All-In Design
"All-In Design" is IIDA Alabama's podcast that invites you into the dynamic world of commercial interior design. Immerse yourself in the artistry, innovation, and inspiration that shape the spaces where we work, collaborate, and create. Discover the latest trends, cutting-edge technologies, and timeless design principles that define the ever-evolving landscape of commercial interiors.
All-In Design
Episode #34 - Interview with Dia Baldwin
In this episode of All-In Design, we speak with our future boss Dia Baldwin of Birchfield Penuel Architects. We cover so many important issues of the day for young interior designers, such as the importance of networking, finding the edges of the project, and finding the firm that is right for you. We also have a lengthy conversation about eyebrow care, what Dia heats up for breakfast some mornings at work, and how to protect yourself from a knife attack (video not included).
from the plus recording studios for iida alabama this is all in design so Hello and welcome to All In Design, IADA Alabama's podcast. My name is Chad Moore, here with my co-host Mark Griffo. Hey everybody. And today I'm excited about our guest. I'm excited about every guest, Mark. I just said it like I was like, wait, that doesn't come across quite right. No one else matters up until this point. We've been building to this one guest today, no pressure. So if you'll do the honor and introduce who we have today. I will. I'm happy to. I also feel like, you know, to our listeners, all of them, hundreds of them from around the world. You know, for them, it's just a two week break. Right? Sure. Yes. For us, it's been a minute. It has been a minute. Because we've recorded three or four within like a week. Right. And that was like two months ago. It does feel like it's been forever. Yeah. A lot of things have happened between now and then. So anyway, that said. So we're rusty. Yeah, we're rusty. Well, we almost didn't check the mics. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We figured out the air conditioner's broken in the studio. It's very hot in here. So, you know, whatever. Everybody's getting comfortable. I am super stoked to introduce our good friend and fellow IIDA board member, Dia Baldwin. who is a designer at Birchfield Penual Architects. So for the older school folks in the room, that used to be Birchfield Penual and Associates. Got that right. Let me get it out a second time. But they rebranded and they did a whole new great thing. Sounds like they did a lot more school. They did a lot more school. Yeah. They moved from associate to start. They're now architects. Oh, they all graduated. Yeah. They're all licensed. I'm just going to roast BBA and start the show. It's going to be great. Anyway, okay. Well, Without further ado, Dia, it is great to have you on the show. Glad you're here.
SPEAKER_00:Glad to be here. Like Mark said, I'm Dia. I work at Birchville Pineal Architects. Architects. Can confirm we did all just go back to school and become licensed. Yeah,
SPEAKER_01:they were like, what are we even doing here? What kind of business is this? Started all over. Decided to become an architectural firm.
SPEAKER_00:That's great. So yeah, I've been a designer at BPA for about three years now, mainly doing healthcare projects, but we do a little bit of everything. kind of been getting exposure in a little bit of everything. I went to Mississippi State, graduated a couple years ago, and started working at BPA ever since.
SPEAKER_01:So you're from here?
SPEAKER_00:Yes, I'm from Birmingham. My extended family is in Mobile, but I've lived in Birmingham pretty much all my life, and then went to Mississippi State, which a lot of people then assume that I'm from Mississippi. But I knew of Mississippi State through growing up and kind of visited a lot, and so when it came time for college, everyone was saying that they have a great design program and when I went and toured and fell in love with the campus and loved that it was close enough but not too close. There's a little bit of space. Yeah, a little bit of space and I feel like the program is really robust. You get the creative side, you get the technical side, all rolled into one. So
SPEAKER_01:when you were looking for colleges, you already knew you were looking at interior design?
SPEAKER_00:Yes. I kind of have always been creative. Grew up watching HGTV and all the decorating kind of thing and so So pretty quickly kind of funneled into doing something in construction. And I did ACE mentoring here, architects, contractors, and engineers. And so I was kind of between the
SPEAKER_01:mainland. You did that when you were in high school?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I did it my sophomore year. And it was like met like every other Tuesday, all of that. Yeah,
SPEAKER_01:Aaron used to be a mentor.
SPEAKER_00:Really? Charlie, who works at BPA, was a mentor at the same time, he realized. Like probably a year after I started, I was like, you look familiar. And then we traced the photos back and was like, yep, that's me. We definitely interacted. It was a great learning experience. We would go to different firms and do activities after. My high school allowed us to shadow, so I was able to learn about firms to shadow with through that. Funnily enough, it ruled out engineering because I was like, it's not quite it. It either clicks or it doesn't. You're like, I'm going to hang with these people. It did not click. I shadowed a mechanical engineer and was there very interested in what he did, but I was like, I want you to do that. I don't want me to do that. Yeah,
SPEAKER_01:you get in those
SPEAKER_00:weeds. Yeah, you got it. So yeah, then it was between architecture and interiors. And I just like that interiors has a bigger impact on how people use a space, not just how a space or a building is presented and how it looks and all of that. And so I wanted a more personal experience with how the building functions. Just felt like interiors has been a better fit. So yeah, I went into college knowing that it those interiors. And I feel like each year I learned more and more about what a designer does. Was there
SPEAKER_01:any surprise when you got to college and started going in through
SPEAKER_00:it? Like, oh, my God. Yeah. Maybe I want to be an engineer. I never had that, thankfully. But each time I was like, a designer does this, too. We do this. What? I feel like every year I was shocked by it, but in a good way. I was like this. For me, it makes sense because I like the detailed part of it, but also like the overall picture. And I like understanding how people work, but also a of the creative side. So I think each part of it just kind of fit better into the bigger puzzle and it just clicks.
SPEAKER_01:What year did you graduate?
SPEAKER_00:22. 22.
SPEAKER_01:Okay. Yeah. So you were in the middle of COVID.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. It hit my sophomore year.
SPEAKER_01:Did you come home for that or did you stay in Starkville?
SPEAKER_00:I went home cause it was spring break. So, and I was an RA. So I was like gone the first part of spring break, but I had to come back to campus to work the last half. And that's when we shut down was like the day that I got back. it was when we were kind of uncertain, unsure. And then the next day they were like, all right, and everybody's back home. So yeah, I went home, but then we were back on campus in the fall, which was crazy.
SPEAKER_01:Okay.
SPEAKER_00:But yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Crazy in what way?
SPEAKER_00:Crazy in that there's a lot of uncertainty still, but you also had to go about college life and I was still in RA, so I was having to interact with people, even though I didn't want to interact with people and cases of COVID all around you. It was just, it was a lot. And then also trying to do design which is inherently kind of personal but remote was interesting and it was tough
SPEAKER_01:yeah I'm not interjecting intentionally football into every conversation but just because I mean it's Mississippi State SEC but I remember during that football season is they're like okay we're bringing back football and we're going to have seating regulations and it was like and didn't they just do it was just SEC playing SEC yeah it was just SEC playing SEC so it was a abbreviated seasons just in conference and it was they and they limited ticket sales and i remember so and i was like all this makes sense and then they were like and you have to be six feet apart and so i had this just hilarious image in my head that i thought was re gonna be real at the time of 30 000 people in a stadium that seats 80 all yeah polka dotted throughout the whole stadium and no you could still kind of like cluster with like your friend group or your family group in your ticket package. So it wasn't as funny in my head as I was imagining, just like little pin dots throughout those days. That's neither here nor there. Let's get back to DM. You can cut that part out, Chad. This is my worst anecdote yet. That's a follow-up question, Mark. So you graduated, came back to Birmingham. Did you have a job already lined up? I
SPEAKER_00:did. I heard about BPA at our career fair. The Associates? Yes. Back then they were associates. Yeah, we had a career for, I think it was in like February. And I had a couple interviews, but met a lot of firms there. And probably that next month was just interview after interview, trying to figure out. At that point, I didn't know that I'd be back in Birmingham. What
SPEAKER_01:else were you considering?
