For those of you who were waiting patiently for the rest of my report her eat my internship, wait no longer!!!!! I am going to update you all as much as I can without overloading you. This post and probably one more will be about week two in its entirety! So let's get started.
The second week started off with a lot of pricing and preparation. The two teams had a proposal with separate clients and they needed the clients information and all of their proposal sheets done and in time to the clients before Friday. During the week, I was responsible for several duties. First, we had to pull a lot of spec sheets and pretty pictures. This also meant that all of the pictures and spec sheets had to be placed in a binder for us to look at and evaluate and the client got to look through those sheets and decide whether or not they wanted what we spec-ed.
One client was coming in and she had one idea in her head that we had to match, but then after sitting in the client meeting, I realized that she wasn't quite sure what she wanted to accomplish in her room, but after taking her through some of the materials library she focused in on a theme and we were able to get her on the right path to her vision.
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Days 4 & 5: Fun Project time!
Thursday and Friday was really fun because I was assigned a project of my own. I got to pick out my own materials and fabrics for a project. It was really fun to be given that task instead of pricing furniture and scanning pictures and boring stuff. Not that everything is boring. It's a learning process and slightly tedious but hey, that is what happens when you are an intern and it is your first week lol.
But I was able to select the entire bedding and paint swatches for the kitchen/ sitting room of this ladies condo. They had this unique tile/backsplash that was going all throughout the kitchen and I had to select fabrics that correlated with the tile. I have to say that color coordination is my forte in residential projects. I think that everyone has said that I have a good eye for color. I will post pictures of the final selections later...so make sure to check back for updates.
It is different being at a residential firm. I thought I would not like residential at all but I kind of like the firm. I have not dabbled at all in commercial project quite yet but I am sure that they will have a few projects going. One thing that is very common in this firm is that they are always sending out proposals for different clients that need to be finished. Most Fridays, they are scrambling to make sure that all the components that are needed for the proposals are together.
I think, I am not sure that I wrote about it yet but I have done a board. UHHH I am not a fan of the boards. They do look good when they are completed. I think I don't quite like them because I haven't really done any at Ai. The coolest thing is ordering the samples of the fabrics and having them come in and touch and feel the samples for ourselves instead of staring at a screen. They were shocked to know that I did eveything on 11 x 17 prints and not 2 x 3 boards. Haha I never realized how many colleges do things on boards. But hey, c'est la vie!
I am going to get back to work, because technically today is Friday of week 2 but I haven't been catching up with my day to days. Don't worry though, I have written every day down so I'll go back and update soon! This weekend actually! I also have some good news that will be revealed later....hmmm dontcha wanna know?? Check back later :)
But I was able to select the entire bedding and paint swatches for the kitchen/ sitting room of this ladies condo. They had this unique tile/backsplash that was going all throughout the kitchen and I had to select fabrics that correlated with the tile. I have to say that color coordination is my forte in residential projects. I think that everyone has said that I have a good eye for color. I will post pictures of the final selections later...so make sure to check back for updates.
It is different being at a residential firm. I thought I would not like residential at all but I kind of like the firm. I have not dabbled at all in commercial project quite yet but I am sure that they will have a few projects going. One thing that is very common in this firm is that they are always sending out proposals for different clients that need to be finished. Most Fridays, they are scrambling to make sure that all the components that are needed for the proposals are together.
I think, I am not sure that I wrote about it yet but I have done a board. UHHH I am not a fan of the boards. They do look good when they are completed. I think I don't quite like them because I haven't really done any at Ai. The coolest thing is ordering the samples of the fabrics and having them come in and touch and feel the samples for ourselves instead of staring at a screen. They were shocked to know that I did eveything on 11 x 17 prints and not 2 x 3 boards. Haha I never realized how many colleges do things on boards. But hey, c'est la vie!
I am going to get back to work, because technically today is Friday of week 2 but I haven't been catching up with my day to days. Don't worry though, I have written every day down so I'll go back and update soon! This weekend actually! I also have some good news that will be revealed later....hmmm dontcha wanna know?? Check back later :)
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Day 3: You can only go as fast as your eyes will scan...
