How to Nurture A Career in Design

“There’s a big difference between being an interior designer and being a business person.” So said designer Clare Gaskin, speaking as part of one of London Design Week 2022’s Grow Your Business sessions. This part of the events programme has grown in size and stature recently, and having proved their popularity at previous shows, even more sessions have been added this spring.

There is clearly a hunger for knowledge about all stages of a designer’s work – from what you need to think about when just starting out, to finding your niche, working with suppliers and contractors, and when the time is right to expand and take on staff for the first time. Clare Gaskin (whose work is pictured in the cover image) was speaking as part of a Conversations in Design talk on diversity, hosted by?Livingetc’s Pip Rich and sitting alongside fellow panel members Alexandria Dauley of Dauley Design (and co-founder of United in Design) and Isaac Nwaku, designer and United in Design apprentice. She says that when she started out “I didn’t have a business plan, or a business coach – although I do now” – but she was also lucky enough to secure her first commission while she was still studying, “and often, it’s that first project, that first leap. After that, it’s easier to do the next project.”

Dauley, meanwhile, started out by “working for friends, family, mums at the school gate…and then I advertised where I thought my idea client was sitting – Facebook, Mumsnet. A lot has been repeat business and referrals.” It can be frustrating when you need a portfolio and references to pick up new work – but you can’t create that portfolio until you can get that first job. Dauley’s advice was to create moodboards, teach yourself SketchUp to design rooms virtually, and “just put your personality out there – people buy people, in the end, as well as your design style.”

Being confident in your abilities recurred as a defining theme in interior designer Evey Dunbavin-Hands’ session on running a successful interior design business; Dunbavin-Hands is the founder of Hands-on Design as well as a tutor at the KLC School of Design, and her 20 years of experience showed in every word of her talk to a packed audience in the Arte showroom. “I am an ambassador for my company, and first impressions really count,” she said. “Coming across with confidence is what takes you forward. It’s a hefty job and it needs someone experienced. We have a value: don’t underestimate that.”

Dunbavin-Hands took the audience on a whistle-stop tour of how she runs her business in a streamlined, professional manner, speaking about everything from working out budgets (and how to handle situations where a client’s budget doesn’t meet their ambitions), calculating fees, drawing up a scope of works and when to take on the additional responsibility of project coordination. Her tips included putting together moodboards of different styles, so that clients who are unable to articulate what they like – the difference between a Shaker kitchen and a contemporary kitchen, for example – have the visual tools to communicate.

She also spoke about the importance of putting together a great team of people around you. “Build up your supplier base so they are ready to go when you are. Start looking for people in your down-time – builders, decorators, upholsterers, surveyors, structural engineers. You’re going to need these people.” This was echoed by Clare Gaskin and Alexandria Dauley, who both placed a high value on surrounding yourself with talent. “The most important thing is to get the right team, because being able to deliver the job to a high standard is the priority,” says Dauley. “Also, know that you can’t do everything yourself – do what you do really well, then outsource. Know your limitations and get in the experts.”

A further Grow Your Business session in association with the BIID focused on goal-setting for business growth, with Susie Rumbold, founder of Tessuto Interiors, Matteo Bianchi of Matteo Bianchi Studio and Dee Gibson of Velvet Orange. Together, these essential elements of the London Design Week 2020 programme helped interior designers nurture their talents and have the confidence to take things to the next level – whatever stage of their career in which they find themselves.