SPEAKER_00:I was considering Dallas. I did an internship the summer before. I was considering D.C., but COVID messed it all up because I couldn't travel and really be in the cities
SPEAKER_01:and
SPEAKER_00:get a feel for them like I wanted to. So that was kind of limiting. But it was between Birmingham, Dallas, and D.C. for a while. But I ultimately knew that I wanted to do healthcare and BPA, I think, had the best healthcare portfolio of the people that I'd interviewed with. And so, yeah, it just made sense to come back to Birmingham, which was a shock to everybody.
SPEAKER_01:Did you focus on healthcare in college much?
SPEAKER_00:We did one project in healthcare in my junior year. And you're like, that's it. Yeah, truly. Because it's like we did so many projects types, but that was the first one that, through the research and all of it, it kind of just piqued my interest. And I think... The reason that I love health care is that you get to make an experience that's inherently not ideal a little bit better, even in a way that most people obviously aren't thinking about. Some offices are that way too, though. Yeah. Oh, yeah. And you don't know until you're in it, much less being sick. You know, it's like, I don't want to be here in the first place. You at least want to make it a little bit better. And so I just love that it was focused on the design and how it functions. But it was also just in a way trying to make people feel better and feel more like they belong in a place they didn't want be um and so yeah through all the research for that project i just really fell in love with it in a way that and it wasn't i wasn't expecting to i was kind of like oh another project it'll be interesting but you know whatever and each stage of it it was just a different mindset than other projects we had done that's
SPEAKER_01:cool that it hit like that yeah yeah was it was it like the technical side of it or just um
SPEAKER_00:just or just the impact that kind of so i think the impact okay um because it was a pediatric clinic um but it was the impact i think too with that of what like designing for children and adjusting all the dimensions and then designing for healthcare. So thinking about infection control and all of that. And then that was after COVID. Yeah. After COVID had kind of hit. So that was like kind of more fresh on the brain, I'm sure. So yeah, it was just kind of all of it, just a different thought pattern than kind of what looks good and just a bigger reason for the space planning and the layout of it all, I think. And it kind of made me rephrase like all the times that I been in healthcare settings and maybe think about them a little bit differently because even though I kind of prided myself on being pretty aware of the spaces that I'm in, that's kind of the one area that I was never quite perceptive of my surroundings. You get other things on your mind. Exactly. Yeah. So kind of looking back at me and like, Oh yeah, that is kind of interesting. And rephrasing all those experiences was, was cool.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. I mean, cause it is, you know, that especially being in a patient room, um, just the noises and you're constantly being interrupted and just, you know, cause by having had several children, you know, you're, you're spending the night there, there's all the beeping noises. It's, you know, it's just, I don't know. It's jarring. There's just, it's not comfortable. And so there's a lot that has to go into trying to make it, I guess, more inviting. Yeah. Does the firm, I mean, how do you learn those skills? Do you just pick them up from other designers or from the projects on the fly? Or is there a
SPEAKER_00:little bit of both? I think because we have done so many health care projects, everybody there has an incredible wealth of knowledge for those types of projects and our clients and just understanding how these systems work. So a lot of it in terms of kind of what the client expects, how projects flow, you know, all of that was just learned by the observing how people, how our project managers run projects and how those are executed. I also love Revit and so it's kind of being able to like flex that muscle. Nerd. Honestly, hey, I love being a nerd. I've always been a nerd. So yeah, flex that muscle and just kind of bring in the technology aspect and kind of my own process into those projects. But a lot of it is relying on the knowledge that everybody else has. And I think I'm lucky in that everybody there is always willing to teach and explain and walk through for anybody, whether it's me helping somebody or whether it's, you know, I was helping like interns or whoever. So a lot of it is just sharing information and really working, I think, like collaboratively and sharing info in that way.
SPEAKER_01:Right. Okay. That's good and healthy. I've got a buddy who is an architect and he told a story one time about i don't know if camera if it was an intern or a new hire i'm going to leave names and firms out of this um but i'll tell y'all i have to turn the mics off smart um and uh i cannot remember what the question the the and again architects what the question the the young fellow asked um But one of the principals turned around and said, let me put it this way, we're a sink or swim firm, and you're drowning right now. And then he turned around and walked away. Oh,
SPEAKER_00:my gosh. Yeah, we don't do that. That's different. Yeah, that's different. Yeah, it sounds a little different than Birchville Penual. Yeah. I think the
SPEAKER_01:question may have also been dumb for the record,
SPEAKER_00:so I'll throw in that little caveat. But still. Yeah. I feel like, too, there's already such a steep learning curve coming out of college because– even a program where they teach you a lot there's so much that they can't teach you and each firm does everything differently so when I'm talking to students I'm always like figure out an interview if it's somewhere where you can ask questions because if it's not somewhere you can ask questions maybe choose somewhere else you know because there's going to be so much that you don't know and so much that you don't know to even ask
SPEAKER_01:so that would be good to share the name of that firm with her so when she's talking to students I'll tell you guys I'm writing a note right now off the record don't go here yeah Now, my dad made that same comment when I was at school in terms of like places to work. Yeah, because at the time I was looking for working for a graphic design firm and then that kind of just went off. into the sunset and we would revisit later in life. But he had connections and comments. And one of the things, the firms that he was like, you should really talk to these people was because they'll like, they will bring you into the industry and they will teach you the business and they will teach you different things. Whereas like these may be great firms, but they're going to expect you to know whatever they need you to know out of the gate without them telling you. And you don't know that out of college, you
SPEAKER_00:know? And I think the biggest thing is you don't even know to ask sometimes like one of the first OACs I went to they were talking about like the number of beds or something that they need that they needed and now I know they're talking about the CON kind of part the certificate of need but at the time I was like oh just order some beds like where's my hospital bed easy right yeah like
SPEAKER_01:for instance like a question I might ask is what's an OEC yeah yeah
SPEAKER_00:yeah owner architect contractor like the meeting during construction so everybody kind of gets together once a week every other week whatever talk about the project and what they need and problems and all of that. And so, yeah, I was like, just order some beds in my head. You know, I was like, that wasn't even a question on my mind. And then we left and whoever I was with was like, kind of explained it. And I was like, that wasn't even something that I thought to ask about. I thought that I knew what we were talking about. You're actually thinking like, why is this a question? Literally, I was like, order the beds. You need 12? You need 1,200. Get them. Yeah, I was like, you're talking about everything else you ordered. Just go order them. Build a bigger hospital. Seems easy. So simple. It's simple. Done. Yeah. so if you're not somewhere where people at least take the liberty to explain then maybe look for somewhere else because it's important
SPEAKER_01:what was the what was the biggest surprise going from school to the working world was there anything that stands out like oh okay that's different
SPEAKER_00:probably the amount of I think just collaboration and networking and how many people there are like between
SPEAKER_01:so many
SPEAKER_00:people so many people between other designers reps you know engineers other architects. So many people that end up touching a project.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Whereas, yeah, in school, I guess you wouldn't have any.
SPEAKER_00:Even like with a, you know, group project, the biggest group project is four of us total. So, you know, you go to have that just internally. Right. And then you bring the engineers. And are there more than
SPEAKER_01:four people on projects you're working on now?
SPEAKER_00:Yes. At least for us, it's the four. And then it's the, you know, eight other engineers. And then it's the reps that you contact for all of the finishes. And so it just adds up and keeping all the people straight and building relationships and making sure that you're someone that they want to work with just like they're someone you want to work with was probably the biggest part. I feel like I'm just now starting to know everyone and know where they work and know what they look like and kind of putting all the pieces together. So that was very overwhelming the first year because I met everyone and was like, I don't remember anything.