Wednesday = Hump Day...middle of the week& the time that everything seems to happen!
Today was a busy day as well. Lots to do and complete but not a whole lot of time to do it in. The first thing that I did was an Appliance Spec Book, similar to the ones for Commercials but at the same time a little bit different. You had to pull several appliances from the manufacturer's website and make sure that they were all available and then print the specifications for each appliance. No biggie.
Next, we had to put together a clients binder with all the electrical plans, the cabinetry detail, plumming, materials etc in an oganized binder for everyone who was working on the project. That was interesting to see how a customer's completed project comes together.
After that was completed, I did price sheets again. Pricing comes a lot easier now that I have a general idea of how everything works together, for the most part anyways. It's easy to recognize some of the furniture just by looking at the pictures. That is cool because I feel like I am becoming a small part of the firm...little teeny weeny haha.
We broke for lunch and then after lunch came back with scans and copies of room options for a client. That was interesting because clients have different tastes and visions than the designers, so we had to find a compromising position to let the client choose from. She liked our choices and then was able to come back with a final decision on the furniture we selected.
Next, I worked on some Custom Cabinetry requests. Those were hard because the customer wanted a specific style and specific way of these materials and we were not able to find right away a manufacturere that could do it..but a little hunting around and we did! It was fun and it was a little challenge at the same time which I liked.
Today I also received word about a special project that I would work on Friday so I will let you guys know how that goes :)
Today was a busy day as well. Lots to do and complete but not a whole lot of time to do it in. The first thing that I did was an Appliance Spec Book, similar to the ones for Commercials but at the same time a little bit different. You had to pull several appliances from the manufacturer's website and make sure that they were all available and then print the specifications for each appliance. No biggie.
Next, we had to put together a clients binder with all the electrical plans, the cabinetry detail, plumming, materials etc in an oganized binder for everyone who was working on the project. That was interesting to see how a customer's completed project comes together.
After that was completed, I did price sheets again. Pricing comes a lot easier now that I have a general idea of how everything works together, for the most part anyways. It's easy to recognize some of the furniture just by looking at the pictures. That is cool because I feel like I am becoming a small part of the firm...little teeny weeny haha.
We broke for lunch and then after lunch came back with scans and copies of room options for a client. That was interesting because clients have different tastes and visions than the designers, so we had to find a compromising position to let the client choose from. She liked our choices and then was able to come back with a final decision on the furniture we selected.
Next, I worked on some Custom Cabinetry requests. Those were hard because the customer wanted a specific style and specific way of these materials and we were not able to find right away a manufacturere that could do it..but a little hunting around and we did! It was fun and it was a little challenge at the same time which I liked.
Today I also received word about a special project that I would work on Friday so I will let you guys know how that goes :)
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Day Two: Busier than a worker bee!
My second day at my internship has come to a close. I cannot believe all the things that were done today and yet still there was not a huge chunk crossed off the "to do" list. A lot of the things that we have been taught in school were certainly applied to the workplace. Today was a bit different than yesterday and I will explain it below :)
So when I arrived at the internship today, I was ready to get everything started. They decided that every other day I would either be working with the team leader Jody or team leader Renee. Yesterday was Jody so this morning I expected Renee. She wasn't there when I fir
st arrived so I talked to Jody and of course her team had several things that they needed finished. I started with pricing again today and this time I was a bit more skilled than last time, so I finished that job quickly!
Then after pricing books i went back to Renee's team and they needed me to put away all the samples they already used back to the library. Now mind you I figured that shouldn't be to difficult of a task, just put away a few little samples here and once I figure out the organization it will be easy peasy lemon sque
ezy...boy WAS I WRONG..because once you encounter this...all the textiles suddenly look that much larger and you feel soo much smaller. I took a breath and after about 5 minutes of midless searching i went to see teh textile library manager. she looked at all the information I had in my box and shook her head. She organized everything into piles and gave me the 411 on the textiles. I slowly got the hang of it. So when I saw the textiles all labeled out, I was able to organize them back into smaller more managble piles. That entire task of putting and organizing things took me about oh an hour or so. It was coming up on lunch so I figured hey let me get as much done and completed before lunch so that I can figure out my next task. Joanna had ordered some textile samples and they were not in yet. In order to complete the project, the samples had to be ordered. So I took on the task of ordering samples. We had to find the color, number and exactly how big of a sample you wanted. Then you had to fax all of that information over to the company. Here is a photo of that ordering process.
