Developing Style

In a recent posting, I talked about our commitment at Ramsay Gourd Architects to use design elements to paint portraits of our clients.  The key here is to not let your own tastes get in the way of your clients’ personalities.  This is a real challenge if you want to make consistently beautiful projects, but an important aspect of working with clients.

Daring Color Carried with Authority

Yesterday, I started posting to my new Pinterest account.  This was eye opening for me.  While I spend so much of my time listening to clients’ aesthetic needs, I rarely listen to my own design voice.  I guess I take my personal style for granted. 

The truth is, every decision we make is a reflection of our personal style.  Each choice is like a brush-stroke in our own self portrait.  In talking about marketing with our staff, I am known to say that every selection we make is one of marketing.  That’s true on one level.  Our outward appearance is the marketing we offer the world. 

The other aspect of personal style is how we chose to live our lives.  Are we involved civically, spiritually and politically within our community?  Are we generous with our time, spirit and talents? 

True style is something that is completely natural.  While you might be able to wear that sweater that your mother-in-law gave you, your peers will know it’s not of your essential taste.  The same is true for lifestyle integrity.  How often have we met a teacher for whom their career is just that, and contrasted it with a teacher who has found his or her calling?

This is not to say that style cannot be developed.  Like learning a new sport, sometimes developing a style comes from changing patterns and practicing them repeatedly.   Whether it’s starting to add color to your wardrobe or philanthropy to your bottom line, start with baby steps and develop a habit.  

Portrait of a Client

 I’m often asked “Do you have a design style?”  I find that a tough question to answer, as my work is project specific and stylistically varied.  As an architect, illustrator and designer, my goal is to convey a message, evoke a feeling, and most often, paint a portrait of my client.  Few people hire a custom designer to create a project that looks just like their neighbor’s.

Whether designing a home, a room or a restaurant, my first objective is to get to know my client and understand his or her vision.  I send clients off from initial meetings with a homework assignment.  Our programming worksheets ask the clients a number of questions about the project in question.  Digital or tactile clippings files of inspirational images are requested so that clients can graphically communicate their tastes and preferences.

On the designer side of the equation, I like to take research field trips.  I will often schedule to visit my clients’ homes or explore similar program type precedents.  (I recently visited a couple in New Jersey to better understand their personal tastes as I prepared to design their Vermont home.  And a tour of New York brasseries armed me with a vocabulary to pursue a recent restaurant project.)

 

In the end, every project I design should be a clear reflection of the owner.  Infused in its fiber, needs to be a DNA as unique as a fingerprint.  That core thesis in turn, informs every decision about the project, such that each detail supports the whole, creating an end product that is about its built, temporal and personal context.