I'd love to hear what you have to say in the comments if you're looking through my photos:)
Today, Sunday, May 18th I began my Internship experience. This was the third time I had met with my mentor, Betsy Ginn. Betsy is design consultent, which is pretty much the same thing as an interior designer, except she isn't certified. She did major in management and marketing in College. This internship is going to let me explore managing a developing business, creating relations to important people, and being as creative as I can be.
I began my internship on a Sunday because that's the best time to buy the best furniture. Betsy and I drove up to the Long beach flea market at 7:00 in the morning to scavenged for hidden treasure in piles of junk. She has an eye to spot potential in furniture - pieces she can flip, touch up, and restore into beautiful decor. We were shopping for the Coffee shop, Café Cantata, that's replacing The Panakin in the Flower Hill Mall in Solana Beach. Betsy, or Smid (her nickname, and company name), has the position of designing the space, like she did two other spaces in that mall. With each space she designs, she has one more happy client, and one more beautiful location to add to her portfolio. This is very important when beginning a company. Smid has only been around for less than a year. She has been very successful from her feature in Rivera Magazine, to simply positive word of mouth. Yet, Smid doesn't have that big of a following on social media sites such as Facebook, Instagram, Pintrest, and Twitter. These territories are some of the strongest fortresses for successful, up and coming artists. It's difficult to keep up with all the photo taking, and captioning, and the pinning, and the filters, and so on. This is where I can be of extra help to Betsy. Along side of as projecting, planning, and assisting her, I can bring her social media level up to benefit Smid. For my Internship Project I'm going to be working on @Smid and @smidthat with keeping up to date with all things smid. That's what some celebrities have right? Their assistant is doing all the tweeting and posting, not them? When Betsy finds a create piece at an Estate Sale, I'll snap it, filter it, and post it. When one of Smid's projects has a grand exhibition, I'll type it, date it, and post it. I'll find profiles with similar ideas to follow, and create a following for Smid. As on of my first day son the job, this is my prioritized goal for Smid. I look forward for when you can see me in action! Somewhere along the time of constructing the café bar (a little too late) someone realized the P.O.S and the dinning section of the bar had to handicap assessable. Smid, the contractors, and the owners tried to get around the fact that they were either going to have to build out of the bar into the walkway, or cut into the bar to create a lower section of the bar the heigh of a wheel chair.
Smid and Jose were scouring the ADA website on smid's iphone for a loophole in keeping the bar just the way it is. All the while one of Cantata's owners was worrying about the outcome, and expressing this clearly with his vocabulary. Even if you're opening your own small business coffee shop, when you need a coffee break, YOU NEED A COFFEE BREAK. Two things I learned there... 1. Working with a partner is hard/stressful 2. We all can use a Starbucks I went down to Starbucks to pick me and Smid up a tea, and saw one of the Cantata's owner's working at a table drinking a coffee. I found this quite ironic. Then I noticed (as I drank my ice tea) and wrote in my journal... " I can't help it, but I love Starbucks" and I jotted down some reasons why I think it has such an appeal. 1. You know what to order 2. Good atmosphere (music, service, furnishing etc.) 3. It's fast /short wait time ...and then I stopped. There's something very comforting about the buzz of sound in a Starbucks. Smid's always justifying her reason to get a Starbuck's as if she' had caved and committed a crime. It's excellent to drink at small business, but maybe we shouldn't feel too guilty about indulging in a Starbuck's drink every so often. I met Betsy (Smid) at at the Panakin on the 101 in April. My initial first impression of her when she walked up to meet me was; She's in jeans and t shirt, and still fashionable.ˆShe won me over when she treated me to my hot tea. We sat down in a quieter section of the café and got straight to talking about our expectations of this internship. Right away I was very comfortable simply holding a conversation with her. Betsy was easy to talk to, and when I'm this excited, and this new to everything, there's a lot to talk about. She explained her current job situation to me (that I referenced in my second blog post). I told her all about High Tech and the wonderful things Hightech Highschool has to offer me. There was never an awkward phase during our meeting of her interviewing me to decide if I was worthy of partnering with. Immediately she made me feel like this internship was going to happen. We we're going to be working together. Evene though it's a small thought, it meant a lot to know she initially wanted to work with me.
