COMMUNITY FIRST
On the debut of our online magazine launch, we discuss our mission and how timely a nonprofit model is for our industry and beyond.
From the Board of Directors, Interior Collab.
October 26, 2020
It’s been a little over a year now since the inception of Interior Collab. It started as a pre-planned meet-up among Homepolish designers, but by the time the meeting took place Homepolish had collapsed, without warning, leaving many of us financially devastated.
Design by Abundant Habitat
We examined the model that had created so much turmoil in our businesses & families upon its collapse, and came to agree that a for-profit model would always put the interests of the stakeholders before that of the individual contractors that had been signed on to make Homepolish what it was. Without us it would not have functioned.
With this understanding we realized that we, the Designers, held the power to dictate how we work, and that there was a way for us to establish an organization that put us first and kept a third-party out of the Client-Designer relationship. You see, it wasn’t just Design Professionals (Designers, Vendors and Contractors) that were affected, the Clients too sustained a financial loss both in what they had paid to Homepolish for design services, as well as the cost of the setbacks on their projects.
As Designers, we wanted to protect the Clients too. On any given project most of us form an intimate bond with our Clients. We establish an understanding of who they are as people, and how they live (or want to live) their lives or perform their work. Together with our clients, we embark on a journey to make their spaces more functional and beautiful. We are there to share our professional knowledge and advocate for the seamless process on projects of all types and sizes. Trust is a key factor in our work, and as such we felt that a non-profit model exemplifies that the interests of both the Client and Designer are of more importance than making a profit off of the platform for which they can connect.
Design by FLO/MASTER STUDIO
We also came to realize that the Homepolish model did not foster the kind of community among designers that we so desperately craved. Instead, we saw that there was indeed abundance to be shared, and that there was no need to be competitive with one another. We recognized that our unique backgrounds and education make us special, and that potential Clients would connect with us based on who we are and the interiors we create.
The launch of Freddie this week took us and other ex-Homepolish employees, Designers and Clients by surprise. Specifically, the launch of Freddie included taking over the previous Homepolish account along with an article in Business of Home and Architectural Digest. It was refreshing to see our community come together and speak truth on Freddie’s first Instagram post. How Noa Santos, the former CEO of Homepolish, chose to handle the final days of his company caused serious emotional and financial damage to many of us, some of which we are still trying to recuperate from and work through. And it’s clear that the wound was still very fresh.
At Interior Collab we are a not-for-profit organization built by Designers for Designers, to help create a safe place for a community to flourish and for the public to have access to a free directory of experienced designers from all over the United States. And there is so much more Interior Collab plans to offer. As we await our official non-profit status, we are in the development stages of the philanthropic arm of our organization. With a desire to not only improve the lives of those who can afford our services, we also seek to assist people in our local communities.
We welcome you all - Architects, Decorators, Interior Designers and Clients. We can truly be a model of how a community transforms an industry, and hope that other small businesses and independent contractors can harness their power to form a company that takes care of their gig labor force while providing public access to their services. This is a healthy form of capitalism, one created by us for us.
MEET OUR COMMUNITY
— scroll through a gallery of our members work —
Are you an interior designer?
We would love to hear from you! We are a not-for-profit collaborative of Interior Designers, Decorators & Architects with the goal of self-representation. We’ve come together to help Clients find experienced & qualified Interior Designers all in one place. We welcome you to the community!