited by the team to go to lunch with Nels, the Mannington product representative. When we got back I did some scanning and digital filing. I also spent some time online finding vibrant and fun wall coverings for the Salon Project and ordering those. 

The company consists of a team of three women. Joy Lauderdale, the owner and Principle of the firm, Deborah Presson, the Design director and my supervisor, and Dani Collins, Designer. Lauderdale Design Group also has a administrative assistant and general go to girl, Cathy, and a design intern. LDG is a sole proprietorship business entity. Please review the chart for a clearer understanding of the organizational structure within the company. 

Joy Lauderdale This week I am introducing Joy Lauderdale, the owner and Principle of Lauderdale Design Group. Joy has been in the field for 24 years and is well known in the South-east interior design community. Joy has a vibrant personality and a positive attitude that is infectious. She has been great to work with and I look forward to getting to know her further. She really cares about her team and clients, and the work LDG produces radiate that perspective. She makes everyone laugh and has the great ability to make people feel at ease.