Betsy invited me to out the following day at a potential client's home to shadow her in the beginning stages of designing a space with a new client. Just the fact she included me in this scouting event filled me with confidence about this new adventure. Between our first meeting and the beginning of internship I get a lot of time to time to mentally prepare for this internship. I'm excited about the new experiences I'll experience, driving all over from Ocean beach, to Newport beach, from Fallbrooke to La Jolla. I get to dress up like I actually know design, and present myself like I'm an adult. I can't wait to get down and dirty, sanding down wood, beautiful staining ugly fabrics, and just giving new life to the old forgotten pieces that once filled homes years and years ago. There's a lot on the line though. I am expected to meet the requirements for my teachers, I want to experiences something worth sharing. This journey will be something I remember for the rest of my life, Internship has created so many high expectations in my head since my first introduction to Hightech Highschool, and I just hope I can match them.....I'm sure I will. Today, Sunday, May 18th I began my Internship experience. This was the third time I had met with my mentor, Betsy Ginn, or Smid. This internship is going to let me explore managing a developing business, creating relations to important people, and being as creative as I can be. Today, Sunday, May 18th I began my Internship experience. This was the third time I had met with my mentor, Betsy Ginn. Betsy is design consultent, which is pretty much the same thing as an interior designer, except she isn't certified. She did major in management and marketing in College. This internship is going to let me explore managing a developing business, creating relations to important people, and being as creative as I can be. I began my internship on a Sunday because that's the best time to buy the best furniture. Betsy and I drove up to the Long beach flea market at 7:00 in the morning to scavenged for hidden treasure in piles of junk. She has an eye to spot potential in furniture - pieces she can flip, touch up, and restore into beautiful decor. We were shopping for the Coffee shop, Café Cantata, that's replacing The Panakin in the Flower Hill Mall in Solana Beach. Betsy, or Smid (her nickname, and company name), has the position of designing the space, like she did two other spaces in that mall. I began my internship on a Sunday because that's the best time to buy the best furniture. Betsy and I drove up to the Long beach flea market at 7:00 in the morning to scavenged for hidden treasure in piles of junk. She has an eye to spot potential in furniture - pieces she can flip, touch up, and restore into beautiful decor. We were shopping for the Coffee shop, Café Cantata, that's replacing The Panakin in the Flower Hill Mall in Solana Beach. Our day was packed. I took notes of every item purchased, it's price, booth number, their name, cell phone number, and sometimes even a little sketch of the piece. After hours of hunting we began calling and hauling our finds back to our truck. Everything just barely fit. At one point Smid thought everything was in, and just as her and her helpers were going to shut the truck, a huge (7'') steel desk came around the corner on wheels for our delivery. She couldn't help but crack up. Our fears of running short were adverted. We found PLENTY. Successful Day one. Great start to Internship. I asked Smid what I should know about her before I begin my internship with her.
She's always had a creative mind, "I see things in a certain way." She's very particular about her style, and she's not afraid to be firm with making things turn out right. Another very important thing to know about Smid is that she's going through a big transition in her life right now. For the past 9 years, she has been decicated to her career at PRA International negotiating contracts. She decided this path wasn't making her as happy anymore, and even though it was she was successful and secure, it wasn't what her heart wanted. "life's too short". Smid decided to follow her heart and start the design firm she's been dreaming of for years. Something important to realize before my internship with Smid the Designer, is that she's still learning about the interior design world. Naturally she's brilliant with business management and marketing, and the creative aspect of interior design, but there's still so much more to experience and understand with experience. "There's still a lot I don't know" If becoming a full time designer is a relatively new pathway for Smid, how did she end up where she is? To hear the story directly in her words click here to read her blog. Smid has been "Obsessed" with design for a very long time. She has constantly been rearranging the places she's lived, and buying pieces to revive. "I didn't know I had a special talent." Family and friends always said she had a knack for interior design. Smid was just doing what made her happy. A few years back Smid and her family were planning on selling their Luecadia home, but when her relator got back to her after the open house, she told her there were more people interested in buying her furniture rather than buying her house. There were questions asking questions like, "Is she an interior designer? I want her card." Little did they know it was simply the homeowner's personal style and design. Her realtor is responsible for a lot of the feedback with her design style, and really encouraged Smid to pursue her talent. If Smid has always had this talent, then should she have started sharing her style with the world earlier in her career? ...or maybe everything is falling into place at the perfect time. I asked Smid the question of all questions. What do you wish you had realized about the world of work when you were my age? "I wished I realized to have the courage not to do what my family, or what society told me to do, and rather to do what I wanted to do." Smid began getting caught up in the bureaucracy of large businesses. She was putting everything she had into her work, from 5 in the morning to 8 at night. It paid off. Never should you expect things to just be handed to you. You have to work hard to be successful. Everyone, no matter their success started somewhere. "You have to learn the ropes of any company from the ground up. Simply... Work hard for what you want. Enjoy life a little more. Do your passion more. Staining: (v) Changing the color of fabric or wood (with spray sometimes) Tufted: (adj) An area usually on a seat that's pinched in with a button Sourcing: (v) Scoping out products for a project Settee: (n) A small love seat Pallet: (n) The crates used for stacking cargo (excellent for covering large walls) P.O.S: (n) Point Of Sale Bar (essentially the register) Sconce: (n) A small cone shaped wall light or chandelier Gingham: (adj) Small plaid design ex: "That's an Country gingham design on that fabric is awful!" Backorder: (n) Products that are not in stock in a warehouse Cantata: (n) A choral composition, a lyric drama set to music but not to be acted out. Origin 1724. Synonym: to sing |
Cori StrellMay - June 2014 ArchivesCategories |