SPEAKER_01:When you got involved pretty early, pretty much out of the gate, correct? Because how long have you been involved in IIDA?
SPEAKER_00:I finished up my second year on the board. So yeah, started Thank you. So yeah, I was one year out of school when I joined the board. So very early. Now you're a veteran. Honestly. Now you're just,
SPEAKER_01:yeah. And what's your new position on the board?
SPEAKER_00:President-elect. Oh, snap.
SPEAKER_01:See? She's been charged with the whole damn thing. Terrifying. So actually, she'll be our boss. She'll be our boss, yeah. Get it together. Let me put the good questions, or easy questions. Right, yeah. The pre-vetted rapid fire. It was a performance review, actually. What's your favorite color? Yeah, she gives us a performance review. That would be hilarious. She's like, actually, guys, keep the mics on. It's my show now. Surprise. The Dia Baldwin hour. Yeah, well, you were running late to the recording. She sat down in your chair, and I was like, that's not it. I was like,
SPEAKER_00:or you can take his spot. Or do it, yeah. Yeah, we're going to interview Mark. Yeah, new host. Yeah, got to switch it up.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, we thought about interviewing you, but then you might go off on a tangent on SEC teams. Yeah, and then I say something just totally irrelevant to the conversation. I actually They had lunch today. This is what I do. And the person I was having lunch with was a very good friend. And she... We were going to lunch for a reason, right? She's like, I want to talk to you about something. But to get to the reason why she wanted to talk to me, she had to give me the backstory. And the way she prefaced the backstory, she goes, okay, I'm going to tell a Griffo story now. And I was like, I get it because she had to put all the parts and pieces out. And I was like, that makes a difference. And I was happy for it. I was happy to hear all the details. And then did she need a favor or what? She just wanted advice. It sounds like she's buttering you up a little bit. She wanted advice. Chad, people come to me for advice all the time. Do they? Really? Okay. Shocker, Dia says. I'm kidding. I'm just pitching it on air so people come to me for advice. No one's bought a turkey. No one called me about a Valentine's. Isn't that strange? No, no one has reached out about any of the jokes that we've put in. Yeah, so it's either people don't find me truthful. It could be that. It might not be about you. It might be about me. Okay. Well, the next time we do one of those, then maybe I pitch it. Okay. Yeah. We'll see. We'll see what happens. Scientifically. He's like, are you going to ask me a question anymore? I just love to watch all this dynamic. It's so fascinating. Oh, I'm done asking questions. I was going to say, Chad's in charge. No, you are. I'm not going to ask one. You ask a question. Okay. Oh, man. Flip mode. All right. So I can do this. I'm usually the anecdote guy. I'm going to spit my water out. Can you share a project that was particularly challenging but ultimately rewarding? I read that that way on purpose just because I've seen a number of presentations where people get up and read. Mm-hmm. And it irritates me. Oh, it's painful. It irritates me so bad. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because especially, like, you should know your stuff.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Yes. I'm referring to reps. Yeah. Like, CEUs, I get it. You got a script and all the things. Right, right, right. But, like, other things, it's like, if you're just there, like, pitch your three new chairs. Yeah. Yeah. Just pitch your three new chairs. Yeah. It's good to... It's okay to have... Again, we're not even talking to our guests, but... Chad and I are looking at each other. Don't worry about me. Don't worry. It did turn out that she flipped it. She's interviewing us now. No. Yeah. But it's obviously where people have so much text on the screen and then read the entire screen. Yes. And you're like, what the hell are you doing? Yeah. Yeah. This is terrible. You've lost everybody in the room. Yes. You know. Yeah. My other pet peeve, just because we're on this topic, is where they'll, you know, I'm taking notes. Like, they're giving a presentation. I'm taking notes. And they're like, oh, I'll give you a handout afterward with all the information. And I'm like, I have just stopped listening. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. You know, it's like, just go ahead. You just emailed it to me. me yeah yeah well go ahead and just yeah go you can tell us at the end or hand it out at the end and then you've got two copies or you've got more information but the ones where they're like you're like you're taking diligent notes people are actively listening and they're like oh by the way you don't need to take notes because you know I'm gonna give you a handout that has the information on it's like yeah all right well I'm just don't break the engagement yeah right you know they're paying attention I hope everyone that's listening is writing this down yeah yeah I hope no handout I hope they're still listening all right so Mark asked you a question yeah it was most memorable project?
SPEAKER_00:I feel like I'm really early in my career but I think that The most memorable part of a project, I'll sort of answer your question, sort of not. The most interesting part of a project is always seeing the response from staff specifically. Like I was doing a project and it was an equipment replacement and we weren't fully done yet, almost. And it was so fun every time we were there to see the staff like peek in and be like, oh, sorry, like I didn't want to interrupt. And we're like, no, you can come in. Like, you know, it's all safe. You're good. But they were just like looking around and like, oh, this is cool. Look at this. It's so new. This is so like, you know, we love the setup. And I just love that part of it because especially in healthcare, care like everybody's focused on the patient experience which is important but i also like to focus on the staff experience as well um and try to make their lives i mean just they work so hard work so hard and they were not giving their full like appreciation especially after the pandemic and all of that so that's always my favorite part is just to see their excitement when it's a new space and a new setup so yeah always i always look forward to that because they're always so appreciative and
SPEAKER_01:are there any particular is there a particular like major challenge that you've had had to overcome like with a specific project that I don't know I mean I guess a challenge you don't see coming I was gonna say that was unforeseen most challenges I think are unforeseen that especially being new or out of school
SPEAKER_00:yeah
SPEAKER_01:that you're like oh like this is something that like I know this now because I had several years of experience but at the time it's like I
SPEAKER_00:think a lot of times just dealing with not necessarily like client expectations, but sometimes the processes that certain groups have, whether it's the actual client or a group that kind of oversees them a lot of time, gets in the way, especially with health care. You know, they're looking at it from a regulatory perspective. And sometimes that works, sometimes it doesn't. Just order the beds. Yeah, it's like, just order the beds. You know, who cares about that CO1? You don't need it. But yeah, it's just like, sometimes those processes work. Sometimes they just kind of clutter up or they're not exactly what each group needs. And trying to kind of balance that can be difficult. But yeah, And that's not something that's always like my strong suit. Thankfully, I haven't had to do it just me yet. But I've seen different people's kind of take on how to compromise and still make a good project and a good solution for the end user specifically in light of any overseeing bodies.
SPEAKER_01:That is a skill to be able to kind of navigate that and direct people where they may not want to go, but you get them there and you make it seem like it's their idea.
SPEAKER_00:Right. Right. Or like deliver the blow of like, I know you said you really wanted this, but we can't do that. So here's what you have instead. And here's how we think you can use it. And it'll still, you know, hit at least some of your requirements and what you need. So, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Do you enjoy that part? Like, and I'm kind of, I'm going to kind of equate it to a restaurant. Like you have the front of the house, you have the back of the house, right? So you have front of the house. So what you're talking about, Chad's like... You're interacting with the staff, you're interacting with committees, you're interacting with GCs, and then you've got back house where it's like, okay, they don't ever come out. They're doing important work, but they're not actually interacting with people. Do you like the interaction with people?
