#030 - Jennifer Mitchell - Interior Designer with Tarkett

 Welcome to our podcast. If you're new to our podcast, the podcast was created by two architect that felt they needed to share their experience and hardships not only in our profession but in life and family.

On today's episode, we invited Jennifer Mitchell, EDAC, CHID, IIDA a licensed Interior Designer. Graduated from Louisiana State University and works with Tarkett. She tells us how she knew since she was a little girl that she would be an interior designer. Having worked with such firms as Sizeler Thompson Brown Architects, Department of Veterans Affairs. She has extensive experience in medical and governmental projects.

She now lives in the panhandle and loves the area and flexibility her new position brings her.

Grab a seat and some coffee, and take a few minutes to join us in our podcast.

If you guys have any questions or comments, please reach out to us at our Facebook pages or via email. 

Transcript

Audio file

 
Podcast #36 - Jennifer Mitchell - Interior Designer with Tarkett.mp3
 

Transcript

 
00:00:05 Speaker 1

Welcome to the T ^2 dad's Brown Bag podcast. Here's your host, Kyle Baker and Dieter Burrell.

00:00:16 Speaker 2

Hey, welcome back to.

00:00:18 Speaker 2

Our podcast guys, this is Dieter Burrell and I have Jennifer Mitchell.

00:00:24 Speaker 3

Yes, hi.

00:00:25 Speaker 2

With us, she's an interior designer and that she works now with. I want to say the right company, so I'll let you tell me.

00:00:35 Speaker 3

Sure. Yeah. So right now I work with target commercial flooring, but I am a designer. I graduated from LSU in interior design.

00:00:44 Speaker 3

Line and then headed straight over to Houston and I worked for WHR Architects, which is the OR was large healthcare architecture and design firm over in Houston. So I kind of got my career started in the healthcare design industry.

00:01:00 Speaker 2

Well, that that's good. And and here's a good question I would and I always ask, my guess is like why?

00:01:07 Speaker 2

It led you into interior design and so this is going to be like a you you tell us a story of.

00:01:14 Speaker 2

What led you into your design? What school did you go to? What? When did you graduate and the process of you going through and getting license? How long did that take? Was it a challenge?

00:01:28 Speaker 2

And then.

00:01:30 Speaker 2

What happened from you getting license to different the different companies that you may have worked and then where you are now so?

00:01:38 Speaker 3

Sure. Yeah, happy to. So that's a great question. When did I? No, I think I'm kind of an anomaly. I knew when I was 12 years old that I wanted to do interior design. I would imagine back then.

00:01:53 Speaker 3

Probably called it interior decorating. I'm not sure I knew exactly what interior design was at that point. I've always loved just.

00:02:01 Speaker 3

Reorganizing, redecorating my room as a kid so I knew I wanted to do something in that field, and then through research, we found. I'm from Louisiana, from New Orleans, specifically my mom and I found that LSU had an accredited program for interior design. So.

00:02:20 Speaker 3

It really worked out that way, and it's really interesting now.

00:02:25 Speaker 3

I have a little girl who will be 10 next month and I can see in the way that she does her art or plays with Legos that she has that sense of space, and I could completely see her going into the same field too. So it's it's kind of cool in a way to see that. But I knew really early on, but I don't think I quite knew what it was.

00:02:48 Speaker 3

So of course, once I got into the program at LSU that program, it was selective admissions. So you spent your first year with all of your prerequisites. So art studios and kind of interior design 10.

00:03:03 Speaker 3

Learning about the the field and then you had to build your portfolio from there and display it in a four foot by 4 foot section on the walls of the 4th floor of the the design building and you were critiqued and and grated and you know prayed that you made it in. So forty of us.

00:03:23 Speaker 3

Played it in. Let's see that was in 2002.

00:03:28 Speaker 3

Oh, no, I'm sorry. So a year after so 2003, I made it into the program and we started our studio classes and you know more in depth design. Back then we learned AutoCAD and that's when our AutoCAD class was actually a construction management introductory class. And I really love that professor.

00:03:48 Speaker 3

Though instead of taking more art studios, I opted to do a construction management.

00:03:55 Speaker 3

With my bachelors degree of interior design. So that's kind of where I went in school. Then let's see with Ida, which is the international Interior Design Association. I was a student member and we had the opportunity to go to the large shooting day in Houston, TX and that.