and then of course, the forms to order the samples in:
You basically find all the information on the in house sample and FYI all the stuff we learn in textiles, like the tests performed on the fabrics are all listed on the fabric samples. As well as other information related to the fabric such as the return and how ma
ny yards are used on each fabric. So that was pretty neat to learn.
Next, Jody had me do another project. One of her clients was reupholstering some sofas and chairs in her home. So in order to do a price point and let the customer know how much that project was going to cost, you fill out a form for reupholsteries and send them to to Fabric Manager. We had to know the material, how much was needed and the dimensions. There was also a photo of the old chair with dimensions and these chairs
were put into the form so the fabric guy knew how to figure out the finalized prices.
After that was lunch and we get an hour off from work so me and one of the other interns Suzanne went to Panera. soo yummy! we reached back and got to work on some more projects which were catagorizing
final selections for the clients into binders, and making sure that everything was organized.
The final project that we did today was with the same client making sure that all the information that she selected was correct and in order. we sat with a master list and cross referenced everything! that took forever but it was well worth it. I love working in that space and ill post the rest of those pictures so everyone can see some of the space I am working at!
So when I arrived at the internship today, I was ready to get everything started. They decided that every other day I would either be working with the team leader Jody or team leader Renee. Yesterday was Jody so this morning I expected Renee. She wasn't there when I fir
st arrived so I talked to Jody and of course her team had several things that they needed finished. I started with pricing again today and this time I was a bit more skilled than last time, so I finished that job quickly!Then after pricing books i went back to Renee's team and they needed me to put away all the samples they already used back to the library. Now mind you I figured that shouldn't be to difficult of a task, just put away a few little samples here and once I figure out the organization it will be easy peasy lemon sque
ezy...boy WAS I WRONG..because once you encounter this...all the textiles suddenly look that much larger and you feel soo much smaller. I took a breath and after about 5 minutes of midless searching i went to see teh textile library manager. she looked at all the information I had in my box and shook her head. She organized everything into piles and gave me the 411 on the textiles. I slowly got the hang of it. So when I saw the textiles all labeled out, I was able to organize them back into smaller more managble piles. That entire task of putting and organizing things took me about oh an hour or so. It was coming up on lunch so I figured hey let me get as much done and completed before lunch so that I can figure out my next task. Joanna had ordered some textile samples and they were not in yet. In order to complete the project, the samples had to be ordered. So I took on the task of ordering samples. We had to find the color, number and exactly how big of a sample you wanted. Then you had to fax all of that information over to the company. Here is a photo of that ordering process.
and then of course, the forms to order the samples in:You basically find all the information on the in house sample and FYI all the stuff we learn in textiles, like the tests performed on the fabrics are all listed on the fabric samples. As well as other information related to the fabric such as the return and how ma
ny yards are used on each fabric. So that was pretty neat to learn.Next, Jody had me do another project. One of her clients was reupholstering some sofas and chairs in her home. So in order to do a price point and let the customer know how much that project was going to cost, you fill out a form for reupholsteries and send them to to Fabric Manager. We had to know the material, how much was needed and the dimensions. There was also a photo of the old chair with dimensions and these chairs
were put into the form so the fabric guy knew how to figure out the finalized prices.After that was lunch and we get an hour off from work so me and one of the other interns Suzanne went to Panera. soo yummy! we reached back and got to work on some more projects which were catagorizing
final selections for the clients into binders, and making sure that everything was organized.The final project that we did today was with the same client making sure that all the information that she selected was correct and in order. we sat with a master list and cross referenced everything! that took forever but it was well worth it. I love working in that space and ill post the rest of those pictures so everyone can see some of the space I am working at!