SPEAKER_00:I do. Good, because you're going to be present. I'm an introvert, but I'm an introvert that likes human interaction more. in certain doses. And so I think that type of human interaction, especially when you're trying to design it, is helpful for me. It's helpful for me to see the full picture of it and not just hear information relayed back to me because I think then I have a lot of follow-up questions and a lot of just natural curiosities. So yeah, I like interacting with end users. I like interacting with kind of the bigger group. Yeah, I think that especially since we have such long-standing clients, I think it just makes the job easier because you're going to put a face to a name and just makes the process easier
SPEAKER_01:yeah they get to know you yeah right yeah
SPEAKER_00:yeah it's a little bit more interpersonal I think then when like issues arise it's not a random person that I'm emailing it's oh this person I saw last week they're not just emailing an email exactly it's like we can talk about this and have rapport and some trust you know
SPEAKER_01:yeah One of your answers I really liked, so hopefully you remember it and you'll say it. I hope so. See how quickly he took it back over as well. I was like, you're not doing it right. I was like, I'm just going to say it back. Enough of that. Okay, that was enough, Mark. What was a valuable lesson that you've learned from a mentor or senior designer?
SPEAKER_00:Yes, I actually do remember that answer. So this is something I learned from Maria. She brings up all the time, which is very helpful. We do a lot of renovation projects, and it's really easy to get caught up in, like, this is my project scope, and I'm only going to focus on my project scope, what finishes, what layout needs to be, all of this. And then you forget about how all of that touches what's existing and how you make that transition, whether it's paint, flooring, just the spaces and how they relay. And so she always talks about to think about the edges of a project and so it's helpful because you see it when it's done wrong and it's glaring and it's obvious and it's you can tell like this is where they stopped this is where the project started these were the silos that we were in yes which is unfortunate when it's in the middle of a huge hospital and it looks awkward and out of place and it's like you probably should have just left what was there but then when it's done right it's you know all the ICHRA comes down and it's seamless and it's great and it flows in a way that still makes sense but it's still new and updated and meets all the requirements so that's the biggest thing and you know and pretty much even if it's a new project we still talk about think about the edges because it's always important to not just think about whatever you're designing like if you're designing a desk it's like okay well how does that meet the wall how does this like terminate right what thinking about it as a 3d element and not just I want it to look like this it's but how does that relate to the rest of the space you know how does the interior relate to the exterior how does this floor or relate to the other floor. It's important to think of it as a whole unit. I thought it was beautiful. Think about the edges.
SPEAKER_01:Think about the edges. It was nice. Erin says you don't pluck one eyebrow at a time. That's her? That's hers. You and I don't. I mean, I get it. But you and I don't pluck our eyebrows. But it's like you wouldn't just pluck one eyebrow at a time. Dia's over here nodding her head like, yeah, I get it. And I'm looking at you like, what? You don't understand, Chad. But yeah, it's the same concept. You look at it as a whole and how it's going to affect you. You're not just going to like, I'm just going to do this one eyebrow like I plucked my eyebrows. Am I explaining this correctly? Yes, exactly. Perfect. Look at my eyebrows and tell me I don't know what I'm talking about, Chad. Thank you. You look nice. Thanks. Does she do them for you? Again, Dia just left. Dia left for a second time. I'll let y'all have this moment. Now I got weird. Yeah, well, I'm looking forward to seeing what Mickey sends you now. Oh, for sure. Yeah, we're all going to get it. What would it be? So you got like a manicure set and pedicure set. What's an eyebrow set? An eyebrow set? Mickey Davis listens to the podcast. Dia's looking at me like, what are you talking about? I don't know what you're asking. This was not on the list of questions that you sent me. Mickey will listen to the podcast and based on some of the things that we'll say, he'll send us gifts, like just out of the blue. He'll pick something up that's like, oh, that makes sense. I'll send it. So we've got, you don't have your Designing Women mug. I don't have my Designing Women mug, yeah. So we mentioned Designing Women, the TV show, once. And so we both got Designing Women coffee mugs. And so they were mentioning plucking eyebrows. And so I was like, oh, great, we're going
SPEAKER_00:to end up with. Yeah, they have that. You can get your eyebrows waxed, threaded, whatever you want.
SPEAKER_01:So we could do like a, like an outing. Like it doesn't have to be like a gift. It could be like a gift card experience. Yeah. I would love to see y'all get your eyebrows. This is two of us and Mickey. This is, this is the, we've also joked on the show about like setting hints on like seeing what we could get. And normally it's revolved around like bourbon or whatever. And I can't believe it now. And we did. And now we're, now we're landing on a spa day. Yeah. But to be fair too, He also gives it to the guest.
SPEAKER_00:I'm good with it. I've had my eyebrows waxed. That's true. That's right. I feel like y'all are going to– it's a new level of pain. It's a different type of pain. I know. So good luck.
SPEAKER_01:So you're going to look forward to this? Yeah. Because I've had it done before. What would they wax on our eyebrows? I mean, I
SPEAKER_00:get they– The stray hairs. The hairs. I mean, you can get whatever you want waxed. You can wax your arms.
SPEAKER_01:But what is the threaded thing? You said threading?
SPEAKER_00:It's like– I mean, it's like they get a piece of thread, they tie it together, and by pulling it tighter, that's what cuts off the eyebrows. That's what plucks the hair.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, I didn't know that. This feels very much like the sourdough conversation. So they thread it to remove hair. I thought threading was actually thickening up
SPEAKER_00:the eyebrows. It's like they twist it around their finger and they like kind of pull it tighter, but they pull it around the hair. So that is usually like one or two hairs at a time. It hurts. I'm not going to lie to you. Waxing is easier because it's just rip it off. One and done. You have like four, top and bottom of each eyebrow, maybe in the middle. And you
SPEAKER_01:hope that they're thinking about the edges.
SPEAKER_00:You hope, yeah. Way to circle back. I'm trying to bring it back. It's only because you remember, like you said, the sourdough conversation, which lasted 15 minutes.
SPEAKER_01:Well, which people told me they appreciated it because they're like, we learned a lot about sourdough. Yeah, right. Yeah, we're good. Good. And now hopefully all the gentlemen that are listening learned about their eyebrows being plucked. Yeah. Adam Whitley. I'm just going to say that name and move on. He already knows. Yeah, he already knows. How do you find, as a young designer, getting your input and your thoughts into a project? Is it a challenge, or is it not with the firm that you're in?
SPEAKER_00:It hasn't been a challenge yet. I think BPA also does a really good job of listening to designers at any stage. So even, you know, whether it's an intern, if you feel like you have an important contribution or a question or whatever, it's listened to, it's heard because we understand that each person has different. skills and a different perspective and it just helps the project get better right um so yeah I think that it's been easy throughout my career to have my perspective heard and whether it's because sometimes you know you kind of suppose there's a question of like well what about this and it's something that maybe is helpful maybe it's not maybe it sparks an idea that somebody else has and so yeah it's been an easy thing and I think that it's something that I also encourage students and designers to kind of get like used to um because it's hard to kind of sit there quietly for five years and then suddenly be a project lead, you know, like it's not going to happen overnight. Right.
SPEAKER_01:How does that work with clients? Is that, is it a similar dynamic or is it a little bit more like, you know, because I would imagine and trying to think back being that young once upon a time, but I remember just being like, okay, I'm, you know, I'm baby face, you know, and like, oh, this is my, this is what I think, you know, and you're, you know, you're talking to somebody that's in their fifties or something.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Yeah, it is definitely hard, especially when you look young and people know that you're young. No need to brag. Yeah. But I think that's where kind of like having exposure just with the client in general makes it easier for them to trust you because it's not like the first time seeing you and you're young. It's, oh, I've seen you at all of these meetings. I've seen you contribute to this project as a whole. And I think other project members do a really good job of saying like, oh, Dia helped work on this rendering or, you know, we all worked on the space planning for this. and to show that it's not just you know the project leads that were or the most experienced people that were working on this and the rest of us were just kind of in the background showing that it was a collaborative process I think helps our clients start to trust us a little bit but also I think just fake it till you make it you know like if you sound sure if you're sure then most people I've found kind of at least believe it or at least are more willing to listen sure you know
SPEAKER_01:yep there's a level of communication and confidence there yeah where do you where do you find inspiration
SPEAKER_00:All over. look at the different snapshots, healthcare snapshots the best or the most in terms of like specific projects and things like that. But I think also just being out and about, if it's something that's cool, that catches my eye, I'll take a photo. And I just like to be inspired. Like your cabinets. My cabinets. They're great. Yeah. I just bought a house, just painted cabinets. They look amazing. They do. They look great. Thank you. Thank you. So yeah, it's just out and just in life, I think, especially with work, the different products that Rep's bring in will also inspire me. Really to seeing like what trends are kind of emerging through the products. What, you know, different photography on their website looks like. I think I like to just get inspiration from all over because you never know when it's going to be useful.