00:04:14 Speaker 3

Consisted of a charette.

00:04:16 Speaker 3

Portfolio review, mock interviews, resume review.

00:04:21 Speaker 3

So at that time we were just kind of starting to put things on little mock websites and do everything digital.

00:04:30 Speaker 3

Which wasn't really the industry standard at the time, so I went to do a portfolio review, which mine was all on my laptop sat down with this lady and she hated every single thing about it.

00:04:42 Speaker 2

Oh my gosh.

00:04:42 Speaker 3

And told me.

00:04:43 Speaker 3

Everything that you know needed to be more hand drawn and just all kinds of critiques, and I was definitely a little defeated.

00:04:51 Speaker 3

But I like to tell the story, especially to design students or even architecture students, because.

00:04:56 Speaker 3

What we do is so subjective that you know you can't stop at just one person. So I went to my professor and she asked me how it went. I said it went terribly. So then she suggested that I go to another person that she knew and this lady loved everything about My Portfolio and offered me an internship in Houston. So that's how I.

00:05:16 Speaker 3

Yeah, it was really a great blessing. So that's how I ended up going to Houston right out of college. I did my internship there this summer before my senior year.

00:05:26 Speaker 3

And this farm?

00:05:28 Speaker 3

Cortex solely did healthcare design. It was about 200 architects and designers total with a design team of 20 total. So that was a really cool experience. And that's when I first discovered healthcare design. So I went back to school and finished my capstone project on I did a.

00:05:48 Speaker 3

List office so similar related to healthcare.

00:05:52 Speaker 3

And then after graduation, of course, went back to Houston.

00:05:55 Speaker 3

Being born and raised in New Orleans missed it terribly. So we moved back after about two years and I found a firm in New Orleans called Zeisler Architects who had a healthcare studio. So I continued my healthcare career there.

00:06:10 Speaker 3

I guess I'll back up to your other part of the question was licensing. So when I started my.

00:06:19 Speaker 3

Actual career with WHR in Houston, we had a pretty intensive training, so it.

00:06:23 Speaker 3

Was two days.

00:06:25 Speaker 3

It was an architect who just was very into CAD and Revit and things. And so he would train you on how to use those in that firm, how they wanted you to use it. And I told him, I said Ohh, I don't want to do any more tests.

00:06:38 Speaker 3

Right now, I'm so over all that.

00:06:39 Speaker 3

After finishing school and he said my best advice to you would be to do all of that now before you get married, have children. Life starts getting busy. Get it out of the way as soon as you can.

00:06:52 Speaker 3

And at that time in Houston, you could take the you could take your interior design licensing exam, which was all still hand drawn after six months of work experience. So I went ahead and I applied and I took it. We were at a local university for a whole weekend, taking to three different parts and the hand.

00:07:12 Speaker 3

Knowing part.

00:07:13 Speaker 3

And I passed.

00:07:13 Speaker 3

The test and I really just had to wait until I had my two years of experience work experience. Yeah. So once I had that, then I could actually apply for my life.

00:07:18 Speaker 2

OK.

00:07:24 Speaker 3

So and then in that same time, I went ahead and did the lead certification, which is probably the hardest test I've ever taken in.

00:07:32 Speaker 3

My whole life.

00:07:34 Speaker 3

But I did that and then moved back home to Louisiana and that's where I got licensed and continued working a little bit of everything, every type of design.

00:07:44 Speaker 3

Education, government, but mainly focusing on health.

00:07:48 Speaker 3

Year. So I worked there for I would say six or seven years started to get that I guess seven-year itch. I found a job with the local VA hospital and so in 2005 Katrina hit New Orleans and kind of basically wiped out their existing VA hospital, so.

00:08:08 Speaker 3

VA designed and built a brand new million square foot eight building facility in New Orleans. So I was able to join their team and activate that.

00:08:18 Speaker 3

Building during the ending part of construction, which is a really cool process, so got to be involved in wayfinding, furniture artwork. The design was done by larger firms, but kind of more of the in-house facilities design. So that was interesting to get a feel for that. That's kind of a different.

00:08:38 Speaker 3

Ave. that interior designers can go to work for a facility, whether it's healthcare or in the financial industry or a school. Something like that. There's definitely opportunities out there, but it's a little bit of a different design process because you definitely are more on the functional side.

