Jamie Ivey is always experimenting – with her process, her clients and her style.
With a background in industrial engineering and interior design from Virginia Tech, the founder and creative director of Virginia-based Ivey Design Group, approaches design with technical precision and a keen instinct for modern luxury which she honed in her experience designing offices and hospitality spaces, restaurants, hotels and yachts before finding her true calling in residential design.
This week on Disruptive Design, Ivey shares her perspective on finding what makes a design exciting, the struggle to find the right sofa, rebelling against Instagram-inspired interiors and how to earn a client’s trust one room at a time. Watch the full interview by clicking play on the video below or read on for the highlights from our discussion.
Exploring abroad to avoid homogeneity
Travel is inspiring to everyone, but Ivey gets more specific. She loves visiting old cities that have evolved to accommodate modern lifestyles. She draws influence from European cities like Paris and Milan, where inhabitants are forced to reckon with centuries old buildings, their homes juxtaposing the historic architecture with modern furniture.
She is drawn to the way inhabitants of European cities are more accustomed to aesthetic experimentation than here in the states. American instincts, she says, tend to be more literal (traditional furniture in traditional houses, modern furniture in modern houses, etc), but Ivey says these homeowners are missing out on the dynamic tension that contrast creates.
This is also a great way to avoid homogeneity. Isn’t it funny how we have imagery of the entire world at our fingertips and yet the ubiquity of Pinterest and Instagram has led to a flood of similar-looking interiors?
To keep projects fresh, Ivey says we should focus on creating unexpected elements that clients simply cannot replicate from social media or would not think to do themselves (Although sometimes getting them there can be a challenge – One that Ivey says there is no shortcut to. You have to continue to nudge the client to see your vision one design element, or one room at a time).
The right client is the realistic one
Many designers prefer to only take on projects of a certain scope – full service, design-build, for example. But instead of setting a rigid minimum budget or project scope, Ivey prioritizes personality fit and realistic expectations. A single room with a healthy budget can be more creatively fulfilling than an under-budgeted whole-home project, afterall; not to mention: a better asset in your portfolio to market yourself to the next potential client.
You have to trust your process
After you’ve been designing for a while, you have to trust your process. There is a reason you do things your way and you have to get comfortable telling clients no and turning people away. If a project doesn’t feel like a good fit, it probably isn’t.
Many designers can relate to the experience of compromising on their process to appease a client who thinks they know better or can’t afford full service, which always leads to subpar results and more work for the designer.
Ivey shares her experience with clients who only hire a designer for initial ideas but then attempt to execute things themselves, who later return with problems. Without the designer’s full involvement, the designer loses creative control, resulting in mismatched elements and last-minute emergencies. The designer becomes a glorified personal shopper.
Finding your design niche (and staying in your lane)
When you go into business for yourself as a creative, there are some steep learning curves. But one Ivey hopes you will not have to learn for yourself is this: Hiring financial experts and using solid contracts from the start will prevent avoidable, costly issues.
Many emerging designers try to handle bookkeeping and accounting themselves, which is a mistake.Stay in your lane and outsource the rest. It is advice that is always easier dealt than heeded but it’ll eliminate lots of headaches as your business grows and evolves.
Some things, though, you have to learn for yourself through trial and error. Experimenting with everything is the only way to find your design niche, Ivey says. She worked in corporate, hospitality and multi-family design before dipping her toes into full-service residential work and realizing that was the best fit for her sensibilities.
Experimentation and discovery
Many designers want to get into product design but don’t know where to start. Ivey hopes to one day soon bring her casegoods collection to market. Why casegoods? She arrived at that conclusion based on exploring the following three points:
1. What her design client’s needs are.
2. What should couldn’t find in the market and had to produce custom for her clients anyways .(sofas with precise dimensions and consoles that fit behind and wrap around those sofas, for example)
3. What she loved to create.
Even if your design dreams do not include a line of your own, those three points are ripe for excavation to carve out your unique niche in the industry, as Jamie Ivey has done, to create a business and client experience that is truly one of one. | To learn more about Jamie Ivey and Ivey Design Group visit them online.