SPEAKER_01:Right. And this show will air before Neocons.
SPEAKER_00:It will. You're going to Neocons. I am. Yeah. Second year. Very excited. Second
SPEAKER_01:year. That's right. So second year, do you feel more confident stepping into Neocon?
SPEAKER_00:I know what to expect. Yeah. I know how to prepare myself. Yeah. Physically mentally. I asked her
SPEAKER_01:when she first said, I was like, are you ready for a Nikon? She said no. No.
SPEAKER_00:But I know to not be ready. You know, can't overestimate your abilities. Especially since we go so early. It's not just the Monday, Tuesday kind of. Yeah, no, it's a marathon. It's a marathon, not a sprint. So that's the biggest thing. Right. But I think the biggest thing for me is preparing my social battery. Because I know like when it actually comes to Nikon, you know, it's like I'm going to be excited about all the products. Like that's going to energize me. But it's the social battery to get there. That's hard. it's a lot of talking it's a lot of
SPEAKER_01:talking yeah I'm an introvert as well and I get back and I'm just I cannot talk yeah I'm done I
SPEAKER_00:have to tell everybody like do not look for me I will call you do not call me
SPEAKER_01:I have used all my words for the month
SPEAKER_00:yes truly I'll see you in July so you want
SPEAKER_01:to hang out no two and a half more weeks exactly yeah actually call me after the fourth
SPEAKER_00:yeah truly yeah is
SPEAKER_01:there anything you're looking forward to in particular going back up ooh
SPEAKER_00:I always well not always I like to see how the different showrooms just put products together like so even like now the Momentum showroom still stands out to me that was yeah it won
SPEAKER_01:best small showroom or best probably best large
SPEAKER_00:showroom it was a large showroom it was colorful it was interesting they had what's the brand with the like squishy foam foam core yes they had like a lot of again it was memorable you're welcome thank you so yeah it was just that one like I think just seeing like showrooms like that that really you can tell like put a lot of thought it wasn't just oh sprucing up what's kind of already there which is fine it's you know I can only imagine but right seeing the effort that they put in to me it's still something I remember almost a year later
SPEAKER_01:yeah yeah it's it is fascinating to watch like them try to transform showrooms and you can tell the ones that really put an effort in yeah I took I forget which manufacturer it was it was the worst showroom I think I've seen it was one where you I It looked like they just put a bunch of chairs in a room, and the lighting was bad. It was like they were trying to recreate a 70s office. Was this one or two years ago? Yeah, it was within the last couple. I don't know if it was last year or the two years. Okay, because I'm having some sort of flashback to something very similar. It was in the Mart. It was in the Mart, and I walked by it, and I just stopped and was like, oh, my God, that's terrible. And there was the one salesperson in there. There was nobody else. Single light. Just a light bulb hanging from the ceiling. It
SPEAKER_00:was so bad. We're open, we promise. Right. And there was one that had a tiger or something in the window. I don't know. how that related to the brand. There was one
SPEAKER_01:too, I guess it was last year, that had a mime. Yeah. It is always interesting the things that manufacturers will do to kind of draw you in. And it's usually... it's usually not like a major brand and that's not saying that they're minor brands but there may be a smaller showroom and you know they'll have somebody that'll be like doing caricatures and yeah I mean a lot of times sometimes it doesn't have anything to do with what the product is it's just this is interesting people are going to stop and look and might go oh what's in here yeah how do you get you know 50,000 people over two and a half days there's a lot of showrooms yeah you've got to have something that catches your eye and doesn't doesn't make you run like that one showroom I was talking about right it didn't make me actually stop
SPEAKER_00:I just love seeing the products honestly yeah just I think too you have a lot of reps that come in and especially when it's like furniture and they show the picture of it but being able to like sit in and experience it makes it a little bit more concrete a little bit more I guess digestible too so yeah yeah just a for sure
SPEAKER_01:images can only go so far sometimes you don't quite get the scale. And you definitely don't know if it's comfortable or not. There's some really beautiful, beautiful chairs out there that are the absolute worst to sit in. And then there's some that are ugly as hell. You're like, man, I am not getting up. I don't want anyone to know I own this. I think I'm touring you guys in late on Monday is when I have you. But I've learned also as a rep, and this is a tip for those Furniture Reps out there. The tours that you have in the afternoon... the furniture that you have, regardless if it sits well or not, everyone's like, oh, this is so comfortable, because they've been on their feet all day. So it doesn't matter what it is. It can be a concrete block. Yeah, and they're like, oh, this is, so as long as they in their head are like,
SPEAKER_00:oh, I remember, that was really nice. Yeah. Came in handy when I needed it. Perfect chair right there.
SPEAKER_01:So do you have any, on the current, on the board right now, you're in charge of students? Yes, student affairs. What tips do you give students as far as if they're interested in becoming interior designers?
SPEAKER_00:I think just to reach out to designers, to get involved in whatever their school's organization is, to get involved in IDA, ASID, whichever group of letters you prefer, especially if they're looking into coming to Birmingham. Everybody knows everybody. So the quicker you get involved with designers, the easier it is to find jobs, ask questions, just get to know people in general.
SPEAKER_01:Right.
SPEAKER_00:And also, I think just to be personable, figure out what makes you different, figure out how to present yourself, how to just have conversations with designers, how to present your work. A lot of it with us, I think, is just communicating and knowing how to form those relationships, which some students are pretty good at. Some, you know, are still learning and growing, but...
SPEAKER_01:It's
SPEAKER_00:a skill. It's a skill, yeah. Especially the presenting your work part. You've got to develop. Yeah. Because I think, like, you know, people are really good with doing their design, and then when it comes to presenting it, they're just like, this is what I did. And you're like, you're not selling it. Help me out here. Yeah. Yeah. So that's right. Or worse, which I always hate is when they start saying like, well, I don't know much about detailing. And so I don't know about this, or I don't know if this is, you know, can actually be built. And it's like, don't worry about all that. Don't bring it up. Just present your design. Yeah. Don't
SPEAKER_01:lead, don't lead with a negative. Cause now, now you've already put in my head that you don't know what you're talking about. Right. Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:And then just to tell them like, no one expects them to know everything and it's okay to just expect them to want to to ask questions, to be engaged. And that we're all just people at the end of the day. Like that email that you send is going to be scary. I'm not taking that away, but it's, you're just emailing another person, you know, just another email that comes up. It's not just like, I don't get an email from a student. I'm like, Oh my God, the world must stop. This is the most important thing. And this is life or death. It's, it's an email. You're presenting yourself. You're young, you're new. It's okay.