00:08:56 Speaker 3

Still, we always keep aesthetics in mind, but it's very functional maintenance side of it. So and then after that I worked there for three years. My firm in New Orleans, Seisler reached out to me and said, would you like to come? We'd like to have you come back and be the director of interior design here. So yeah.

00:09:15 Speaker 3

And for anyone who's ever worked for the federal government.

00:09:19 Speaker 3

It's it's not easy, so having the opportunity to go back to the private sector, I ran for that. So I went back and and so then that's when my role evolved at the architecture firm. So I went from being just a an interior designer to managing the interior design team doing.

00:09:39 Speaker 3

More business development and then also became an associate at that firm. So worked with the associates team and you know have different responsibilities throughout the firm, things like that so.

00:09:51 Speaker 3

And then to kind of round it out after about two years of doing that, I got a random phone call one day about lunchtime and the current market Rep in Louisiana was moving to a different position in the company and asked if I would be interested in in taking his position. And at first I said.

00:10:10 Speaker 3

No, I'm good here. I'm, you know, doing.

00:10:12 Speaker 3

Great, I love.

00:10:13 Speaker 3

Where I'm at.

00:10:15 Speaker 3

But the the idea of more autonomy and flexibility for my family was.

00:10:22 Speaker 3

Two interesting intriguing so kind of looked into it a little more and that's how I wound up with tarkett five years ago. So I'm on the sales side now, the dark side.

00:10:36 Speaker 3

I think everyone thought I was crazy at the firm, but I was leaving, but I truly have to say that I'm still very much involved in design as far as working with architects and designers, which I love, and I get to be here for my family as well. So it's kind of.

00:10:51 Speaker 3

The best of both worlds.

00:10:53 Speaker 2

And that that's how. That's how I felt when I kind of went out on my own, a little more flexibility.

00:11:00 Speaker 2

But you you mentioned that you went to LSU for, for your, for your bachelors. How was that program was it was it is it was it a good program back then? Is it still a good program that that what how what have you heard anything about that?

00:11:17 Speaker 3

Sure. Yeah. It's a great program. It's accredited. So I think that's really a differentiator and they really taught us a lot.

00:11:26 Speaker 3

I think it was very intensive though. I think like most design and architecture schools, you know you spend a lot of time in the studio a lot of time working on your projects and taking critiques and reworking and working in teams. But I do have to say, you know, it definitely really got your creative thinking juices flowing.

00:11:47 Speaker 3

And talk to you about spatial design and things like that. As far as the professional practice, we had one class on that which was helpful.

00:11:57 Speaker 3

But I think your internship is so important because that's where you really learn the real world stuff that they don't teach you in school, but it's still a really great program, still accredited, and then still selective admissions to some point. So some people did have to, you know, reapply and things like that. So it's a.

00:12:17

Sought after program.

00:12:18 Speaker 2

It reminds me of the University of Florida has a a four year and then a two year masters and in their first two years the.

00:12:27 Speaker 2

Kids do compile all their work and there's something called the pin up that they have to.

00:12:33 Speaker 2

Do and for them to move to the third year. They have to do a pin up and then they get approved to proceed to the to the next.

00:12:43 Speaker 2

School year.

00:12:45 Speaker 3

Right.

00:12:45 Speaker 2

And then then and they also do that during that paint up, they also select top 10 pin ups, which is sort of a pride for the students when they get selected, they get put into a a small conference room and they get to repin up the.

00:12:55

Right.

00:13:00 Speaker 2

Pin up and you know that's where they kind of, you know, make them. You know, they they celebrate the fact that you know you have some a few select students that shine above the others. And I think a lot of students kind of go.

00:13:13 Speaker 2

Up there.

00:13:14 Speaker 2

And look to study the pin ups and see hey, how can I, you know, the ones that don't get accepted?

00:13:21 Speaker 2

I think a lot of them.

00:13:23 Speaker 2

It's a really like a gut check where? Oh my God. Now what do I gotta do? I got, you know. You know, year four and Year 5. Where should I go? And I've heard all these stories about people splitting.

00:13:35 Speaker 2

Out of interior design or out of architecture and going into something else. And then they go into the construction industry or they go into master planning, landscaping something other than that. But yeah, I can kind of understand the whole process of having to pin up to get LED into the next.

00:13:56 Speaker 2

Years. So it's a difficult thing.

00:13:57 Speaker 3

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, it is. It's a very difficult thing and it's definitely.