Monday, June 20, 2011
Internship at Collins-DuPont Interior Design Day 1
Sorry for my being away for awhile...I had finals and a lot of other school related things to deal with while I waited for this moment to begin! I am starting my internship and today actually was my first day. I am still sitting here at work. have just about a little less than two hours left til I go home for the day but I thought I would stop by really quickly and let you in on my first day here...
DAY ONE:
I got here a little bit before 8:30 and they were here already welcoming me. I got a tour of the entire firm and met the other owner Sherri DuPont. I met the team leaders and the other team members. They put me to work right away and I started by getting pricing for furniture selections for one of the women on the team. That involved scanning and printing and stapling. Let me just say that was confusing in and of itself for the first few imputs. I was at a loss because I was unsure of the oganization, but a few minutes later I figured it out. That took about 2 hours to complete (mainly due to my lack of not knowing the way of the pricing books)
After that little task, I was able to start on the actual project. My leader Jody (who is pretty cool I might add!) gave me 10000000 things at once. My brain worked into super overtime trying to figure everything she just told me! I started with taking each textile and calling the manufacturer and asking for the price per yard and the amount of yardage they had in stock. Trust, I was nervous to call at first but the people on the other side of the phone knew exactly what I was looking for and in no time I was already completed.
My next task was to also get the images (thank you trusty Google Image Search) of all the furniture that I previously spec-ed out and copy them to folders. Finally, I got the paint wall selections and made sure that they all lined up according to the customers selections.
YEAHHHH! So far so good. I am just lounging now because my team is in a meeting. I have met soo many people, I don't quite remember names..but faces! Also I met another intern, Jennifer, from UF! (Hi Jenn) She is nice too. My favorite employee so far is Carol Garcia..she has this awesome laugh! And lots of candy to go around. She has random outbursts like we do in the ID lab so that is fun. Also, AVA if you read this, there is a girl here JUST LIKE YOU! Laughs the same, talks the same, its funny. So It's like I never left you guys. But I miss everyone!!!
Alright I am done with journal entry one for now. Because, there is nothing left to write. Except I went to Publix for lunch. Got some chicken (shout out to Panda) and sweet tea lol.
Later friends!
[db]
DAY ONE:
I got here a little bit before 8:30 and they were here already welcoming me. I got a tour of the entire firm and met the other owner Sherri DuPont. I met the team leaders and the other team members. They put me to work right away and I started by getting pricing for furniture selections for one of the women on the team. That involved scanning and printing and stapling. Let me just say that was confusing in and of itself for the first few imputs. I was at a loss because I was unsure of the oganization, but a few minutes later I figured it out. That took about 2 hours to complete (mainly due to my lack of not knowing the way of the pricing books)
After that little task, I was able to start on the actual project. My leader Jody (who is pretty cool I might add!) gave me 10000000 things at once. My brain worked into super overtime trying to figure everything she just told me! I started with taking each textile and calling the manufacturer and asking for the price per yard and the amount of yardage they had in stock. Trust, I was nervous to call at first but the people on the other side of the phone knew exactly what I was looking for and in no time I was already completed.
My next task was to also get the images (thank you trusty Google Image Search) of all the furniture that I previously spec-ed out and copy them to folders. Finally, I got the paint wall selections and made sure that they all lined up according to the customers selections.
YEAHHHH! So far so good. I am just lounging now because my team is in a meeting. I have met soo many people, I don't quite remember names..but faces! Also I met another intern, Jennifer, from UF! (Hi Jenn) She is nice too. My favorite employee so far is Carol Garcia..she has this awesome laugh! And lots of candy to go around. She has random outbursts like we do in the ID lab so that is fun. Also, AVA if you read this, there is a girl here JUST LIKE YOU! Laughs the same, talks the same, its funny. So It's like I never left you guys. But I miss everyone!!!
Alright I am done with journal entry one for now. Because, there is nothing left to write. Except I went to Publix for lunch. Got some chicken (shout out to Panda) and sweet tea lol.
Later friends!