SPEAKER_01:They get a lot of emails.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. They get a lot of emails. Yours
SPEAKER_01:isn't going to necessarily stand
SPEAKER_00:out. Yeah. It's like, don't, that sounds bad, but it's like, just take the pressure off of it. It does. Because you send it in and you're just like, oh my gosh, what if they feel annoyed or whatever? It's like, no, they're not. I was
SPEAKER_01:telling you, my son, I had to get up and give a presentation and you could tell he was nervous about it. And I was like, okay, but what is your, when one of your friends is up in front of the classroom talking, are you like, oh, they screwed up. They screwed up. Right. I mean, it's a warm and they think the best. Or they're just not paying attention. How often do you not even pay attention? Exactly. And so don't make it a bigger deal than it's not actually one. Because you mentioned being an introvert and getting out and social battery and all the things. Do you find there's a good correlation? I don't want to lead an answer here because I already know what it's going to be. Chad's leaning back in his chair. That in terms of getting out and meeting reps and doing the ASID and IIDA and the networking and meeting other designers, that translates and being able to communicate better with your your clients. Yes. And that's what you're going to say. I just wanted to, I always want to put it out there for the people that either are the younger students or that even if they're not young or young, younger professionals that, you know, it's, it's a process that kind of everybody goes through and you're just at different levels, but there are ways that you can kind of get out there. And it's like, if you're having an experience like, Oh, that makes me uncomfortable.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Well, maybe you can get, and this is now a pitch for IIDA, maybe you can get involved in IIDA or AIDC and get involved in a committee or actually come to events. And that could help you professionally
SPEAKER_00:as well. Because I remember the first year, anytime there was an event, even just to see you, I was like, I'm not going to know anybody. I'm going to be awkward. It's going to be awkward. I'm just going to be standing there for an hour. And it's intimidating, especially if nobody from your job is coming or they have to leave early and you're like, Like, what do I do? And then the more events that you go to, the more people you meet, the less awkward it becomes. And then even if it's not somebody that you talk to the whole time, you still can go between conversations and it flows easy. And I think it just helps to learn how to talk to people that you don't know but have a common interest with. Because even if the conversation falls flat, you're all working in the same industry. You can talk about that. What's your favorite project? What are you working on right now? Are you busy? Are you excited for coming up? It just makes it easier to have those conversations. And that does relate to then having conversations with clients because, again, you have a shared interest. You start to get to know them. You start to learn how to make meaningful small talk and meaningful connections and all of that.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. When I first moved here, the first industry event I went to was an IDA Christmas party. And Joanna Rock, who's now Joanna Goodman, but then it was Joanna Rock. But she ended up like, she was great. I mean, she was kind of like, I was like, oh, you're new. Come here. Let me introduce you to people. And just kind of took me around, which was great. was fantastic because at that point yeah I get walking into a room you don't know anybody
SPEAKER_00:and you can tell everybody else knows everybody yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah
SPEAKER_01:well there's also there's a built-in safety net like outside like of something like a party but like a CEU or you know you know a career day or whatever and they're going to be reps there
SPEAKER_00:yeah
SPEAKER_01:and especially if you're an interior designer the reps want to know who you
SPEAKER_00:are
SPEAKER_01:and so they're going to come up and introduce themselves and they want to know where you work and stuff like that so you can lean on them yeah to lead the conversation. We're the social lubricant. Yeah, we are. We're pretty awesome. Yes, I don't know. You guys are really annoying. Stop coming up and talking to me. Stop interrupting our conversations.
SPEAKER_00:Especially if it's like a rep that's like really out there. Just how many
SPEAKER_01:times she said yes. Yes. Yes.
SPEAKER_00:Yes. They are really annoying. I appreciate it. Like I love the extrovert or at least somebody who's more extroverted in that moment who can kind of like break the ice because I'm I'm not the type that's gonna be like, hey, I'm Dia, nice to meet you. That's not.
SPEAKER_01:Well, they clicked in my brain when you said about like, you know, like you're gonna have, okay, I'm gonna be with somebody at work and we're gonna go to the CEU and then like last minute, maybe there's a plan change. You're like, okay, I gotta go by myself. I'm not gonna know anybody. Well, you're not. There's going to be one or two reps there, and depending on where the CEU is hosted, there might be other reps there that are not part of the presentation that are going to be like, hey, who are you? I'm so-and-so, and it's nice to meet you. Especially if there's a name tag that says BPA on it. Like, oh, hey. You're new. You're at BPA. Great. Yes, there's going to be nervousness. I'm your best friend. Yeah, exactly. Everybody's in this industry. It's weird. But yeah, anyway, built-in safety net. Yeah. Yeah. Great. So what are your thoughts on cherry wood?
SPEAKER_00:It has its uses everywhere but my house.
SPEAKER_01:Well, one of our questions was, you know, did you have a favorite color or pattern or material that you like incorporating into your designs?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I like walnut. You like walnut. And I love tile. Anytime I can use tile, I'm always down.
SPEAKER_01:That's come up before. It has come up before. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:I love tile. But yeah, I like tile. I don't know. There's just something about the darker but warmer wood that I feel like pairs really easily across different color schemes. I think that it's also pretty timeless, which for a lot of our clients, they're not doing renovations in this space all that often, so you try to think of something that's going to last in durability but also in aesthetics. I feel like the darker, warmer woods just kind of last a little bit better than the cherry woods, personally. I
SPEAKER_01:remember the cherry wood for a while, that was... It was it, though. I mean, it was on everything. And
SPEAKER_00:now you look back at it, and you're like, whoa, that's dated. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. It's probably one of the only ones that I can think of right now that I feel like immediately dates it. Other things I think you can kind of work with. You can incorporate it a little bit better. But that Cherrywood, it's rough.
SPEAKER_01:Do you think things come and go and then come back again? I
SPEAKER_00:hope that one does. Do you
SPEAKER_01:think Cherrywood's going to make a comeback? It will at some point. It probably will, and I'll be again. And I will not be here for it. Hopefully we'll all be back. Not my favorite. Cherrywood's making a comeback. It's a good thing Chad's
SPEAKER_00:dead. He would have hated this. It's just hard to work with. It's hard to blend with anything else, too. It's just not easy. I've used it. I've had to use it to match existing all of that. Yeah, because it was already there. I definitely didn't pick it. You matched it to itself. Yep,
SPEAKER_01:yep. Fine. The averages are work with the edges yes what's our edge maria it's cherry wood all right here we go all right well we are 50 almost 50 minutes in so if we want to switch to uh rapid fire i've got a question about mississippi state football no i'm kidding wrong audience okay Where do I start? This is me giving dead air now. We'll start. I haven't asked this in a while. Your project just got a boost of$50,000. Where do you spend the money? Designer fees. I'd
SPEAKER_00:probably say in the furniture.
SPEAKER_01:Good
SPEAKER_00:answer. Good answer, yeah. I love that answer. You hear that, flooring people? She's totally just buttering us up. What do you guys sell? Oh, that. Yeah. I feel like sometimes that's the thing that people kind of balk at the price of because you see it all up front, you know? And sometimes some really cool things get pushed aside. And I think that furniture is something that I think can really add to. Furniture or art, actually. But probably furniture is where I'd go first. Yeah, that price.
SPEAKER_01:it's like if you don't know now you know really hits you hard
SPEAKER_00:the first time oh yeah that's and I think we've had like a couple of clients where this is their first project or first project in a while and so they're like furniture I don't even know where to start and we're like okay like it sounds like you know a lot of times you're like oh that's great like no budget but then you know they're gonna be like how much for what
SPEAKER_01:yeah yeah I have well I'm sure you've had this happen too but where a friend will reach out and be like hey I'm looking for an office chair especially pandemic pandemic everyone needed an office chair for their home and they Hey, I need an office chair. You know, do you think you'd get me a good deal? And I was like, yeah, I can get you a good deal. Um, but you're still going to think it's wildly, you're not going to, I'll get you a fantastic deal, but you're not going to want to pay it because it is so much more expensive than you think it is. Yeah. Yeah. We have an intern in our accounting department this summer. Um, that is, is, is, and he's getting his master's, you know, he's not out in the world yet and he's not, he's new to this industry entirely. And, um, and we had a group that went to lunch last week and he and I wrote together and he was saying he's like I had no idea that this side of the industry existed he was just referring to the furniture side not everything else and just how big of an industry it is and one of the things I told him as I was learning in the industry one of the things I picked up was that especially if you're building something ground up brand new building the second most of the time the second biggest cost after the construction of the actual building will be furniture and that blows people's minds but then Once you start thinking about it, you're like, okay, where are you going to sit? Where are your people going to work? If you have a receptionist, where are they going to work? It's just, but yeah, it's a lot of money. Somebody told me once, and I don't know if this is true or not, but I'm going to say it as if it is, that the contract furniture industry is the same size as the potato chip industry. I thought you were going to be like movie, like something cool. Yeah, chips. And Mickey, I don't know. I like Lay's potato chips. Just throwing that out there. Did he not bring you chips? Did we get chips? We got chips because I brought up Ut's potato chips one time. Maybe this was just a me thing. Son of a... Yeah. We got problems. Dia, if someone was coming at you with a knife, how would you disarm them?