00:14:03 Speaker 3

Like you said, a.

00:14:04 Speaker 3

Gut check really defeating if you don't get in and some people would find a different path and others would keep pressing on, you know, and eventually get in and learn from others. So like you said, the pin up we.

00:14:16 Speaker 3

Would pin up.

00:14:17 Speaker 3

We had a 4 by 4 space and it would be throughout the entire corridor of the.

00:14:22 Speaker 3

Design floor in the design building and so everyone could look at all the projects and it consisted of a lot of different things like some really kind of abstract ideas about design and space and shapes and things like that, but also we were required to take that CAD class. So you also had a set of floor plans.

00:14:42 Speaker 3

You know, so it really was a very holistic view on your design abilities there. But I think to your point, I mean.

00:14:51 Speaker 3

With a degree in interior design, you can do so many different avenues.

00:14:56 Speaker 3

You know you.

00:14:57 Speaker 3

Could you can work for a builder or construction on the construction side? Work for an architecture firm, work in facilities, go into sales or even design within within a manufacturer.

00:15:11 Speaker 3

You know, we have a whole design team at Tarket who designs our flooring and of course the topic which is always so funny is like who gets to name these things? I'd love to be that person and they are.

00:15:22 Speaker 3

Those people so.

00:15:24 Speaker 3

You could have the dream job of.

00:15:25 Speaker 3

Beaming the colors.

00:15:27 Speaker 2

You know, it's interesting that you say that the the spectrum of things that interiors Hunter can can be involved in. When I was working while I was doing my masters in Ocala, I I was working for a small company and it licensing through designer have brought up these clients and and he had done the design.

00:15:48 Speaker 2

For the residence.

00:15:48 Speaker 2

Which is this gorge?

00:15:50 Speaker 2

There's, you know, you know, Ocala is known as a country horse country. So the type of housing that you would see are these almost like these cottages, gorgeous cottages with multi garage. I don't even know how to describe it, but it was like country cottage I.

00:15:56 Speaker 3

Right, yes.

00:16:09 Speaker 2

Guess you could say.

00:16:10 Speaker 2

With stonework with these gorgeous peaked entryways archways, and I mean all kinds of elaborate stuff and.

00:16:18 Speaker 2

I never would have thought that a interior designer and I can kind of see the flexibility of designing a residence for a client because you're there with them going through each step of the way as you're designing for them. Their house, their house, they're going to stay there probably for the remaining.

00:16:39 Speaker 2

Life I've had that clients. Sometimes I think their ideas and I think any client conflicts with your ideas when you're kind.

00:16:40 Speaker 3

Right.

00:16:49 Speaker 2

Of envisioning a particular house. And then there's sometimes some. I mean, sometimes designers can just capture exactly what.

00:16:58 Speaker 2

Folks are looking for, you know, a lot of the times. So, so after college, you, you, you work a little bit and then you, you know you kind of work, you know, taking doing your studying to take your test and then you finally after college how long did it take you.

00:17:14 Speaker 2

To get licensed.

00:17:16 Speaker 3

Two years. So you. There's a required work period of two years.

00:17:17 Speaker 2

Two years, OK.

00:17:21 Speaker 3

And then because I was in Texas at that time because Louisiana didn't have the benefit of taking the test after six months, you would have to wait your two years. But I had already gotten the test out of the way. So yeah, I got licensed right in two years, and then I went on after working in the healthcare.

00:17:37 Speaker 2

That's awesome. That's awesome.

00:17:43 Speaker 3

Design field for five years I went and went after my healthcare designer certification, so I'm actually a a certified healthcare interior designer as well and I still.

00:17:55 Speaker 3

Do keep that.

00:17:56 Speaker 3

Up because there was a lot of hard work for that one.

00:17:59 Speaker 3

You had to apply kind of like our our design and architecture programs. You had to show your work have five years of experience, have references from clients, then you could be accepted to take the test.

00:18:13

So you hit.

00:18:13 Speaker 3

Apply to take a test.

00:18:15 Speaker 3

So I did that and gained that. So hold on to that.

00:18:19 Speaker 3

Yearly, you never know when you might.

00:18:21 Speaker 3

Need it so.

00:18:22 Speaker 3

Yeah. And and.

00:18:23 Speaker 2

Do you do you do? Do you do consultations?

