High End Residential Designers' Insight

I had the pleasure to sit for a Q&A with Wendi Young, Errol de Jager, and Michael Fullen. They had some great stories about bidding for the same jobs and comparing bids afterwards. It was a great reminder that community over competition is always best. 

Here are some highlights from the conversation:

• Don’t shop with your wallet

• Don’t be intimidated by your client’s wealth 

• Design fee includes a set number of hours. After that number is met, they charge hourly.

• Listen. But, don’t shy away from leading them into another direction. They hired you for your ideas

• Get them from fear to love

• Show them a rendering and ask them “what would you like to cut off the budget?” It’s likely they will fall in love and want to cut nothing.

I was intrigued by Errol’s process. Note, most of his projects are new construction. At his firm, there’s no such thing as a conceptual design presentation. He presents the complete design to the client in virtual reality! For that to happen, every single ff&e spec has to be selected. When the client is in absolute awe after the presentation, they typically approve everything right away.  Approvals are done directly on 3D Max. Then they proceed to construction documents. 

Ah so good! All the talks at the Design Biz Retreat were very valuable and I was excited to share with you. If you ever decide to go and want company, let me know!