SPEAKER_00:Well, I am a second degree black belt. I know. Oh, snap. So I would actually disarm them. It depends on how they're holding the knife, first and foremost. If it's like stabby, stabby, like straight out, then it's not easy, but easier. She was overhand. Yes. Stabby, stabby. Just translate the stabby, stabby. Everyone knows stabby, stabby. Of course. But if it's like parallel with their arm, that's when you're like, what do you want? How can I get you away from me? That's when you're like, because they know what they're doing, and
SPEAKER_01:it's,
SPEAKER_00:yeah. Oh. So it just depends. But if it's like a more outward knife motion, Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Coming up like the classic shower scene. Exactly. Psycho.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Yeah. And that's a little bit easier to disarm. Okay. So what would you do? You kind of like, it's hard to describe, but I'll try my best. You'll block overhead and then kind of almost do like a figure four lock and like take them back.
SPEAKER_01:This is why in season three we need video cameras. Yes. Right. But in season three, you know, Dia's going to be in charge. So we're laying the groundwork now. Yeah. I can already see like us standing up and I'm like, okay, I've got a knife. Yeah. I'm coming. I'll do a demonstration for whoever would like one. Okay. I foresee a late night at Neocon that's coming back up. Let's do it. Yeah, well, with that. We're going to record an episode. That's right. What part of a project keeps you up at night?
SPEAKER_00:Construction. In the way of like, it stresses me out a lot of the time. Especially if there's a project where it's kind of... Not necessarily touch and go, but it's a little bit complicated. The project that we're doing now has very little overhead ceiling space, and we're trying to get a lot of utilities from different parts of the building, and it's in the basement, and that project is like, I don't know. I feel like every time we go to an OAC, I'm like, oh, God, please don't have any problems. Please make sure this route works. So, yeah, that's the project. And then also having like anytime it's an equipment replacement and delivering like millions of dollars of equipment, that's stressful. And I'm never there. They're like, oh, you want to come and watch? It's going to be so cool. No. Yeah, they're craning it in.
SPEAKER_01:through the fourth story window
SPEAKER_00:literally taking off parts of a building to bring it in I'm like I don't want to be anywhere near downtown
SPEAKER_01:speaking of Neocon there was I guess it was I think it was last year it was last year they were they had a helicopter lifting like HVAC like huge HVAC units onto a building that was near us and so like they were the helicopters coming down in between the buildings and picking up these things and taking them up and we're like are they filming a movie it's like no no but it was still pretty cool
SPEAKER_00:yeah
SPEAKER_01:not to add to a helicopter neocon story but you know like this was probably four years ago They were filming, I think it was the rock movie, Rampage. And they had helicopters flying, we'll call it 100, 200 feet, off the river. That's cool. And then they CGI'd everything that's going on with the monster. The big giant gorilla, I think, was in Rampage. But yeah, they had one morning. There wasn't an actual huge giant monster? No, there wasn't. I'm going to miss that part. Yeah, AI now. It starts with the gorilla losing its job. So yeah. But, yeah, people saw it. It was, like, wild. Like, yeah, it was, like, three, like, Army helicopters flying. And then all the movie crews, like, on the different bridges with the cameras and everything. Did it take you back a little bit? It did a little bit, yeah. All right. Yeah, so back in my film career. That's a podcast for another day called All of Mark's Jobs. So this is a good segue. What's your favorite movie?
SPEAKER_00:Princess Diaries 1 and 2.
SPEAKER_01:That's two movies.
SPEAKER_00:But you have to watch them together. My rule is that they must be watched within 24 hours. Do you have a
SPEAKER_01:favorite of the two?
SPEAKER_00:If I had to pick a favorite child, I would probably say the first one. That's true of my children. I'm just joking. They truly have to be watched back to back. It's a hard and fast rule.
SPEAKER_01:Is this the Anne Hathaway,
SPEAKER_00:Julie Andrews? Yeah. Yeah, you didn't hesitate. I didn't. Yeah. It is my favorite movie. I love it. It's my comfort movie. I appreciate
SPEAKER_01:somebody who can answer that question. I know, I know. Because we've asked that similar question and it's just like, yeah, people think about it. Like, I feel like you need a go-to. Right. You know, mine would be Stand By Me. Not that you guys are asking.
SPEAKER_00:No.
SPEAKER_01:But, you know. Jack's like, this isn't about you. Back to the question. What was the first thing you did when you got to work this morning
SPEAKER_00:i didn't actually go in the office today okay off um but typically oh that's right because you were doing house and apartment stuff yeah typically it is probably like check email and then warm up breakfast and get coffee
SPEAKER_01:so you're a breakfast at work person
SPEAKER_00:yeah yeah yeah
SPEAKER_01:so breakfast is cold Yeah. Do you bring it from the house, I guess, or
SPEAKER_00:is something that's already there? No, I bring it from the house. Usually it's like sometimes a lot of times I stop and get breakfast so then I don't have to warm it up, but I'll do like a casserole and warm it up or like muffins and warm them up. Gotcha. Yeah, I like to eat breakfast before I drink coffee.
SPEAKER_01:Okay. I'm chuckling to myself because the website that we use to host these episodes is Buzzsprout, and I've been dinking around on it lately, and we can like pull the transcript. It's all this AI stuff, and they've got a– It's probably been a feature for a while, I just now noticed it, but where you could pull an audio clip, right? You know, 30 seconds, 60 seconds clip, and then use that in your promo. And I was just thinking if we used the cold breakfast back and forth that you guys just had over the last 30 seconds. Which in the scheme of this episode is on brand and makes sense and is hilarious. As the 30 seconds is the most boring, almost SNL level. Tune in. So your breakfast is cold when you go to work? That's a hard-hitting question. I heat it up. I've got to have my coffee before breakfast. Actually, it's breakfast first and then coffee. Oh, that's right. She did say that. Pay attention. I was too busy getting to my joke, and I stopped. He doesn't like listening to the guests. I'm not an active listener. What's your favorite letter of the alphabet?
SPEAKER_00:Man, that's hard. Probably, I don't know, S. S came
SPEAKER_01:to mind. What's your favorite word that starts with S?
SPEAKER_00:Sunshine. That's not true. I don't know. That's the first word that came to mind. Princess Diaries 1 and 2.
SPEAKER_01:Anytime. Do you want to change it or do you just want to stick with sunshine and I'll
SPEAKER_00:move on? Yeah, I don't know. Favorite letter is interesting. That's probably, I don't know, S. I like how S's look. I'll go S. But yeah, I don't know a word.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, don't get weird. What's your favorite word? Don't ask a follow-up question. It's not appropriate for this podcast. So that's not true. I don't know what my favorite word would be. Anti-disestablishmentarianism.
SPEAKER_00:That tracks.
SPEAKER_01:He always brings it back. It's about him again.
SPEAKER_00:Chad, what's your favorite word? Don't talk to him.