[db]
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Where do we go from here? HB5005
Its a new quarter at Ai. With that new quarter comes new regulations and new material to learn. Also with the new quarter comes the new Bill HB5005 that is now going to the House of Representatives this week. (Today in fact.)
This amendment, which was proposed by the Democrats, wants to still pass the House Bill, but REMOVE Interior Design from the list, which is a great thing. The only problem with this is that the House has to vote in a majority that passes the amendment along with the Bill. Which might be a close battle seeing as many of the people that are voting do not fully understand nor grasp the concept of what Interior Design really is! In fact, I pray that all the letters that we sent out and all the emails, calls, and visits from people who are in the profession and support Interior Design DO in fact sway the vote and we can indeed record a VICTORY in our favor.
Please don't think that your voice doesn't count towards anything. It does in fact and without support from others, these things will not come to pass.
You can follow the journey of this Bill and Amendment here.
My classmate and friend Gabriella Bosnyak has written an excellent blog about these issues and more affecting Interior Design can be read here.
I will keep posting updates about what is going on during the journey of HB5005!
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Letter to my Florida Representatives
To the Honorable Esteban L. Bovo, Jr.
My name is Deon Bent and I am opposed to the Deregulation of Registered Interior Designers in House Bill 5005, and I ask that you take Interior Design off the list.
As a current student in the Interior Design profession, I realize that the importance of an education is more prevalent than it has been in past years. To be able to practice something you are passionate about takes hard work, dedication and perseverance all which when combined together produce success! But if this Bill will be passed, no longer allowing me to practice Interior Design, I will be devastated. To hear someone say that all the years of schooling is a complete waste of time and that it is unnecessary to attend schooling for Interior Design will affect not only me but thousands of students around me. I wanted to attend schooling for Interior Design. It was MY choice to take up a profession that I knew would cost me money and time to receive my certifications, but I was willing to do that. I was willing to take that time to become even more passionate about it.
I will also be extremely affected by this deregulation becasue of student loans. Interior Design school is not cheap. For me to take out a $100, 000 loan because I am that passionate about my future means a lot. I do not want to have to waste this money because my profession was deemed "incapable" of being regulated. You will be destroying my dreams of becoming a licensed Interior Designer because regulating this profession does not seem important to you. But on the other side, every other profession IS regulated. Education and practice is what a profession is composed of. As a consumer you trust that the product or services that you will receive are being regualted and worked on by someone who is a professional in the industry! I cannot stress enough the impact this bill will have on many people including me!
In closing, I ask that you please re-consider your stand on the issue of Interior Design and realize the demolition of one profession is not worth the pain or misery of someone's dreams.
Deon N. Bent
Interior Design Student
My name is Deon Bent and I am opposed to the Deregulation of Registered Interior Designers in House Bill 5005, and I ask that you take Interior Design off the list.
As a current student in the Interior Design profession, I realize that the importance of an education is more prevalent than it has been in past years. To be able to practice something you are passionate about takes hard work, dedication and perseverance all which when combined together produce success! But if this Bill will be passed, no longer allowing me to practice Interior Design, I will be devastated. To hear someone say that all the years of schooling is a complete waste of time and that it is unnecessary to attend schooling for Interior Design will affect not only me but thousands of students around me. I wanted to attend schooling for Interior Design. It was MY choice to take up a profession that I knew would cost me money and time to receive my certifications, but I was willing to do that. I was willing to take that time to become even more passionate about it.
I will also be extremely affected by this deregulation becasue of student loans. Interior Design school is not cheap. For me to take out a $100, 000 loan because I am that passionate about my future means a lot. I do not want to have to waste this money because my profession was deemed "incapable" of being regulated. You will be destroying my dreams of becoming a licensed Interior Designer because regulating this profession does not seem important to you. But on the other side, every other profession IS regulated. Education and practice is what a profession is composed of. As a consumer you trust that the product or services that you will receive are being regualted and worked on by someone who is a professional in the industry! I cannot stress enough the impact this bill will have on many people including me!
In closing, I ask that you please re-consider your stand on the issue of Interior Design and realize the demolition of one profession is not worth the pain or misery of someone's dreams.
Deon N. Bent
Interior Design Student
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