00:18:28 Speaker 3

I have not. No, just not as like a side thing or anything. No, I have not done that recently. Just kind of use it in my everyday work as far as what I do now so.

00:18:40 Speaker 2

OK OK cause cause that cause I was wondering you know there's there's always like.

00:18:45 Speaker 2

Medical professionals that you know they you know, especially in the field of architecture, they're always looking for that specialty, especially not not that you mentioned it.

00:18:56 Speaker 2

And it takes. It's a hardship to find somebody that has that expertise in the medical field and I didn't know if you were kind of just like once in a while you get phone calls and people says, hey, can you give us your two cents so, you know, look out over the drawings and, you know, we understand, you know, your, your, your charges for a fee and.

00:19:16 Speaker 2

And do that. But you know, everybody has their own, you know.

00:19:21 Speaker 2

Options to kind of decide whether they're going to consult or they want to, you know, do stuff. You're you're applying your knowledge to what you're doing now with the market and stuff, so that's important. The the one thing.

00:19:34 Speaker 3

When I was in the architecture field and didn't have kids had more time, I did do more side work. Those kind of things. So it's probably really just a matter of not having the time at this point, but that is an interesting idea.

00:19:48

I like it.

00:19:49 Speaker 2

Yeah, because you know, as the kids get older and I I notice when my kids, my kids now are are 14 ones about to turn 70.

00:19:57 Speaker 2

You don't have to kind of be there constantly kind of, you know, neat, because they don't have the need like you right now you you have. But as time goes by, then you can probably come back and be back in the workforce not full time because I don't, you know, the consultation I always hear every time I hear an architect.

00:20:17 Speaker 2

Retire, they say they retire, but they, you know, they become consultants at at some to to some extent so but that that's a good thing to kind of keep under your belt.

00:20:28 Speaker 3

Yeah, absolutely. I don't think architects ever retire, right?

00:20:32 Speaker 2

I don't think they do.

00:20:34 Speaker 3

It's it's in their blood.

00:20:39 Speaker 2

So now you know, you kind of work for some, you got license, you kind of work for a little bit of time and then you you told us, you know what happened and now you're you're a target and you've been doing this now.

00:20:51 Speaker 2

For how long?

00:20:52 Speaker 3

Five years. So yeah, I know. It's crazy. I just made five years, August 13th. So I started in Louisiana and I covered the whole state of Louisiana for four years and then me and my family decided to move out this way to the Panhandle, to Pensacola area. And it just really worked out.

00:21:13 Speaker 3

Beautifully. I have two other teammates here in this territory covers.

00:21:18 Speaker 3

All of Alabama and the Florida Panhandle. And so ginger, one of my teammates, I've known her since I was a designer. She was my Rep as a designer, so it's come full circle and she is actually working from home in her, with her babies. They'll be one and three.

00:21:38 Speaker 3

So Tarkett gave her.

00:21:40 Speaker 3

The great opportunity to continue doing that.

00:21:42 Speaker 3

And with me joining the team, we could have some in person coverage now. So it's worked out really well. So I've been here.

00:21:49 Speaker 3

For one year now.

00:21:50 Speaker 2

Wow, that's awesome. That's awesome. And and and I and I'm glad that you you had a chance to tell your story because I always kind of try to find little details like what, you know, what really kind of got somebody interested in the ASEAN world, you know into your design and then the the school is important too because you know there's.

00:22:05 Speaker 3

Yeah, yeah.

00:22:11 Speaker 2

People out there wondering. It's like, hey, Louisiana, is there, what do I have to look out for? Well, you know, for one thing, you want to make sure your your schools are.

00:22:20 Speaker 2

Got it. And you know that you, once you graduate, you know that you have the ability to kind of get your experience, you know, and all that kind of stuff. So but yeah, Jennifer, thank you for joining us and telling us your little story of how you came about and and where you're at for all your listeners.

00:22:35 Speaker 3

Absolutely. I appreciate it.

00:22:41 Speaker 2

Other don't forget to subscribe and we'll be uploading some new podcasts with some new guests that that will come in.

00:22:49 Speaker 2

Thank you, Jennifer.

00:22:51 Speaker 3

Thank you for the opportunity, Dieter.

00:22:51 Speaker 2

It was awesome.

00:23:01 Speaker 1

Thanks for listening to the T ^2 dads Brown Bag podcast. Please subscribe on your favorite platform and we will talk to you next time.