SPEAKER_01:I was going to say shh.
SPEAKER_00:That's what came to mind. Shush noise.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, I thought you were censoring yourself. No, no, no. This one's for Mickey. Underline or highlight?
SPEAKER_00:Underline.
SPEAKER_01:Blue or black ink?
SPEAKER_00:Blue.
SPEAKER_01:I feel like he had one more and now I can't remember what it is. What's the best dish that you can prepare?
SPEAKER_00:Probably like a Tuscan salmon. Yeah. It has like sun-dried tomatoes and like a cream sauce, tomatoes. I do like kale in it. See, I
SPEAKER_01:asked that question not knowing if she could cook or not.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. I can cook. I don't enjoy cooking. Okay. I mainly cook because I can't afford to eat out every meal.
SPEAKER_01:Right. Would you enjoy cooking for several of your friends to come over to your new house?
SPEAKER_00:Enjoy? No, but I do plan to host friends at my house. But I will do it. But yeah, I'm not like, I don't, dislike cooking. She wouldn't like it though. But it's not how I want to spend my time. I like baking. I'll bake. I'm not good at it per se. Okay. But I do like, I do enjoy it. It's a
SPEAKER_01:Tuscan salmon.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. And I love salmon. It's really good.
SPEAKER_01:Very specific. I love it. If you could design a space that was inspired by the movie A Prince's Diaries, what would it look like?
SPEAKER_00:It would... Honestly, it would probably look like... Princess Diaries 1 or 2, Mark. Honestly. Fair question. Different scenes. Oh, 1. Definitely 1, for sure. Well, it's based in San Francisco for most of it, so I'd probably do it based off of the loft that Mia and her mom live in is a refurbished firehouse, and it's really cool, and I've always wanted to live in a loft, so it would be something that looks like that. Colorful, quirky, has a painting studio, all of the things. Is
SPEAKER_01:the character's name Mia? Yeah. Okay. I thought you were saying you and the mom. No. Me
SPEAKER_00:and the mom. Maybe you're a full name, but it's a lot. Amelia Minionette Thermopolis-Rinaldi is her full name.
SPEAKER_01:That's like anti-dissatisfaction. That's my favorite word, just her name. Yeah, that's my favorite word. And mine is shh. Both of you, shh. All right, if you had a time machine, A, would you use it? And if so, where in time would you go? I
SPEAKER_00:would use it. And I'd probably go back to like, ooh, would I use it? Actually, I don't think I would use it. Okay. Well, could I go forward? It's a time machine. It's a time machine. I didn't know the specifics of this time machine. I guess I would go into the future. Oh, okay. Maybe like nowhere crazy. Probably 50 years. To see if Cherry Woods come back. Honestly. What's the state of design? Do you want to stick this out? I need to be dead by this date. Yeah. Yes. Got to wrap it up. Yeah, I'd go into the future. But I'd also go somewhere like deserted and just like hang out. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And be an introvert? Yes. Okay, without using the word introvert. So like a dystopian future, like
SPEAKER_00:where there's nobody? No one but you. Not too dystopian. I like some people, just not a lot of them. That's why I want like a desert, not a deserted island, but maybe like a very remote... It's
SPEAKER_01:just a time thing. Like an archipelago. I know, but I feel like... And you've got your own island. But your time machine, since it's yours, it can also travel to different areas.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, it has to. I mean, I think if I can travel time, I can travel locations. That's the easy part. Exactly.
SPEAKER_01:Okay. You know, do they do that in time machine movies? They don't do it in Back to the Future. They don't do it in the time machine.
SPEAKER_00:Well, then I could go to the place I wanted to be and then use a time machine.
SPEAKER_01:Right. You need like a time machine airplane. But I agree that if they can figure out the time thing, it can also should be able to just show up wherever.
SPEAKER_00:Exactly. I feel like I'd rather teleport than use like a time machine personally. Right. That would save so much time. Exactly. Yeah. That's fine.
SPEAKER_01:How would a time machine, how would a teleportation?
SPEAKER_00:Because you don't have to travel. Like rather than the eight or nine hour flight that you just took to Warsaw, you just teleport and be there right now.
SPEAKER_01:Are we talking about two different things now? When we say like a time machine, it's like instantaneous. Like you're just there. You set your time machine, you put in the coordinates, you go 88 miles an hour. Well,
SPEAKER_00:you're saying like in general, teleporting saves time, not compared to the time machine, just in general. Okay, that's why I asked. I was
SPEAKER_01:like, I feel like we shifted gears there. No, because she was saying, I want to go someplace that's deserted. But I was like, if it's just time, you'd be in the same spot you were So I was talking like dystopian future. Like there's no people when you're deserted. And she's like, well, no, no, I'm going to be on this, you know, like I'm going to teleport to a location somewhere in time through time. Yeah. And also in time, but figured that the time part would be the easiest part to figure out. I want someone who's listening to finally send us something and tell us the movie or book that where the time machine also goes to a different space. Dr. Who does Dr. Who does the TARDIS do that? I don't know. That's a good question. Yeah. We've really gone down a rabbit hole. Yeah, we have. Yeah. We're just stretching. We're trying to get past a certain time limit. We're going to make yours the first two-hour episode. We've been recording since you walked in the room, actually. Ruh-roh. Ruh-roh. All the people we were talking about. Gosh. Kidding. All right. This is my last one. Okay. Without using the word introvert, describe yourself in three words.
SPEAKER_00:Okay. Um... I would say helpful, reliable, and I'll keep on the same trend, thoughtful.
SPEAKER_01:Those are all good answers. I do like that you hesitated just a little bit on reliable.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, because I was trying to think, is that too close to helpful? I like the pause for
SPEAKER_01:thoughtful because it made it seem like that is true. It's like I'm
SPEAKER_00:really putting a lot of thought into this. Yeah, I like to give a good performance. I want to make sure that helpful and reliable weren't too synonymous, but I feel like they're different enough.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I agree. I don't have a question because I did five and you did six. Whoops. Yeah, that's fine. Always making it about me. Well, you've got a list that you kind of go back to, a printed list that you go back to. I do, yeah. You run the interview part, and then I just come in with these. Again, we need some cameras to do next year. Yeah, and then I write down each day or each day, every single day that I do a podcast, I write down the questions for that day. versus having a running list? Like ahead of time? So you had those ahead of time? Or you wrote them down? During the podcast? Are you thinking of writing them while we're interviewing the guests? Are you asking them on the fly and then you write them down? No.
SPEAKER_00:Why was that where your mind
SPEAKER_01:went? I just don't know if I've ever paid attention to you when you were doing... No, I write them down before the person comes in. I come up with questions and sometimes tailor them. I'm usually so focused on the guests that I'm not paying any attention to you. Until this episode, apparently. Oh, look, Jack came prepared. Crazy concept. Meanwhile, I'm rifling through four pages of questions. Like, which one do I want to ask today? Thank you for tuning in to all the design. And we're out. We're wrapping up today's episode, but the design journey doesn't stop here. Next up, we're hitting the road to Chicago for Neocon, the epicenter of commercial design innovation. We'll be recording live from the Mart. That's what this says. We may not be actually in the Mart when we record because we don't know where we're going to do it. Capturing the energy, the ideas, and the voices, mostly just one voice shaping what's next in our industry. So whether you're attending in person or listening from afar, get ready for Insider Insights trend forecast and a whole lot of design inspiration. Until then, stay creative, stay curious, and as always, stay all in, whatever that means. That was great. Yeah, wasn't that good? That was good. Of course I didn't write it. All right. Thank you for coming on. Thank you for having me. Enjoyed it. Thanks, Dia. It was fun. We'll see you in Chicago. See ya.
UNKNOWN:Yep. Bye.