Wrong!

 Unfortunately there are many ways to ‘skin a cat’ (and that’s how the construction industry feels sometimes – messy, awkward, stressful…but I digress).

 Let me fill you in on a few different ways you can a) design, b) price and c) construct your business interior.

 Firstly there is your old fashioned, traditional builder. These guys will come in, ask you what you want, offer you a really cheap design fee covering basic drawings, give you an estimate and start construction.

 It’s getting a lot harder to do commercial fitouts this way, as council approvals process has changed significantly in the last couple of years. And clients are a lot more savvy on their requirements – they want to be able to see everything they are getting on paper (as they should).

 You want to be involved in the evolution of the space rather than just letting the builder do what he thinks you want or what he’s done before for similar projects. This leads to A LOT of variations to the overall costs involved as the Scope of Work is a bit vague and be wary of quality control. So I would say leave these guys to build their spec houses.

 Then you have the combined Design/Construct companies (also known as ‘Turn Key’). This way of completing commercial fitouts became popular 8 – 10 years ago. The economy was good and people were busy and ‘just want it done’. I guess this type of company is an evolution of the traditional builder.

 However, I’m happier with the design side of a design/construct company. They see the benefit of having the proper planning/designing completed, so everyone knows what is involved (you, the estimator, the construction team, council, owners etc). I feel that the downfall with this type of service is when it comes to pricing and also the designer’s role during construction.

 Estimating the costs of the project are a lot more accurate as everything is on paper, however, the construction is controlled by one company – there is no competition. You’re at the mercy of the builder and he can dictate the cost. You are paying for the convenience of the turn-key service.

 If they are happy for you to take your drawings and get some other prices, be aware of any licensing fees they may charge or copyright ramifications.

 Some companies may say that they offer a tender ‘at trade level’ which just means they will get a couple of prices from each of their trades (electrian, plumber etc). This is ridiculous – they should be doing this as a matter of course. I don’t understand how they can offer a legitimate tender, when THEY are the company that will build your project – I can’t imagine they will offer the job to their competition to price…?

 Sorry, rant over…

 So, let me tell you how WE do it!

 We offer a design only service. Ego Squared are (qualified) interior designers who are independent from any builder or shopfitter (or finance company or equipment supplier or any other company for that matter!). So this means, we will work with you to get the best use of your space, the get the look you want, working as closely as we can to your budget. We also prefer to oversee the construction of the project to ensure that everything is as you planned.

 Our drawings and specifications are so detailed that everyone knows what is involved with the project (you, council, building owners, the estimator, equipment suppliers, trades and builder).

 Once we have completed our documentation, we always recommend getting two or three prices. We can facilitate a tender and we ensure that all of our builders are independent of each other allowing for the best possible price for YOU.

 As we are independent we then act as an advocate for our clients during the construction stage. There is a lot of information in our documentation and we can assist if there is a discrepancy onsite (we know our drawings and specification inside out, so you don’t need to remember everything).

 So to reiterate, here are the benefits of using an independent designer:

• The design team is impartial and looks out for the interests of the client.
• The design team prepares documents on which all trades quote from. With this in mind, the “cheaper is better” argument is rendered invalid since the prices are based on complete documents. Incomplete, incorrect or missed items are usually discovered and addressed during the tender process.
• Ensures fairness to potential tenderers and improves decision making by the client by providing a range of potential options. It also identifies new potential contractors.
• Assists the owner in establishing reasonable prices for the project.
• Uses competition to improve the efficiency and quality for client.

So, on my journey to find our ‘awesomeness’ I remembered an email I wrote to a potential client – I spent a lot of time crafting the email as he was teetering on going to another design company…this is what I said (word for word):

– our drawings and documentation covers everything you will need to get centre approval, council approval, pricing and construction

– our specifications ensure that the quality of the products and finishes is made to last (down to the last screw(!) and how the materials are to be selected, looked after and prepared)

– we include all services drawings (every power point, data and phone location, every light fitting and switch, every tap and basin etc)

– we work with your equipment supplier to ensure all service requirements are covered

– we are your advocate and not affiliated or aligned to any one builder, so we can dictate to the builder on your behalf rather than the builder dictating what’s best for them – once onsite, the builder comes to us…there should be little disruption to you – you can keep working (or even go on holiday!) during the construction (if you want us to, of course)

– you are not tied to any builder and are happy to work with any of your choosing – talking to more than one builder allows for you to get a competitive quote…the cost of the design is far outwayed by the savings achieved in this process

– minimal (if any) costly variations during construction

– our fee is fixed to a scope of works (some designers with charge variations or may revise their fee to a percentage of the final construction cost)

– Anthony and I both have 15 years commercial interior design experience – 10 years experience each in dental and previous to that we specialised in retail/shopping centre design fit-outs and are used to working with shopping centre management.

Awesome!

We are constantly looking at what we do and figuring out ways to evolve and offer the best for our clients…at the moment we are looking to ‘bookend’ our services. Researching the best properties for our clients to buy/lease before we even start the design process. And offering handpicked decorator items to personalise and enhance the final look of our designs.

We measure how successful/awesome we are by how happy our client is…how do you measure your ‘awesomeness’…?

We took a trip into the city to check out Perth’s version of Melbourne’s lane way cafes…we don’t really have that many lane ways to cafe-ify, but they are still cute and hidden.

I guess the best thing about these cafes are the spaces are already lovely – high ceilings, quirky corners, exposed brickwork of old. One we went into didn’t seemed to be ‘designed’ – which is what we hope our projects to be…it should look like some coffee-loving person with a passion started it up, creating a space that has been built up over time. I prefer he space to look evolved….developed.  This takes talent…

It’s amazing how picky you get when there is a choice – we stuck our noses into at least four different cafes before decided on the ‘one’. It’s very difficult for small business owners to get people to choose you – that’s when you need a good designer! One we went into looked ‘designed’ with everything in it’s place and all ‘matchy-matchy’..urgh…! However, another looked like it had been thrown together be stuff found on the side of the road – I said ‘evolved’ not ‘trash’…

The one we eventually went into had potential. The space was interesting, high ceilings, nice flooring. I’m not sure how well the service area worked – be interesting to see it on a busy day. We decided to sit out in the ‘garden’ – it think the quotation marks say it all. But the staff were lovely, service good and coffee just what I needed.

So all of this taken into account, back to our cafe – we’re looking forward to it being completed in the coming months. We don’t have the olde worldy space, but we want to create something that’s appealing, comfortable and not too ‘designed’. Maybe we can meet you there for a coffee sometime…

So, here I am writing…ok rambling. But that’s OK, that’s my ‘authentic’ blogging voice..right?

Right.

It has been my intention to get the Ego Squared blog really happening this year. It’s been on my ‘To-do-list’ for over a year now, but this year is different..no, really.

I’ve been inspired recently by two particular bloggers From Mum to Me and Parenting. Illustrated with Crappy Pictures. Yes, both of these are parenting blogs, but design blogs tend to be a bit dry and boring (if I find any non-dry, non-boring design blogs I will happily share them with you and please let me know if you find any).

Anyway, Anthony and I have a 4 1/2 year old and baby number 2 was due yesterday, hence the change in priorities to concentrate on the blog and website and inspiration from the parenting blogs (ah it’s all falling into place!).

So, saying that I look forward to sharing with you the goings on at Ego Squared with a little humour and it will (hopefully) give you a little insite into what we do and why we do it. And let me know if it starts looking like its turning into a boring design blog.