How “Defensible Interior Design” Can Help Your Business During Tough Times
The concept of “defensible design” was introduced to me in landscape architecture grad school. The context my professor was getting at was that it no longer flies to just come up with a design without being able to justify the decisions behind it.
The example she used of what would “no longer fly" was a former professor who when seeking design inspiration for a new project, would pour himself a tall glass of scotch and start thumbing through art books. Then he would start to draw and eventually come up with a conceptual design.
We were put on notice early on that this type of conceptual design, aka a “pretty design” alone wasn't gonna make the cut. In other words it couldn't be a design for design’s sake.
Environmental, civic, and other stakeholder needs had to be incorporated into any “design vision” and you better be able to defend how your design serves those needs. Otherwise you might find yourself on the receiving end of a skewering during a public critique that regularly included outside stakeholders! (Talk about motivating - never did all nighters until design school!)
So if public projects like parks need to be “defensible designs” demonstrating that they serve the needs the public, then the same is true of residential design.
I don’t mean to state the obvious since of course, we all do our utmost best to serve the needs of our clients. I'm just suggesting it may be time to take a sharpened approach.
Defensible design for residential work
Those of us in the home design business in the U.S. are well aware that as interest rates have climbed, the economy has slowed, budgets have tightened, and we've seen a slowdown as a result.
Part of our job as designers is to be aware of these macro-factors and to step up and respond accordingly. We also need to communicate our awareness to our clients.
With current projects, many clients are more attuned to how their design budget is being spent than during 2019 or even during the pandemic. The client that may not have questioned choices back then may now seem like they’re peering over your shoulder, examining and questioning every line item.
Is this frustrating and stressful? You bet. Nobody likes having their work questioned. After all, they hired us for our expertise, right? And yes, interior design is a luxury service; it’s not within reach of everyone.
What I am suggesting though is that there may be a silver lining to these tougher times - one that may make us better designers in the end.
Being faced with tighter budgets and clients who are asking for more design and purchasing decision justification forces us to look at things anew.
While it's not fun in the moment, sometimes when I’ve been faced with this, I eventually get kind of excited about having to go back to the drawing board and look at something in a different way. When I come up with a new solution that works, I'm feeling pretty pleased with myself that I was able to work through the constraint.
Here's a personal example: just before my ex husband and I separated, we had a full set of plans drawn up by an architect for a major remodel. Needless to say, the remodel didn't happen. Later, a contractor friend looked at the plans and commented that while the design was great, it definitely wasn't budget conscious. Lots of walls had to be moved for instance.
Since that original budget was no longer an option, I busted out my trace paper and sketched out ideas until 2:00 AM one night. Then I hopped on to AutoCAD the next day and started redrawing. In the end I came up with new layouts that still served my family's needs but would not require the same kind of budget as the original plan set. (And yes I patted myself on the back.)
Interior design marketing tips for tougher times
For many of us, getting new projects now is more difficult than it was in the recent past, so let's channel our defensible design skills into our marketing approach as well.
When you're on that discovery call or doing the initial on site visit, I would absolutely speak to the fact that you’re aware the economy is different than before, and emphasize that you take the client's budget very seriously - from the conceptual design itself through furnishings and accessory purchases.
Addressing this subject will go over great no matter what economy we’re in, but demonstrating an awareness of the situation and a willingness to deal with it head-on may be the edge that gets you hired over someone else who either doesn’t address it or perhaps gives the impression that budgets are just a guideline.
In marketing, this is called handling objections before they’re raised. Part of the job of selling your services is to address potential objections up front before the client has the chance so their concerns are put to bed early on. It helps remove mental barriers to moving forward with hiring you or purchasing.
The economy is in a different place than before, and that can have real consequences to our business and livelihoods. Nobody knows how long it will last but what we do know it won’t last forever.
Meanwhile, we may not like it, but we can control our response to it. Sharpening our defensible design skills makes us better designers for it, and using them in our marketing approach can make us more profitable designers for it.
What's the state of the design industry in your neck of the woods? Have you experienced slowdowns, delays, or budget cuts in projects lately?
[This was my weekly newsletter about the business of home design that morphed into a blog post. Again. Join us in Scaled Up Studio Notes so you never miss a thing.]
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