This is something that is relatively new to us because we kept our process pretty much the same. As we’ve grown and our designers have grown with us, there’s a lot more trust there, and we felt confident that we could take this next step to tier out the projects. I attend set meetings—mainly big presentations and site visits, but I am not attending every single one in between. Internally, I meet with our lead designers on the projects weekly and review selections, questions, and things that have come up so that I make sure that I have a pulse on things. For the top tier, I’m involved in every single room and I oversee them while lead designers manage them. The next tier would be I oversee the main rooms, but then the lead designers are doing the additional spaces. Beyond that, we have virtual design; a more junior level of designer works on those projects, and I’m not involved.
I want to get into the partnerships side of your business. You have licensing deals with Target, Kohler, Ann Sacks, and as of last week, a darling tabletop collection in collaboration with Loeffler Randall. What advice do you have for a designer who dreams of having a licensing deal?
Licensing has, historically, been a licensing of one’s name and then [the manufacturer] does most of the creative work and heavy lifting, from product development to marketing. But I am very involved in the creative direction, development, and marketing of the product. Our relationships are very close, but it also means that I’m a lot more involved in them.
When it comes to the contracts, I make sure that I get final approval before the product goes to market, same thing on marketing assets. Every single partnership that I take on requires face time for me—whether those are appearances or marketing days or anything like that—and so we attribute in our contracts the number of times that I need to make personal appearances or need to meet with the brand in person. Because as you get more and more partnerships, all of a sudden your calendar starts to fill up really fast—so we like to attribute that exactly.